Classic & Current Contemporary Non-Schlock-Rock Metropolitan Music

1980s AOR Radio - MTV: Angel or Devil?

Music Television's Role in 1980s Radio Formats

A controversy that has arisen in the radio industry is how much credit to give MTV — Music Television — for the changing attitudes of radio programmers. MTV is a 24-hour-a-day music video channel that launched August 1, 1981. There is no question that it helps sell records. MTV has had some affect on increasing awareness of new acts not just within the radio industry, but with the public as well. Radio programmers, for the most part, like to play down the influence of MTV.

"I don't think it (AOR) would be significantly different (if MTV did not exist)," says Marc Miller, Music Director of Boston's WBCN. "Radio got along very nicely without MTV. MTV has not helped radio in any way. If anything, it has hurt it."

WHJY's Utz says, "MTV has had a hand in maybe speeding up the process a little bit. I don't think they have single-handedly caused a revolution because we've all seen television before. And we've all seen rock and roll before. One way or another with or without MTV I think this would have happened anyway. It's just like in England — they don't have MTV. They don't even really have radio as we know it and look at the trends over there. They are far ahead of where we are."

But according to Bill Hard, editor of the industry trade publication "The Friday Morning Quarterback Album Report," MTV has had a substantial impact in AOR programming. "Many of these stations were so far out of step with what people want to hear and MTV certainly was one more factor in bringing about the music policy reversal on album stations," he says. "MTV has shaken a few program directors up."

MTV has been given credit for breaking such bands as Duran Duran, Stray Cats, and A Flock of Seagulls — bands that were getting little or no commercial radio airplay. "MTV is almost single-handedly responsible for forcing radio to open up and break in new music," says Chris Hensley, an AOR Promotions Director for EMI/America (the Stray Cats' label). "A lot of people are claiming that they were into it before MTV, but don't believe it. The Stray Cats were in the teens with a bullet (on the charts) before AOR radio started playing them. (MTV) forced radio to acknowledge that these new acts were out there and selling. It embarrassed radio."

Most recording contracts now include a clause requiring video production.

Can rock radio and MTV peacefully co-exist? Since MTV is available through cable only, it does not have the portability of radio. But MTV does have a much larger audience than any single radio station. A radio signal reaches a limited amount of listeners within its geographical region but thanks to cable hook-ups with more than 1,500 affiliates, MTV has a potential audience of 12 million households.

"I think MTV is going to replace radio," says Rockpool's Josephson. "Not MTV itself, but MTV and the things it is going to spawn are going to replace radio in the home. MTV has gone a long way towards molding opinion, towards creating a new audience — a larger audience — for these modern music records."

And what about the generation of young Americans who are growing up with MTV? The rock and rollers of the '80s use sight as well as sound in their perceptions of music.

"Kids in their early teens right now listen to the radio totally differently because there is a visual image with it," says WLIR's Pisani. "There is going to be a definitive change in radio, for the future more so than now."

Now that rock radio has begun to open up to newer artists, MTV and AOR radio are becoming more homogenized. Rock radio is catching up with MTV, and the similarities in their playlists are much more pronounced now. Tight playlisting has been a frequent complaint regarding rock radio, but MTV's playlist is just as tight as most AOR stations. This is not necessarily due to lack of available videos. MTV has more than 1,000 titles in stock, but they are not all played on MTV.

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