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The Bobby Bones Show

Special Feature: Math & Magic - The Real Story of MTV: Founder’s Edition

The Bobby Bones Show

Premiere Networks

Music Interviews, News, Comedy, Music, Entertainment News, Society & Culture

4.810.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 July 2021

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today MTV is a cultural institution, and this summer MTV is celebrating its 40th anniversary! But people forget what a long shot it was to get the channel off the ground. Bob Pittman led the team that created MTV. In this special episode, he reminisces with co-founders and friends John Sykes, Judy McGrath, Fred Seibert, Tom Freston and Jarl Mohn about what it was like to create the '80s version of a start-up, and lead a TV revolution by dreaming up the rules as they went along. From why the first MTV logo was designed on crinkled paper (it spent a little time in a trash bin), to how a tiny record store in Tulsa helped save the business, to why you should really think twice about going on a Lost Weekend with Van Halen... all the way to how a terrible cereal inspired one of the greatest ad slogans of all time: “I want my MTV,” we’ve packed this episode full of stories that marketers, fans and entrepreneurs will all want to hear.  

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to Math and Magic, a production of I Heart Radio.

0:09.4

You actually were the guy who inspired us to do animated logos.

0:14.6

Do you remember this?

0:15.6

I said, well, what are we going to do in between the videos and the VJs?

0:19.0

Are we going to do jingles?

0:20.0

And you went, oh, no, we can't do jingles.

0:22.2

And I said, what do we do?

0:24.2

He said, how about this?

0:26.4

Imagine it's a picture of a cow.

0:28.2

I said, yeah.

0:29.8

And he said, and all of a sudden an ax comes down and cuts the cow's head off.

0:34.1

And it falls to the ground.

0:35.4

And you see the veins coming out and the blood spurting out.

0:38.5

And the cow vomits.

0:39.8

And in the vomit is the logo.

0:42.2

And went, oh, my God, I can do anything I want.

0:47.3

Hi, I'm Bob Dippman.

0:48.2

And welcome to Math and Magic, stories from the Frontiers of Marketing.

0:51.6

And we're doing something special on today's episode.

0:54.8

One of the pivotal moments of my life was leading the team that created

0:58.1

MTV.

0:59.1

I've had the good fortune of having all the co-founders of MTV on this podcast with me.

...

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