[QuadList] QuadList Digest, Vol 36, Issue 5

[Dennis Degan]

		On Jun 3, 2011, at 8:46 PM, C. Park Seward wrote:

 > Fred Reinstein told me the first MTV was at his Production Group in  
LA. Did they start there before moving to NY?

		I offer:

	As I recall, MTV was started in New York, first airing on August 1,  
1981.  The concept was credited to Robert Pittman, a former New York  
radio station music director.  MTV's first studio was at 503 W. 33rd  
St across from the Long Island RR rail yard on the west side of town;  
WAY west, not far from where the Javits Center is now, between 10th  
and 11th Aves.  This small studio was operated at the time by  
Teletronics, a once-giant production/post-production company in the  
New York area.  The studio was where VJ's would perform their intros  
and interstitials that were to air between music videos.  These  
interstitials were not performed live; they were shot separately for  
later live assembly with the music videos being intro-ed at MTV's  
master control center on Long Island.  It was at this MC where the  
stereo ACR-25s were located.
	After the first few years, MTV moved its studio VJ production to  
Unitel on West 57th Street, where I worked at the time.  Over much of  
that period (1985 to 1991), both MTV and its sister channel VH-1,  
produced VJ interstitials in two studios at Unitel on 57th Street.
	Therefore, to my knowledge, I'm pretty sure MTV was not started in  
Los Angeles.
	Additional note:  Bob Pittman wasn't first with the idea of music  
videos.  The first video music program began in Atlanta in 1969,  
created and produced by Robert Whitney, and was called "The NOW  
Explosion":
		<http://www.thenowexplosion.net/>
		<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Now_Explosion>

			Dennis Degan, Video Editor-Consultant-Knowledge Bank
					     NBC Today Show, New York