Cord Cut MTV

Remember ... that thing, called MTV?

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Transcript

Ha Ha Ha I bet you expected a foreign language. Not today! AI Tech and Life thanks you for listening... and for today, off to the way back machine... enjoy! And let us know how we are doing wink wink wink wink wink... love Rachel

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Well Hello, Hello.

A bit of a short story today..  On how little things and sound can change the world.  At least my world.

Around June, 1981, after a long day of Saturday yard work (the norm growing up), I was about 13 years old, sitting in the living room with my mom and dad nursing pizza and a coke … and this guy clad in 79 polyester slacks knocked on the door.

He’s pitching this new thing I’d never heard of before … this thing called “cable”.

Now, back then, we had three channels (and no remote thank you very much).  The three major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) for news and shows, a public tv channel for things like PBS and Sesame Street repeats, and one local channel, which ran mainly kids shows, local news, and a lot of cartoons, which was great when I got home from school I would fill a large bowl with cereal and watch cartoons until about 15 minutes before my mom got home … so I could get my chores done before getting my ass kicked.  And homework?  Never heard of it.

So this cable thing, at the time it was something like 40 channels or something.  Seemed kinda expensive.  And who would PAY for TV, anyway?

Well, oddly, they subscribed to whatever deal they had going.

And little did I know that my life and my generation was about to change forever.

Cartoons be damned.

Around August 1st, 1981, this sound started to rumble and roar.

Now be patient and take a listen.  Because this sound basically took over a generation.  

Hold on … and take a listen, and I will bring you back in after about one minute of sound.

Here it is.

(MTV launch sound)

And the VJs!  Cool!  Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, J.J. Jackson, and Martha Quinn …

These VJs and that channel took over my life.  Watching videos instead of cartoons.  Gettin cool quick.  Styles changed.  New wave was here.  Rock on TV!!!!  I mean, I couldn’t turn it off.  Neither could any of the other kids at school.  

I am telling you, this intro took over life itself.  So much for chores … they went out the door as I would get home, turn it on, and just go all ears and eyes.  Ah man … it changed an entire generation.  

Video killing the radio star and all … thank you, The Buggles.

Little did they know what that the lead in they provided would live forever, along with all the other sharp styles and legends thanks to MTV.  Hair and hairspray and hot women …

It changed a generation.  My generation.  

… and then … (sound).

Well, all good things you know.  

Those chores and homework were quickly forgotten.  So my mom (wisely and despite my pleas) cut the cord.  And my music MTV world evaporated.  Me … no longer trapped in the TV.

I was quite unhappy.  Which is funny, because cord cutting is a thing now, too. So MTV and my mom were both ahead of their time.

But all the 80s goodness lived on.  And eventually I moved out and got my own cable.  MTV was still around, but they had moved on a bit too, less music and more pop culture programming.

Indeed, they changed the world a few times over, exposing the world not just to music but to social changes that seem pretty tame today standards.  

Let’s face it.  They said the future. 

And changed the world.

And me?

Well I guess that cord cut was the right move … I did the same thing to my kids when with the Cartoon Network.  They weren’t gettin (beep) done either.

Then the cell phone came and … well, I’ll leave that for another episode.  

Like mother, like son.

Sorry kids.

More later …

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