Memories of locally produced music video shows

As I wax nostalgic about my beloved "Goodnight L.A." that was the ABC affiliate in L.A.'s competition against "Friday Night Videos", I'm wondering if other major markets had locally produced video shows in the Friday 12:30 am slot in the 80's.
I loved "Goodnight L.A." because it showed everything, every kind of music imaginable. And the format was so simply brilliant- video (the whole video) and then black screen and the title scrolled. Simple, no crap VJ's.
Of course there was also "Video One" at 5 in the afternoons with Richard Blade. That's where they sloppily would cut videos off too soon, and had the George Lucas "too cute" segues.
I would sell my husband for some episodes of "Goodnight L.A."!

 

There was one in Philly that my brother and I used to watch at our grandmother's house, late late at night. The title escapes me. But I distinctly recall it was the first place I ever saw the video for the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" and it totally blew our developing early-teen minds away.

Not "local," but I also have fond memories of USA's "Night Flight," which used to play a much more eclectic mix of videos (as well as concert film clips, comedy sketches, etc.) than MTV would usually play.

 

Two words...Sondra Prill.

 

FM TV - Denver, Co. (actually Boulder, I think).
If I remember correctly, the name was bought out by MTV just before their start.

jerol

 

Briefly, one of the Minneapolis TV stations (I forgot the station) produced a country music video show in the 1990s.

 

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MV-50 (music video channel UHF 50) in Chicago around 3:00pm in the afternoon circa 1983. Unlike MTV they actually played R & B artists regularly.

 

We used to do a weekly video show on our local cable system (also owned by the family that owned our radio stations): just the same artists as on our playlists, with our DJ's in-between.
Owensboro KY.




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Mary Fahl - Redemption

 

There was a video show on one of the major network affiliates (ABC,CBS or NBC, can't recall which) in the Bay Area, in the early '80s, that was hosted by a then-unknown Bobcat Goldthwait. He already had the Bobcat schtick down, and I have to say that the first time I saw him, I thought "WTF is this crap...?" But the humor grew on you...

 

That's cool! How much did it cost to run videos? Did they send out actual copies of the videos to the station? Do any of the "episodes" still exist?

 

I remember a show called The Now Explosion on UHF in Phila area in the early 70's. They'd air the occasional video and play the latest chart songs with odd stock footage showing--fireworks, carnivals, zoo animals, crowded freeways, etc.

 

I'm sure they're long gone by this time. I'm also sure that we wouldn't have done it if it had cost the cable operation a dime...so, I'm pretty sure we got the videos, and right to show them, gratis from the record labels.




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Nickel Creek - This Side

 

You are Marriage material. I watched Friday night Videos but more important was Goodnight L.A. - Wow! It was everything underground LA 80s. I would go to some punk or goth party and this would put me to sleep. This girl that created this thread only know and I love her for it

 

Wow! I thought I was the only person alive who remembers "Goodnight L.A."! Didn't happen to tape it did you? It's been 30 years now!

 

Chicago area had a video show produced in L.A. "MV3", which aired for 3+ years in mid-80's.

Definitely remember opening intro:

 

Cape Breton Cablevision (or Channel 10 as we called it) used to air videos on Tuesdays and Thursdays for an hour. This would have been from 1981 until 1989. In 1983, the Atlantic Satellite Network (now CTV2) went on air. It aired Atlantic Canada's Choice, a show that counted down the top 20 songs on Halifax's C100 charts for the first two and a half hours and then filling the final half hour with brand new videos.

 

I'm not sure, guess I'll have to go through all my VHS tapes. They used to play Pretenders, Cure, Siouxie - and I can't seem to be able to find a single Youtube video on it. This is the only post on the entire internet even discussing it. Not even sure why I looked for it but it was a great show. In between the videos it had the same font and show title simple said on a black background "GOODNIGHT L.A." Id fall alseep to that show

 

I couldn't fall asleep to that! I watched the Sat. night one at 2am. I slept during the "Sat. Night Movie" before! There was a video on YouTube that said it was sourced from it- Surf Punks "My Beach", I believe.

 

Night Flight made an industry out of repeatedly showing the Media Home Entertainment version (read as washed out color and edited) of Magical Mystery Tour.

 

I don't remember any locally produced shows, but my introduction to music videos was "HBO's VIDEO JUKEBOX" from the early 80s.

 

WPHL Channel 17 in Philadelphia had a clip show on weeknights at 11:00 p.m. The voice over was from WMMR personality Pierre Robert.

My parents wouldn't pay for cable so I was all over these clip shows along with The Midnight Special and Friday Night Videos.

 

We had a local program called "Teen Beat" in the sixties. They would basically let any rock band perform which resulted in much hilarity when friends and classmates bands were featured.



Another one was "Hi Varieties" which featured any kind of amateur talent (and I'm using the word 'talent' very loosely.) I'm certain due to Terry Adams influence, the is a music label "Hi-Varieties" featuring NRBQ, The Long Ryders and others.

Looks groovy, doesn't it?



Another was a country music show called Hayloft Hoedown. The guy on the left below, "Cactus" Tom Brooks, was Foster Brook's brother. Foster was a reporter for Louisville's radio & TV stations WHAS.

 

"Video Music Machine" ran in the mid 80's in Milwaukee. They had a total of 4 videos on in their playlist and so much of the 30 minutes had to be filled by banter from host Skip Taylor. This was unfortunate as Mr. Taylor was a good d.j., but could not improvise to save his life.

Who know - maybe someone really did 'request' Devo's "Through with Being Cool" everyday

 

For a brief time in the 80s, Boston had a local MTV-like channel called V66, led by some guy named John Garabedian. It didn't last long, and I don't remember much about it, but they did play videos by local acts that probably never would have made MTV, which was nice.

And I just found a wikipedia entry that mentions it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Garabedian

 

Do you remember this video they played? Pretty sure no other show played this one. I could probably sit and talk about this for hours, so glad there is 1 person besides me who remembers this