J
Jul
Guest
I would like to know why did TV stations in the USA like WPHL-TV in the 80s broadcasted music videos? What was the reason for it.
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Julius May said:
Why not?
Remember that NBC aired Friday Night Videos for about 10 years.
The reason? "Say, have ya heard about this deal called MTV that all the kids are into? They show nothing but these rock videos 24 hours a day! We oughta get in on some of this!"
--Anonymous TV station executive, circa 1983
Most people remember "Friday Night Videos", of course...Anyone recall "Flip Side"? (Actually, does anyone who can't remember before CD's even know what a "flip side" was?) I can remember the pre-Fox Channel 55 in Fort Wayne running "Flip Side" as filler from time to time. You couldn't even call it a show, as it was usually just 1 video to bring them to the top of the hour if they were running short after a Cubs game. They must not have had too many videos to choose from, as I remember seeing "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock a lot, along with the Ronnie Milsap flop "She loves My Car". Pretty obscure, I know, but I bet a lot of low budget indies carried it, too.
--Anonymous TV station executive, circa 1983
Most people remember "Friday Night Videos", of course...Anyone recall "Flip Side"? (Actually, does anyone who can't remember before CD's even know what a "flip side" was?) I can remember the pre-Fox Channel 55 in Fort Wayne running "Flip Side" as filler from time to time. You couldn't even call it a show, as it was usually just 1 video to bring them to the top of the hour if they were running short after a Cubs game. They must not have had too many videos to choose from, as I remember seeing "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock a lot, along with the Ronnie Milsap flop "She loves My Car". Pretty obscure, I know, but I bet a lot of low budget indies carried it, too.
J
Jul
Guest
WPHL-TV had a show called "Video Rock". Anyone remember that?
Julius May said:
Some full-service stations still do. KBEH 63 Oxnard CA and sister station KMOH-TV 6 Kingman AZ, as well as KMOH repeater KEJR-LP 43 Phoenix AZ broadcast music videos from MTV Tr3s. I'm sure there are LPTV stations that carry MTV Tr3s - K28FM Yuma used to, before switching to RTN - and there were several stations, mostly in the southeast USA, that broadcast MTV2, and before then, The Box. I don't know if they still do.
In Phoenix, KPHE-LP 44 used to broadcast Bohemia Visual Music, and I think BVM still appears on a digital subchannel of KORS-CA 16 Portland OR.
Why do it? The owners (or their consultants) perceive that there's a market for it. Just follow the money, and you'll find out why stations run infomercials ad nauseum, despite the fact that most viewers claim to hate them. Or why other stations run TV preachers - or any other programming fare. The only reason why any commercial TV venture broadcasts any kind of programming is that they believe it will make them money.
dhett said:
And I just remembered that there was an LP (low power station, not an album ;D) in Houston that ran music videos also.
"The reason? "Say, have ya heard about this deal called MTV that all the kids are into? They show nothing but these rock videos 24 hours a day! We oughta get in on some of this!"
Though everybody thinks music videos were invented for MTV - I remember them 15 or 20 years before that on local stations. In LA, the local afternoon and Saturday dance party shows would show them occasionally - especially if they couldn't get a musician to appear to see his song "live" (lip-synced). Just showing kids dancing on the set for an hour got kind of boring, and the videos broke up the monotony, and was a way of having a rock star appear - even if it was on tape. I still remember a cheesy video Tommy Roe did for his bubblegum hit "Dizzy" complete with swirling (dizzy - get it?) psychedelic effects. I believe I saw it on Robert W. Morgan's weekday afternoon show called "Groovy!"
Point is - videos were shown on regular broadcast TV before MTV came along.
Though everybody thinks music videos were invented for MTV - I remember them 15 or 20 years before that on local stations. In LA, the local afternoon and Saturday dance party shows would show them occasionally - especially if they couldn't get a musician to appear to see his song "live" (lip-synced). Just showing kids dancing on the set for an hour got kind of boring, and the videos broke up the monotony, and was a way of having a rock star appear - even if it was on tape. I still remember a cheesy video Tommy Roe did for his bubblegum hit "Dizzy" complete with swirling (dizzy - get it?) psychedelic effects. I believe I saw it on Robert W. Morgan's weekday afternoon show called "Groovy!"
Point is - videos were shown on regular broadcast TV before MTV came along.
Lkeller said:
Yeah, I remember one year that KABC used to show an hour of music videos after American Bandstand (if the network didn't any early-afternoon sports telecast). KCOP used to air some videos periodically, especially if any of their movies ran short of time.
Of course, you can forget TBS's late night block of music videos during the 80s and 90s that ran on Friday and Saturday nights.
When Spectrum went off the air in 1983 in Chicago, then WFBN on ch 66 aired 24 hours of music videos for a year, before airing reruns, but still aired some music videos for a while. Eventually the calls were changed to WGBO, and I believe Grant Broadcasting stopped airing music videos after that.
When WPWR was on timeshare on ch 60, they used to air music videos every weekday at 4pm. When WBBS went off the air, and Newsweb boughtout the other license, WPWR went 24 hours, they aired music videos in the evening hours around 8 or 9pm for an hour, and even added it to the weekends. By the time WPWR moved to ch 50, they eventually cutback the music videos to an hour every Saturday night, but when the change in channels took place, WPWR had to remove channel 60 from all their videos, since every video prior to the channel change listed WPWR channel 60. I believe by 1990, music videos were dropped in favor of first run syndicated programming.
I also remember for a brief period of time, I don't know if this was a spanish syndicated program, or a Univisión program, but WCIU (when it aired multi-language programming) on ch 26 aired a program called Tu Musica. It consisted of music videos in both English & Spanish. I don't remember how long that was on, but I occasionally watched it, even if I didn't understand Spanish.
I also believe in the early 1990's WSNS on 44, which has Telemundo programming, at one time aired MTV Internaciónal, which were only of music videos from Spanish language musicians.
As for today, WGN-TV airs on their digital subchannel (19.2) the Tube Video Network 24 hours a day. It can be found in other markets too on OTA digital subchannels, along with cable TV listings.
When WPWR was on timeshare on ch 60, they used to air music videos every weekday at 4pm. When WBBS went off the air, and Newsweb boughtout the other license, WPWR went 24 hours, they aired music videos in the evening hours around 8 or 9pm for an hour, and even added it to the weekends. By the time WPWR moved to ch 50, they eventually cutback the music videos to an hour every Saturday night, but when the change in channels took place, WPWR had to remove channel 60 from all their videos, since every video prior to the channel change listed WPWR channel 60. I believe by 1990, music videos were dropped in favor of first run syndicated programming.
I also remember for a brief period of time, I don't know if this was a spanish syndicated program, or a Univisión program, but WCIU (when it aired multi-language programming) on ch 26 aired a program called Tu Musica. It consisted of music videos in both English & Spanish. I don't remember how long that was on, but I occasionally watched it, even if I didn't understand Spanish.
I also believe in the early 1990's WSNS on 44, which has Telemundo programming, at one time aired MTV Internaciónal, which were only of music videos from Spanish language musicians.
As for today, WGN-TV airs on their digital subchannel (19.2) the Tube Video Network 24 hours a day. It can be found in other markets too on OTA digital subchannels, along with cable TV listings.
Buddy Hayes said:
Could have been KHLM-LP ch 43. They're owned by the same company that owns KPHE-LP 44 in Phoenix, Lotus Communications. Before that, both stations were owned by US Interactive, which was owned by Dean Mosely. After the owners of Bohemia Visual Music took over operations of KPHE, they intended to roll out their programming on KHLM; they may have actually done so.
dhett said:
Nope, this was on channel 5.
In the 80's, WABC/7 aired "New York Hot Tracks" for like an hour, and a little on Saturday afternoons, too. But I'm sure its main premise was to compete locally with NBC's "Friday Night Videos"...
And of course, who can forget "U-68" (and U-67) which aired videos all day until midnight... unless you're watching 67, which only aired until noon - what a tease!
And of course, who can forget "U-68" (and U-67) which aired videos all day until midnight... unless you're watching 67, which only aired until noon - what a tease!
G
gibby88
Guest
New York Hot Tracks also ran on KOVR in Sacramento, long,
long ago,when it was an ABC affiliate. (It is now a CBS O&O.)
WABC's sister station KGO in San Francisco had their own
music video show, "San Francisco Hot Rocks". This was
running during the same timeframe as NY Hot Tracks was
on KOVR (1984). On at least one occasion, Bobcat
Goldthwait hosted SF Hot Rocks; there is a clip of it on
YouTube.
long ago,when it was an ABC affiliate. (It is now a CBS O&O.)
WABC's sister station KGO in San Francisco had their own
music video show, "San Francisco Hot Rocks". This was
running during the same timeframe as NY Hot Tracks was
on KOVR (1984). On at least one occasion, Bobcat
Goldthwait hosted SF Hot Rocks; there is a clip of it on
YouTube.
Code:
Houston Channel 5 -- Hit Video USA
Houston's low power Channel 5 (K05HU) broadcast from an antenna in downtown Houston in the 1980s showing all vidoes (and some informercials particularly late at night). The channel at first was known as TV5. I recall watching Channel 5 before it actually signed on, and someone at the station was running a feed from what looked like a graphics program and it looked like someone was actually creating the logo a bit at a time over a long period of time.. you could see it being drawn slowly on the screen.
They had all videos. This was exciting for me since I did not have cable and could not watch MTV (high school days). I remember seeing the station play Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves and "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday more than other videos for some reason.
After a time, the station attempted to go national and compete with MTV -- rebranded as Hit Video USA. I think they were picked up by other broadcast stations, particularly for overnights. But they could not complete wtih MTV as MTV signed exclusive contracts with some of the record labels that kept the videos off Hit Video USA. Hit Video USA sued Viacom/MTV under antitrust rules, and eventually settled with MTV buying out Hit Video USA and basically shutting it down. Channel 5 went dark from downtown Houston.
I have fond memories of watching TV 5 -- Hit Video USA while getting ready for school.
Karen Kay was one of the VJs and she went on to host the Fox Kids Club on FOX 26 in Houston for a time.
They really could have competed with MTV if they had cable coverage. Locally, The lower power signal really hurt them, and then in the effort to go national, could not get on the cable systems either. I think MTV might have had exclusive deals with the cable systems too, but I am not sure about that.
Houston's low power Channel 5 (K05HU) broadcast from an antenna in downtown Houston in the 1980s showing all vidoes (and some informercials particularly late at night). The channel at first was known as TV5. I recall watching Channel 5 before it actually signed on, and someone at the station was running a feed from what looked like a graphics program and it looked like someone was actually creating the logo a bit at a time over a long period of time.. you could see it being drawn slowly on the screen.
They had all videos. This was exciting for me since I did not have cable and could not watch MTV (high school days). I remember seeing the station play Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves and "Voices Carry" by Til Tuesday more than other videos for some reason.
After a time, the station attempted to go national and compete with MTV -- rebranded as Hit Video USA. I think they were picked up by other broadcast stations, particularly for overnights. But they could not complete wtih MTV as MTV signed exclusive contracts with some of the record labels that kept the videos off Hit Video USA. Hit Video USA sued Viacom/MTV under antitrust rules, and eventually settled with MTV buying out Hit Video USA and basically shutting it down. Channel 5 went dark from downtown Houston.
I have fond memories of watching TV 5 -- Hit Video USA while getting ready for school.
Karen Kay was one of the VJs and she went on to host the Fox Kids Club on FOX 26 in Houston for a time.
They really could have competed with MTV if they had cable coverage. Locally, The lower power signal really hurt them, and then in the effort to go national, could not get on the cable systems either. I think MTV might have had exclusive deals with the cable systems too, but I am not sure about that.
I was passing by KTSF, Channel 26 in San Francisco today, which I pass by often when I'm channel surfing because ComCast here puts in on Channel 8. They were running hip-hop videos, which apparently they do regularly. Odd thing is - Channel 26 otherwise runs Asian language programming almost exclusively. It seems like an odd choice for them - first because you wouldn't think there would be a big audience for American Hip-hop among the Asian community, and second - because you wouldn't think the natural audience for hip-hop would think to look on KTSF.
J
jwgreek8606
Guest
I think WJRT 12 in Flint, Saginaw, and Bay City had Rock and Roll Video Show in conjunction with WWCK 105 FM I know because i saw on a tape that they produced it together and their station logos and according to my Birmingham TV Guides there was a music video show on WBRC 6 called "6 Rocks"
T
toby
Guest
City owned WNYE in New York airs New York Noise, a very good basically indie rock video show which started up a few years ago: http://www.nyc.gov/html/nycmg/nyctv/html/shows/nynoise.shtml
In the 1980s, WDBD (now a Fox affiliate) had aired music videos as interstitial programming. Then came W08CU (now WBXK, and an America One affiliate) in 1990. The station was affiliated with The Jukebox Network, which was renamed The Box in 1991. The Box was acquired by Viacom in 2000, and renamed MTV 2 in 2001.
www.WBXK.com
www.WBXK.com
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