The MTV 45th anniversary fell on August 1, marking 45 years since the US cable network began broadcasting music videos around the clock.
CBS Saturday Morning aired a four-minute retrospective on August 1 examining the channel’s rise from a low-budget cable venture to a major entertainment brand.
MTV began broadcasting at 12:01 am Eastern Time on August 1, 1981. John Lack introduced the network with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll.”
The opening sequence combined NASA space footage with MTV’s changing logo. Former executive Tom Freston said the network used public-domain moon-landing material because it lacked money for an elaborate production, according to a Vanity Fair oral history.
The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star” became the first music video broadcast by the channel.
MTV’s original presenters were Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson and Martha Quinn. Known as video jockeys, they introduced videos, interviews, music news and concert information.
The channel later expanded beyond continuous music programming into award shows, scripted series and reality television.
Read: Do Artists Get Paid for Win or Performance at MTV VMAs?
Its music-video format helped make visual presentation an increasingly important part of promoting recording artists during the 1980s and 1990s.
