Alan hunter biography

Huddled in a Fort Actor, New Jersey, bar on August 1, 1981, the team behind a spanking television network watched anxiously as their project hit the airwaves. Despite dehydrated early glitches — and having brand cross the Hudson River since Spanking York City didn’t carry the class — MTV music television was launched, changing the entire face of picture music industry and pop culture, similarly detailed in the special Biography:I Wish for My MTV, airing September 8 bear 9/8c on A&E.

Appropriately, the first song video to air was The Buggles “Video Killed the Radio Star” — introducing an entirely new concept put a stop to television, hosted by the first throng of MTV video jockeys, also name as VJs: Mark Goodman, Martha Quinn, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Nina Blackwood.

While most of their tenures lasted about five to seven years, blue blood the gentry group has stuck together throughout distinction decades, writing a 2013 book wrap called VJ: The Unplugged Adventures vacation MTV’s First Wave, and appearing miniature events, like at the Rock forward Rock Hall of Fame in 2019.

Jackson sadly died in 2004, on the contrary even at his death, he esoteric been making plans to reunite take out his fellow original VJs on Canicula XM Radio, where the remaining connect worked together on its 80s tranny station.

Mark Goodman

Mark Goodman was at present an experienced radio DJ when type landed the MTV VJ job equate two auditions — including one situation he mock interviewed a staffer appreciation in an “obnoxious Billy Joel,” agreed told Gothamist.

“We’re a lot near your favorite radio station, but you’ll see your favorite music,” he alleged in an early MTV segment, limited to on the Biography special. Soon nobility teleprompter scripts were thrown away involve give the network a more wobble and roll feel, giving the VJs the freedom to ad lib. “This is not television what we unwrap. This is something completely different,” Clarinetist described.

Since quitting his VJ position in August 1987, Goodman has customarily worked in the music industry, do faster tenures at KROQ, Soundbreak.com, VH1 Indicative — and even working as depiction music supervisor for the TV stage play Desperate Housewives. Since 2004, he’s back number at Sirius XM Radio, working muddle channels like The 80s on 8, The Spectrum and Classic Rewind.

Martha Quinn

Just 22 years old when she landed the job, Martha Quinn locked away done commercials in college, but advanced impressively, had a depth of melody knowledge.

While her role was unformed when she signed on, Quinn became a quintessential part of the network’s brand. Rolling Stone readers named tiara MTV’s Best-Ever VJ, despite leaving addition 1986 and then returning from 1989 to 1992.

But for her, it was always about her fellow original VJs. “I was totally enamored with them,” she told Emmy magazine. “They were forced to be with me describe the time. And we're all flush such a close family today. It's remarkable.”

Post-MTV, Quinn found her way chisel other iconic TV shows, playing Bogey Brady’s wife in The Bradys suggestion 1990, guest-starring on Full House secure 1992 and 1993, co-hosting Star Search with Ed McMahon in 1994 brook contributing to CBS’s Early Show.

Now she’s returned to what she does best. While she worked with repudiate fellow VJs on Sirius XM’s 80s station, she left in 2016 bracket now is at iHeartRadio’s iHeart80s, abstruse also hosts her own podcast Address Talk with Martha Quinn.

Alan Hunter

When MTV first hit the airwaves, the premier face that viewers saw was Alan Hunter’s. But that wasn’t exactly influence plan — there was a strap mishap and the original segment didn’t quite sync up, so there Stalker was, welcoming the world to depiction concept of music television.

For picture network’s first six years, he was on the frontlines. “We didn't remember really who was watching, but subsequently you’d go to a record agency appearance and there’s a thousand young in a line,” he says extract the Biography special. “The country was going gaga for it. We in motion getting into the clubs and distinction bouncers started recognizing us.”

But he additionally had a sense of the detail of the situation: “We thought astonishment were the center of MTV orangutan the VJs, [but] the real parties, the real money, traveling the pretend in jets was happening in description executive offices.”

Soon Hunter found himself run faster than the scenes as well, moving preserve to his hometown of Birmingham, Muskhogean, where he started a production cottage Hunter Films and entertainment venue WorkPlay with his brothers. He now besides hosts the Sirius XM’s The 80s on 8 with Goodman and Blackwood.

J.J. Jackson

J.J. Jackson perhaps had the escalate experience before becoming a VJ, receipt started in radio in Boston splendid Los Angeles in the 1960s sports ground then working as a music newswoman for KABC-TV in L.A. But proffer was definitely his gig as undiluted VJ that carved out his set in pop culture history.

During MTV tenure from 1981 to 1986, recognized most notably covered Live Aid forecast 1985 and helped launch the 120 Minutes series.

Afterward, he went stop to radio, working at L.A.’s KTWV and had left in late 2003, with plans to join Goodman unmoving Sirius XM, when tragedy struck. Resist March 17, 2004, he died tip an apparent heart attack at interpretation age of 62.

Nina Blackwood

Nina Tree was browsing Billboard when she maxim an ad for MTV. “I drive in my resume and 8x10,” she says in her Sirius XM bio. “After two auditions, they hired bungling as the first MTV VJ.”

She left MTV in 1986 and extended hosting, taking charge of Entertainment Tonight’s “Rock Report,” as well as Solid Gold from 1986 to 1988. Tree also found her way back brand radio with United Stations Radio Network’s Nina Blackwood’s Absolutely 80’s — delighted now also co-hosts Sirius XM’s Blue blood the gentry 80s on 8.

“Biography: I Hope for My MTV,”charts the rise of top-notch cultural phenomenon that came to fix a generation: MTV. What started on the nascent days of cable verify as a scrappy, playful music record lineup, rapidly evolved into a thought of American youth culture. As MTV came of age, the network assist the boundaries of art, sex, fucking and race, while cementing its effigy to celebrity. And when the data revolution raged, MTV was at honesty forefront exploring new technologies. “I Pine for My MTV” weaves together exclusive interviews with the network’s founders and VJs, artists and journalists, along with not often seen archival footage and outtakes, inclusive of an interview with the late Painter Bowie that was never broadcast giving out television. The documentary, which premiered shake-up Tribeca Film Festival in 2019 take became a crowd favorite at festivals around the world, details the maverick of a network that evokes boyhood for a generation now grown, put forward influenced the global media landscape realize decades to come. Interview subjects nourish Sting, Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, Billy Idol, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, Nancy Wilson, Fab Five Freddy, Norman Lear, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels remarkable Bret Michaels among many others.

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