Talk:MTV

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New York City Mid‑importance

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Television: Stations Mid‑importance

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United States: Music / Television Low‑importance

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Pop music High‑importance

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Independent Competitors[edit]

On February 12, 1985, Boston based radio personalities John Garabedian and Arnie "Woo Woo" Ginsburg launched Boston Rock Video WVJV, Marlboro/Boston, on channel 66. Popularly known as "V66," or simply "The V," WVJV was created to fill a void in Boston and its surrounding suburbs where, at the time, cable TV, and, therefore, MTV, was sparsely available. V66's format was similar to MTV's, where videos were played 24 hours a day in stereo, introduced by VJs. The station also produced it's own videos and shows.

Only a 5,000 watt station, WVJV had some influence on the much larger MTV. After MTV refused to air the video for "Take on Me" by the band A-Ha, V66, with its liberal play policy, agreed to air the video. "Take on Me" gained so much popularity on The V that Warner Brothers received thousands of requests from record stores to release the song as a single (something that was going to happen anyway) because of the demand for the song, and MTV received so many requests for the video that the cable station was forced to play it. Now "Take on Me" is considered an all time MTV classic.

V66 also helped Boston based bands by playing their videos extensively, and the same kind of influence that was exerted through the "Take on Me" video also helped Boston acts to have hit videos on MTV. The most notable were "10 - 9 - 8 (I'm Always Counting Down)" by Face to Face and "The Girl With A Curious Hand" by Digney Fignus. The latter won MTV's "The Basement Tapes."

Feeling the pressure of increased competition from V66, and later from another video music station in New York City called "U68," MTV tried to get artists to give MTV exclusive rights to air their videos. A well known example of this was Prince's video for the single "Raspberry Beret." Since V66 could not get permission to air the video, the station made its own video for the song, which was, quite simply, a continuous video shot of a "Raspberry Beret" 45 turning on a turntable while the song played. The locally produced video garnished so much publicity and popularity that the exclusive rights to the actual Prince video were waived.

WVJV was on the air until Memorial Day, 1986, shutting down due to a lack of advertising revenue. V66 and U68 were sold as a package deal to the Home Shopping Network, which, supposedly, was owned by the parent company of MTV.

Sources: The short Eventful Life of a Local Music Video Station -- V-66, Boston's Video Channel of the 80s (community forum) -- Signed by MalzywheelsNH February 2, 2009, corrected and amended February 6, 2009

Jackass and Joe Lieberman[edit]

Why no mention of Jackass in the entire article? MTV still owns this popular franchise. And there should be a description of the controversy with Senator Joe Lieberman over MTV's original Jackass series in 2001, in the Controversies section. 174.214.16.149 (talk) 17:07, 7 May 2022 (UTC)[reply]

MTV Format[edit]

Why does this article introduce MTV as a music video channel? MTV describes itself (more accurately) as reality shows and celebrity news. Worldbook1967 (talk) 06:05, 1 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

The Real World[edit]

Can the history of The Real World be added to MTV’s page? JanetintheUK (talk) 05:19, 14 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree! I’m astonished that there is no mention of this program on the page. 2600:1014:B08F:5309:2866:C78B:A4EB:8F39 (talk) 20:22, 2 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]