when did you first get MTV?

[hubcity]

I wish more cable systems offered MTV2 which essentially is a channel which programs nearly all videos and video countdown/compilation/live music performance shows, like the old MTV.

Bob, sorry to burst your bubble, but MTV2 has been an MTV Clone for the past few years. You want all music videos it's MTV-U. Even MTV Tr3s, which was supposed to be all Spanish Music Vidoes essentially has become a MTV Clone as well showing MTV shows either dubbed in Spanish or with Spanish Subtitles.

I rarely watch MTV now, but I used to watch the cartoon Daria. Once in a blue moon I'll watch Cribs or True Life. I used to like Pimp My Ride until they canceled it and the reruns moved to Speed-TV. And I'll admit it, Jersey Shore is a guilty pleasure for me. Drooling over those hot girls and also wishing that I could be muscular like the guys on that show rather than the obese whale that I am.

"Palladia" is apparently being offered as an HD stand-in for old-school MTV; it's an MTV network and shows music videos from the wee hours through 9AM, then does long-form music video (Glastonbury, MTV-UK half-hour concerts, etc.) throughout the remainder of the day. Pretty good, actually.

(But it's missing something - I never actually wind up tuning in. Could it be VJs?)

 

[Ultimajock]

...for Oshkosh WI's WarnerAmex system, it was late 1981; not day one but not long after that either. We got both The Movie Channel (when it was still StarChannel) and Nickelodeon/ARTS years before MTV...

 

[nightfly61]

The V.Js & wild promos & contests were 50% of what made MTV. MTV leaned towards metal, but played alternative, Top 40, & just plain cool videos. I don't know what landtuna was so afraid of his kids seeing. MTV even barred Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls" for being too explicit. Rap wasn't really big on MTV in the early 80's...unless you consider Michael J, Janet J, Rockwell, & Prince rap (?). I do not. I guess he was just sheltering his children from "that horrible colored people music". :

 

[firepoint525]

The V.Js & wild promos & contests were 50% of what made MTV. MTV leaned towards metal, but played alternative, Top 40, & just plain cool videos. I don't know what landtuna was so afraid of his kids seeing. MTV even barred Sheena Easton's "Sugar Walls" for being too explicit. Rap wasn't really big on MTV in the early 80's...unless you consider Michael J, Janet J, Rockwell, & Prince rap (?). I do not. I guess he was just sheltering his children from "that horrible colored people music". :

Supposedly, the very early MTV did not play much black music, and it wasn't until Michael Jackson's Thriller album and its associated singles and videos came out, that they did. Because of this Michael Jackson was erroneously credited with "opening the doors" for black artists in a more general sense, but to do this ignores the contributions of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and other artists from the '50s. Even the Jackson 5's first album title gives Diana Ross credit for discovering and launching them!

 

[only1moore]

Milwaukee, 1984 on Warner Cable.

 

[NoWayNoCC]

Storer Cable in northern Kentucky must have been one of the last cable systems in America to get MTV. They didn't pick it up until 1983! They had to carry 15 preacher channels instead, plus a channel called Color Bars (which was nothing but color bars).

 

[searadiofreak]

From Day 1, in Seattle on Viacom Cable. Basic cable bill was $17.90. Cable company changed name atleast three times since, now a Comcast market. There was nothing like MTV during the early days, it was certainly quite a revolution. I miss Go-Go's and Bow Wow Wow vids!

 

[wbhist]

Supposedly, the very early MTV did not play much black music, and it wasn't until Michael Jackson's Thriller album and its associated singles and videos came out, that they did. Because of this Michael Jackson was erroneously credited with "opening the doors" for black artists in a more general sense, but to do this ignores the contributions of Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and other artists from the '50s. Even the Jackson 5's first album title gives Diana Ross credit for discovering and launching them!

And the one who really opened the doors for black artists on MTV, from what's been written, was then-CBS Records chief Walter Yetnikoff - who forced the channel to put on Michael Jackson's videos by threatening to pull all CBS Records videos from that channel. Sorry for what could be construed as a bad pun, but essentially Yetnikoff blackmailed MTV into playing Jackson's videos.

 

[nightfly61]

Say,Say,Say was one of the biggest tunes of 1983. I have a feeling MTV would have played it & all the Thriller song videos anyway. In the early years I remember them also playing the Commodores, "(Lady) You Bring Me Up" video, George Clinton, "The Oak Tree", Musical Youth "Pass The Dutchie", Candy Girl & Mr. Telephone Man by New Edition, Let Me Tickle Your Fancy by Jermaine Jackson & Devo & more.

 

[firepoint525]

Say,Say,Say was one of the biggest tunes of 1983. I have a feeling MTV would have played it & all the Thriller song videos anyway. In the early years I remember them also playing the Commodores, "(Lady) You Bring Me Up" video, George Clinton, "The Oak Tree", Musical Youth "Pass The Dutchie", Candy Girl & Mr. Telephone Man by New Edition, Let Me Tickle Your Fancy by Jermaine Jackson & Devo & more.

Some of those were post-1983, and the "3-say," as I once heard a dj call it, had Paul McCartney in it, so it would have been played anyway. I didn't have MTV in those really early days, so I don't know what they actually played back then.

 

[johnnya2k6]

Here in Fairbanks, MTV was added to the Frontier Cable (now GCI after a few name changes over the years) lineup from day one; around that time, they also added WGN, WWOR, and USA Network.

It would be till about 1983 when I would be exposed to MTV (and cable in general) myself at a babysitter's house...and I was only five!

 

[MickeyD]

Do any of you remember when you first got MTV? Did you get it from Day one? Did you get it during the glory days in the 80s?

I was working at Group W's satellite uplink farm and would just scan the sky for TV back in the day before scrambling. Watched it sign on from their uplink in Long Island. "Video Killed the Radio Star" was their first video.

 

[firepoint525]

Now for part 2 of that question, the obvious one: when did you get rid of MTV? When did it "jump the shark" for you to the point that you couldn't watch it anymore? When did you no longer "want your MTV"? ;D

 

[gr8oldies]

I honestly don't remember if we had it day one in Western Ohio or not. I remember VH1 in the 80s being the equivalent of an adult contemporary radio station, with John "Bowzer" Baumann(sp?) and Scott Shannon being two of the VJs. Losing interest in MTV, probably about the point I stopped caring about current music in the '90s. And I suppose after seeing Puck get kicked out of the house 12 dozen times.

 

[cowboybud]

Now for part 2 of that question, the obvious one: when did you get rid of MTV? When did it "jump the shark" for you to the point that you couldn't watch it anymore? When did you no longer "want your MTV"? ;D

After Beavis and Butt-Head and Headbangers' Ball got cancelled. Around that same time, I stopped caring about current music in general.

 

[firepoint525]

I liked Beavis and Butthead because they watched videos and mocked those videos while they were watching them. Kinda like what you and I would be doing if we were watching some of those same videos! ;D

 

[nightfly61]

I stopped watching a first time after I got my drivers license & 1st job in early 1985-not by choice. I still kept up occasionally. I wonder what ever happened to Kevin Seals? He always looked like he was stoned. Flashing foreward to 94ish, I also called it quits after they stopped Beavis & Butthead...especially the later B & Bs where they edited the videos & it seemed they never "changed it" anymore like in the past.
By then I turned it every time Kennedy was on as veejay & most of my favs had moved on. "Live From The Beach House" was one of the last things I got into, only because of the "view". No to Cyndi Crawford, No to Tabitha, Kurt & Downtown Julie Brown. "NO MTV Raps, no Headbanger's Ball, no Jesse Camp & no Aeon Flux. Kennedy was about the biggest one I really could not stand.
IMHO, as a 13 year old, my favorite time to watch was when Martha was on. Martha Quinn.

 

[Laura151]

I remember that we did not get it in Fort Lauderdale until the spring of 1982.