The easiest way to know all about the show is to listen to it. It might take awhile to figure out how it all works, but you'll get the hang of it. To try and make it a little easier, here's a little guide to what's going on.
Bill (Bill J. Parker) is the host of the show. During the show, he plays all the music and takes all the requests and tells you what you heard and twitters the playlist that you can see on the Robot page and writes the other playlist that you can see on the Playlists page. He also writes and reads most of the stories you hear at 7:30pm.
Most of the time, before the show begins, you hear a little jingle recorded for WRIU by a group called The Happiest Guys In The World, sometime around 1996. The jingle is based on their song "You Can Make A Difference If You Try, Try, Try!"
After the jingle, you hear a robotic voice intoning "Insert Coin" which comes from the video game Pac Man, after that, you hear a coin drop in a slot and then the show's theme song starts. The theme song is called "Short Sabotage" and is by a Japanese artist named Yukari Fresh (her real name is Yukari Takasaki). It oringally appeared on her mini-album Erik in 2001.
Originally, the show's theme song was the "Main Title" from Star Wars, and later a different version used part of "Duel Of The Fates" from Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace both composed by John Williams and performed by The London Symphony Orchestra.
At the very start of the theme song, you hear Bill tell you that "It's The Children's Show on 90.3 FM WRIU Kingston!"
The first song in the show usually has something to do with that day or something that happened during the week, or maybe something that's going to happen in the next week. Unless nothing particularly interesting has happened that day, during the week or is likely to happen in the week ahead. In that case, the song probably is a random choice.
At 5:30pm, after Bill runs down what you heard in the last set of music, it's time for The Groover. The Groover is a segment where a song from a vinyl record is played. It's called "The Groover" because the music on a vinyl record is etched into a groove in the plastic. Grooves The Record Cat helps Bill pick out a song to use in the segment, and can be heard meowing on the segment's theme song. That theme song is called "Groovy" and is performed by Joe Dodo and The Groovers.
Sometimes Grooves' friend Rover The Dog fills in for Grooves and instead of The Groover, there is a segment called Rover's Revolutions. One of the fun things about vinyl records and the turntables that play them, is that you can play songs at a different speed than the "normal" speed. Most of the time you play them faster than normal. During Rover's Revolutions, a song is played at the "wrong" speed.
At 6 O'Clock, you hear the theme to Schoolhouse Rock! ("Schoolhouse Rocky"), performed by Bob Dorough and friends, followed by a song from one of the Schoolhouse Rock! cartoons. Sometimes you hear a cover version of one of those songs performed by a different band.
After the Schoolhouse Rock! song, you usually hear a song with an educational message in it. So listen closely and you might learn something.
After the Educational Part, the next set of music starts off with a song related to a famous or historical person who's birthday is the day of the show. This can be anyone from a famous king to a person who does voices for a current cartoon.
Sometimes, if the person is really, really neat (or at least there are lots of really, really neat songs related to the person), there will be a whole bunch of songs related to them played.
At 6:30pm, halfway though the show, we play Muppets In The Middle. This segment is pretty self-explanatory: it's a song by The Muppets played in the middle of the show. The music used in the bumper for the segment is a karaoke version of the song "Lucas With The Lid Off" by Lucas. The song played can be from any Muppety thing, including The Muppet Show, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock and other stuff.
The 6 O'Clock hour ends with the theme song to The Family Feud (composed by Robert Israel), which means there's a winner in that week's Sunday Funday Feud. The Feud is up all week long at the website (just click the Feud! button), and you can vote as often as you'd like.
There are usually two things to choose from in the Feud, but sometimes there are three or even more. The choices in the Feud are not always random, although they aren't always explained either. Sometimes they're obvious, like when they're related to a holiday. Other times they could be related to two unrelated things, like someone's birthday and a historical event. Sometimes it really is just two random things, though.
Whatever got the two (or more) things to be in the Feud, whichever one wins, a song related to it will be played. When there's a tie, a song for each choice gets played.
Immediately following the song for the winner of the Feud, a brand new song from a brand new release that has never been on the show before is played.
At 7:30pm, it's time for that week's story. The story is usually both written and read by Bill. Once in awhile Bill will read a story that he didn't write, and even oncer in awhiler, he'll play a song written and read by someone else entirely. The story is followed by a song that is somewhat related to the story or a word in the title of the story.
Shortly before the end of the show, Bill will tell you that they'll soon be "coming to take him away" but that before they do, there's time for one more song.
That song is based on some historical event that happened on that day. It's not always easy to find something, so while it is always historical it might not always be that interesting or important.
Immediately after the "historical fact" song is played, the show's closing theme starts. The closing theme begins with an excerpt from "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!" by Napoleon XIV, "Trees For America" by John Denver (which is actually a Public Service Announcement for The National Arbor Day Foundation) and ends with an excerpt from "So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish!" from the soundtrack to the 2005 movie version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, performed by Hilary Summers, Kemi Ominiyi & The R'SVP Voices. This is followed by "Darn, That's The End!" which is from the very end of the song "Interjections!" from the Grammar Rock portion of Schoolhouse Rock!.
This medley has been used since 2009. Prior to that, a longer medley consisting of almost the entire length of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!" followed by "Trees For America" was used. Sometimes alternate versions of "Trees For America" were part of that longer medley. At various times in the past, "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!" was sometimes replaced with "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound Of Music and some of the closing music from various Star Wars films.
At the end of the closing theme, there is a disclaimer telling you that the rest of the shows may not be appropriate for all ages and you should check with your parents before listening to them. This disclaimer was originally used on Cartoon Network before their Adult Swim programs around 2001. The music used is a remix of the song "Mambo Gallego" by Tito Puente. The remix (known as the "D-Code Remix") was done by Dust Devil. Although the disclaimer only uses a small portion of the song, sometimes Bill will play the whole thing if there's some extra time at 8 O'Clock.
The Bonus Round usually runs for 30 minutes, but can sometimes last an hour, especially if it isn't a school night.
The Bonus Round is generally just an extension of the regular show, often playing leftover requests that there wasn't enough time to play earlier. Sometimes the Bonus Round has a special theme, like new releases or music related to a holiday.
If possible, a song related to a different historical fact ends the Bonus Round (or at least a different song related to the same fact), followed by the regular closing theme and the disclaimer.
Sometimes you'll hear that someone has used a Golden Ticket to make a request. If someone has a Golden Ticket, they can use it to make the song they request skip ahead of all the other requests and become the next song played. Although once in awhile there are other ways to get one, the most common way to get one is to make a donation (or any amount) to the show during WRIU's annual fundraiser, Radiothon.
There are also Emerald Tickets, which allow you to pick 30 minutes worth of songs to be played on a particular show of your choice. These are also something that are mostly available during Radiothon, usually for a $100 donation (although everyone who donates less than $100 to the show during Radiothon gets a raffle ticket to have a chance to win one).
The Robot first appeared in the 2007 Yearbook, on a coloring page (called "Color The Robot!"). He next appeared on a promotional magnet, and then on other promotional materials. He was not in color until he got his own page on the website in 2008. He used to just stand there, but he now tells you what song is playing during the show.