Places that were late getting MTV

[bandit957]

MTV started in 1981, but how many places in the good ol' U.S. and A. didn't get MTV until much later?

Storer Cable in northern Kentucky didn't get it until 1983 because some "morality" types kept it off the air until then. Even after that, it seemed to be frowned upon.

A lot of people thought radio stations that played the same music as MTV were just dandy, but somehow it became "eeeeevil" when you added video to it. This went on around here at least as late as 1990.

I watched MTV some, but my parents objected to watching it too much - not because it was "immoral", but because it wasn't educational or productive. My mom got mad once because Martha Quinn blew bubbles with bubble gum, which looked unprofessional and set a bad example (since I wanted to get into a career in broadcasting).

[US71]

MTV started in 1981, but how many places in the good ol' U.S. and A. didn't get MTV until much later?

Storer Cable in northern Kentucky didn't get it until 1983 because some "morality" types kept it off the air until then. Even after that, it seemed to be frowned upon.

A lot of people thought radio stations that played the same music as MTV were just dandy, but somehow it became "eeeeevil" when you added video to it. This went on around here at least as late as 1990.

I watched MTV some, but my parents objected to watching it too much - not because it was "immoral", but because it wasn't educational or productive. My mom got mad once because Martha Quinn blew bubbles with bubble gum, which looked unprofessional and set a bad example (since I wanted to get into a career in broadcasting).

I didn't have cable TV at home, so only watched it when I went visiting friends.

[kphoger]

Growing up, I never had MTV, even with cable.  I left home in 1999.

Atwood, Kansas.

[triplemultiplex]

It was about 2003 or so by the time MTV was available from the local cable company in my home town.  By then it was too late.  MTV had become 100% reality show garbage already.  And I didn't live there any more.

[PHLBOS]

IIRC, my hometown of Marblehead, MA didn't get cable (let alone MTV) until the mid 80s.  I think it was one of the last towns in Essex County to get it.

[cjk374]

We didn't get cable here in Simsboro til the early 90s. We only watched MTV when we went to Shreveport to visit family.

[SectorZ]

Had it in Tewksbury, MA when I was three years old in 1981, and yes I do remember that.

Fun story about that. In Def Leppard's greatest hits album they came out with in 1995, the liner notes cite an uptick in sales of their album from 1981 "in random places like Lowell, Massachusetts" due to MTV. Lowell Cable had MTV right from the get-go.

[cpzilliacus]

Most of Montgomery County, Maryland had no cable through the early years of MTV.  Not because of MTV's content, but because true to the grand tradition  of the county ("paralysis by analysis") when it comes to any subject of importance, the County Council had to study it for many years, finally settling on a very non-standard TRACS signal distribution system, to be constructed by Tribune-United (a joint venture partly owned by the Chicago Tribune at the time). Details about an appeals court case involving Tribune United and Montgomery County can be found here.

Bottom line was that as a result of the county council's foolish decision to go with Tribune-United and their unproven TRACS hardware, most of the county was not wired for cable (including MTV) until the late 1980's, so no MTV until the second half of the 1980's or even the 1990's.

[KEVIN_224]

I first had cable in New Britain, CT in April of 1981 (then United Cable). I don't remember if we were among the first to offer MTV or not (was 10 years old at that time). I was told it actually started on a cable system or two in New Jersey, not New York City. We definitely had it in 1982-83, as I watched the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video premiere with my late grandfather.

I think cable has been available here since the 1970s. I remember my grandfather having it at a different place in the same city, in 1977-78.

[abefroman329]

In the early days, MTV was a premium channel, too.  Which is why Friday Night Videos on syndicated television thrived.

[KEVIN_224]

Friday Night Videos was on NBC. It debuted as a 90-minute show. It was cut down to 1 hour at some point in 1987 when Late Night With David Letterman expanded to include Friday nights. There was a syndicated dance music show around that time. I believe it was called New York Night Tracks or whatever. Then there was a show into the early 90s called Night Flight.

[abefroman329]

Friday Night Videos was on NBC. It debuted as a 90-minute show. It was cut down to 1 hour at some point in 1987 when Late Night With David Letterman expanded to include Friday nights. There was a syndicated dance music show around that time. I believe it was called New York Night Tracks or whatever. Then there was a show into the early 90s called Night Flight.

Sorry, I thought it was on TBS, not NBC.

[KEVIN_224]

Night Tracks was the name of the video show on TBS. I believe it was late night Fridays/Saturday mornings.

[bandit957]

Night Tracks was the name of the video show on TBS. I believe it was late night Fridays/Saturday mornings.

I remember something called 'FM TV' which might have been similar. It was on briefly around 1983.

[jp the roadgeek]

I first had cable in New Britain, CT in April of 1981 (then United Cable). I don't remember if we were among the first to offer MTV or not (was 10 years old at that time). I was told it actually started on a cable system or two in New Jersey, not New York City. We definitely had it in 1982-83, as I watched the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video premiere with my late grandfather.

I think cable has been available here since the 1970s. I remember my grandfather having it at a different place in the same city, in 1977-78.

Dimension of Meriden didn't get to my street until October of 1983 because we  had underground wiring.  I certainly know we had MTV by then, because I was a regular viewer for the first few months.  My grandparents lived near the center of Southington, and they had cable since the late 70's (they had that old key-push corded cable box), but I never really remember seeing MTV on there.

[1995hoo]

The neighborhood I lived in during most of the 1980s (and where my parents still live) got cable TV in November 1986, although there was a problem with our connection such that we didn't have it until December. MTV had been available all along in those neighborhoods that did have cable, though–no issue of the cable company (Media General, at that time; they were later acquired by Cox) keeping MTV off the air.

My brother and I initially found the idea of the music videos fascinating for some dumb reason. Our mom said we could watch for no more than one hour a day, so usually we watched the "Dial MTV" request hour. I remember watching that dumb game show "Remote Control" at some point during high school because when we were assembling questions for an interscholastic foreign language competition our school hosted, the teacher in charge made a category based on that show (a "Sing Along with ...." category where a popular kid from our school read song lyrics in Latin and the goal was to name the band who sang the song). The teacher was in his late 20s at the time, which probably explains why he knew about the show.

[bandit957]

The only videos on MTV back then that my parents liked were by Billy Joel and Hall & Oates.

[bandit957]

Did Dr. Hook ever have any videos on MTV? I think my parents liked them too.

[spooky]

We got cable in summer of 1984. I'm not aware of when it first became available in our area, but I think it had been available for a period of time before we had it installed.

In the years before that I would devour MTV any time I had a chance when we visited someone with cable.