MTV began broadcasting exactly 37 years ago today, and as a music obsessed child of the 80s and 90s, I spent an inordinate (and perhaps harmful) amount of hours watching the channel. If you were a straight boy in the 80s and 90s you probably had an enormous crush on Daisy Fuentes who’s now oddly enough married to Richard Marx — because you know, 80s, right? I remember running home from school to watch Yo! MTV Raps with Doctor Dre and Ed Lover during the weekdays and making sure I caught Fab 5 Freddy hosting on the weekends; I loved Headbanger’s Ball and remember a contest in which a viewer won a visit from Metallica — and when the band arrived at the dude’s place, the first thing the band said to him was “What do you have for beer?” as they were opening his refrigerator. There was Downtown Julie Brown’s dance music show at the legendary Palladium that made me want to be there to dance and be around cool, young people. As a teenager, I loved Matt Pinfield, one of the most knowledgable personalities in the history of channel hosting 120 Minutes. Also Kurt fucking Loder, who is still actively writing well into his 70s.
What would my life have been without MTV? A helluva lot more boring — and I’m not if the site would have been possible. So although MTV has long strayed from its original purpose, I wanted to personally wish the channel that wound up inspiring me so much a very happy birthday with the first video they ever aired, The Buggles‘ “Video Killed The Radio Star.”