Peter Dougherty, an MTV stalwart who helped develop the music TV network’s influential hip-hop show Yo! MTV Raps, died from a heart attack on Oct. 12. He was 59.
The well-connected New York native is remembered as one of the creative forces who, along with Ted Demme, helped shape the programming culture of MTV in its heyday. It was in the mid-1980s when he began endorsing a program focused on rap music, a genre which was largely ignored on MTV’s channels at the time. He got his wish in August 1988 when the pilot he and Demme developed was beamed for the first time. It proved to be one of the highest rating programs in the broadcaster’s history.
