No one wants their MTV

On Point with Meghna Chakrabarti

WBUR

Talk Show, News, On Point, Daily, Npr

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On August 1st, 1981, MTV was born. The 24-hour music video channel transformed the music industry and pop culture. Now, MTV is now shutting down many of its international music channels.

*** Thank you for listening. Help power On Point by making a donation here: wbur.org/giveonpoint

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken, a podcast from the Mayrotra Institute at BU Questrum School of Business.
0:08.3	What really drives accountability in the business world?
0:11.7	Stick around until the end of this podcast to preview a recent episode.
0:17.4	WBWR Podcasts, Boston.
0:27.3	This is On Point. I'm Magna Chakrabardi.
0:35.4	At midnight on August 1, 1981, cable viewers across the country watched an epic launch.
0:45.9	Okay, to be honest, it was not a NASA rocket firing its engines, nothing so grand as an exploration into the deep unknown.
0:48.3	But for an entire generation of young people, the launch was indeed epic because it brought something else
0:55.7	into their homes, more specifically onto their TV screens around the clock.
1:00.6	Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.
1:04.6	I'm already nodding my head, right? Because August 1st, 1981, was the birth of MTV.
1:11.6	Directly after the rocket launch video, the first minutes of this new cable channel aired a video that declared MTV's reason for being.
1:24.4	Video killed the radio star.
1:35.3	MTV got right down to business of introducing itself and its five original VJs, or video jockeys, to viewers across the country. Hi, I'm Alan Hunter.
1:37.3	I'm Martha Quinn.
1:39.3	I'm J.J. Jackson.
1:40.3	Hi, I'm Nina Blackwood.
1:42.3	I'm Mark Goodman.
1:43.3	The hosts tried to help viewers understand just what they were watching.
1:48.1	We all are so excited about this new concept in TV.
1:52.2	We'll be doing for TV what FM did for radio, and let's get into it right now at MTV.
1:58.5	Armed that day with 250 music videos, five hosts, and a 24-hour format, the station
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WBUR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WBUR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.