ahhh MTV!!! Oh my gosh I have so many memories of watching this channel….and sneakily watching this channel haha! It first launched on August 1, 1981 at 12:01am. From then on, music would be changed forever! Well, NOT forever….until the 2000s when it brought us the worst reality television ever.
Here are some pretty cool facts about MTV as we celebrate their birthday month!
- Do you know what the first words uttered on MTV were? John Lack said “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!” Lack was the chief operating officer of MTV.
- Neil Armstrong did not dig being quoted in some of the promotional stuff for MTV. The head of the station, Bob Pittman, sent a letter to Armstrong’s lawyer saying “if we don’t hear back from you on using this image and quote of Armstrong’s, we’re going to run it.” Just days before the launch, Armstrong sent a letter with a lawsuit and threat saying don’t do it.
- The original name for MTV was TV-1. Thankfully, that was taken by another station so they turned to MTV.
- The logo was almost a similar image to NBC and ABC. A Manhattan Designer came to the rescue and came up with the spray painted large M with the smaller TV in it. It only cost $1000 to snag that logo, too!
- There was an argument over what the first song played would be. Obvi, Video Killed the Radio Star won. Program Director, Steve Casey, pushed for this song even though he got a lot of push BACK from the producers saying they needed to go with a song that was already a hit. Clearly, Casey was a program director for a reason.
- The launch could only be seen by New Jersey residents who subscribed to a specific cable operator. It really took a couple years in order for the rest of the country to get MTV.
- A lot of record companies hated MTV when it first came out. Because of that, the library of music videos MTV had was pretty small.
- Would-be VJ, Meg Griffin, dropped out at the last minute. Meg was a radio DJ and she landed one of the 5 VJ spots when she auditioned with her husband. After she found out she was only hired to be the “tomboy” role of the VJs, she split.
- Alan Hunter was told to take off his wedding ring during launch week to keep the notion he was available, alive.
- The VJs were not broadcasting live. I know, shocker.
So now you know! Happy 40th MTV!! For more info, click this link to Mental Floss
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