Neon Kids

**Launched:** March 2001, 9 October 2012 (as Sam's Seven Education Schools)
1 July 2015 (as Sam Wilkes Radio Kids)
 **Closed:** August 2007 (as Sam's Seven Education Schools - original)
1 January 2014 (as Sam's Seven Education Schools - revival)
1 March 2017 (Sam Wilkes Radio Kids - programming)

Neon Kids is a channel on free-to-air TV.

#### Origins

This channel originated as Sam's Seven Education Schools from March 2001 to August 2007.

### Sam's Seven HD & Mirror (2007 - 2012)

#### Sam's Seven HD (2007 - 2009)

Sam's Seven Education Schools closed in August 2007 and a HD Simulcast began on that channel space. The channel then broadcasted breakaway programming between 2007 and 2009. This continued from April 2009 except during the broadcasts of The School Days between 9am and 3pm during the weekdays.

#### Sam's Seven HD Simulcast & Mirror (2009 - 2012)

In late 2009, after problems with 1080i and 720i displays, this channel became a HD Simulcast of Sam's Seven and then became a mirror of Sam's Seven from 2010 to 2012.

### Sam's Seven Education Schools Era 2 (2012 - 2014)

#### Sam's Seven Education Schools (2012 - 2013)

In August 2012, five years after closing down Sam's Seven Education Schools, a placeholder card was broadcasted informing viewers that Sam's Seven was still viewable on analog channel 7 or digital channels 7 and 70 which then follows with a pre-loop notification that Sam's Seven Education Schools launches 9 October 2012, the pre-launch loop began broadcasting on 11 September 2012 until Sam's Seven Education Schools launched on 9 October 2012. The channel was renamed to Sam's Seven Education Channel in September 2013.

#### The End of Sam's Seven Education Channel (2013 - 2014)

Sam's Seven Education Channel had shutdown at the end of 2013.

### Vacant space & 7TWO (2014 - 2015)

#### Channel space Vacancy (2014 - 2015)

The channel space became vacant for a little while after this before it launched 7TWO, which shutdown a few months later. The channel space became vacant for a long time since. In May 2015, the Sam's Seven Department were bought out by Sam Wilkes Radio and the new owners had plans to launch a 24 hour kids channel with the daytime block for the younger kids and the nighttime block for older children.

### Sam Wilkes Radio Kids (2015 - 2017)

Neon Kids relaunched as Sam Wilkes Radio Kids at the end of June 2015.

This channel had 2 programming blocks between 2015 to 2017. These 2 blocks were:

Preschoolers Block: 5:00AM - 7:00PM

Combined Teen & Youth programming block: 8:30AM - 4:00PM (The School Days House occupies the majority of this program block)

Programming Block for older kids and teens: 7:00PM - 5:00AM

All programming ceased on the channel at midnight on March 1. The channel ultimately shut down on April 1 at midnight and was replaced with Neon Kids.

The final show to air on the channel as Sam Wilkes Radio Kids was Dora the Explorer.

### Neon Kids (2017 - Present Day)

Neon Kids has 3 separate programming blocks between April 2017 to November 2019.

These three programming blocks are:

Preschoolers programming block: 6:00AM to 8:00AM and 4:00PM to 7:00PM

Youth block: 7:00PM - 9:30PM, 5:00AM - 6:00AM

Teen programming block: 9:30PM - 5:00AM

Combined Teen & Youth programming block: 8:00AM to 4:00PM (The School Days occupies the majority of this programming block).

In November 2019, some programming blocks have been extended.

The new programming blocks are:

Preschoolers programming block: 6:00AM to 10:00AM and 3:00PM to 7:30PM

Youth block: 7:30PM to 8:30PM and 5:00AM to 6:00AM

Teen programming: 8:30PM to 11:00PM

Teen & Youth combined programming: 10:00AM to 3:00PM

All programming blocks broadcast with the respective official Neon Kids watermark. Preschoolers and younger Youth programming is broadcast with the letter blocks watermark while the older children and teen programming is broadcast with the Neon Kids smartphone watermark.

## Attempted HD Broadcast

In one metropolitan market, it was announced to broadcast in HD via Neon HD. In April 2017, the change has not been reverted and instead will launch breakaway programming on Neon Kids in HD at certain viewing hours while simulcasting Neon's primary channel in HD for most of the day. In March 2019, Neon Entertainment dedicated more time in to HD Simulcasting their primary channel rather than Neon Kids. However, in order to broadcast selected HD content featured on Neon Kids in HD, Sam Wilkes Radio Network will use breakaway programming to show selected children's content in HD while keeping Neon HD as a simulcast of Neon Entertainment. On 26 January, Sam Wilkes Radio network guaranteed a HD simulcast of Neon Kids on February 1 to replace Neon Movies as Neon Entertainment returns to a full-time HD simulcast of its main channel.

## Logo History

From the initial launch, Neon Kids deployed their original logo that lasted until July as part of returning the famous Seven Network trapezoids. The channel Neon Kids was rebranded as "Neon 7 Kids".

Again, on 4th December 2017, as to remove the number lineup, this channel reverted to Neon Kids. Although, the original logo wasn't revived. Ultimately, a new Neon Kids logo was revealed at 6:30PM (30 minutes before the older kids programming block began) on 31 October 2018, at the same time as all the other Neon channels. In mid-2019, another Neon Kids logo was adopted for the older children and teen programming block while the other logo remains in use for the younger kids programming block. On 17 March 2020, both logos were slightly changed. The word "Neon" adopted a more thin and Neon-related look.