Television is an audio as well as a visual experience. Especially when it comes to music on television.
When viewers wanted to see their favorite music artists as well as hear their latest hits, they watched music videos. Today, music videos can easily be found on YouTube or Vevo. From Taylor Swift to Olivia Rodrigo to Ludacris to Men At Work, they are all there, 24/7, as close as your iPad or iPhone.
But in the 1970’s to the 90’s, when Atlanta music fans watched the latest music video clips, they turned on the television and turned their dial to whoever was showing them, namely MTV. But Atlanta has had a history of localy produced sources for music videos. In the 70’s, it was The Now Explosion. In the 80’s, which was the decade that music videos became ubiquitous, there was WTBS’s Night Tracks and The Video Music Channel, on WVEU TV 69 (Now CBS station WUPA CBS Atlanta).
The Now Explosion
In the early ’70s, music videos were actually clips produced by the record labels for promotional purposes and were rarely seen by the public. There weren’t many venues on TV to see those clips either. While there were shows that featured live performances of artists, like American Bandstand and Soul Train, music video clips were a rarity on television.
In 1968, a longtime TV broadcaster, Bob Whitney, came up with the idea to play the latest Top 40 hits of the day, linked with the latest video production techniques. He used five different production locations in different cities to produce what would be called The Now Explosion, which would eventually air locally at WATL Channel 36 in 1970.
TNE predated MTV by 11 years, but was seen as ahead of it’s time, thanks to it’s state of the art (at the time) production. Artists of the time who were seen and heard on the show included Steely Dan, Bill Withers, Freda Payne, WAR, and the Four Tops. Since it was produced in Atlanta, many locals were seen dancing in the studio to the music and visualized with psychedelic special effects. Legendary Atlanta radio DJ Bob Harper helped produce the show.
WATL was the main production facility for the show, which would also air in NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Sacramento. In 1970, it would move from WATL to WTCG, which Ted Turner had just acquired. A year later, due to high production costs and lack of advertising revenue, TNE ceased production. Many are just now discovering the previously forgotten program thanks to clips posted on YouTube. A local reporter for the AJC, Miriam Longino, recalled doing a story on the program and had to find someone at WTBS who had any knowledge of the program. She recalled getting numerous responses to a request made by the paper to those who were involved with the show to tell about their experiences of the show.
The Now Explosion YouTube Clip
Atlanta Reporter Miriam Longino Remembers The Now Explosion
Bob Harper talks about The Now Explosion
The Video Music Channel
TNE was a local TV production, but Atlanta never had a round-the-clock music video source that was locally based, until the early 80’s, when the Video Music Channel launched to metro Atlanta cable systems. Like MTV, the VMC would air various categories of music videos 24/7 with live “VJ’s” introducing the videos on-camera and dropping occasional music news reports and concert updates.
WVEU (now WUPA, owned and operated by CBS) went on air in 1981, and after the collapse of its incumbent programming provider, VMC became the full time programer of WVEU in 1984. Not only did TV 69 air music videos round the clock, but it also developed music-oriented original programming like Talk Tracks, which had interviews with artists, New Views with profiles of new videos to the station, specialized music video programs like Cross Country, Metal Works and The Jazz Beat. There were even concert shows and documentaries featuring bands like Yes, Genesis, and Culture Club. All hosted by local VJ’s, including John Graddick, Janet Darr, and then Z93 jock Steve Maple.
After about two years, WVEU decided to transition out of music video programming due to the inability to sell the format to advertisers. The station soon picked up a mix of syndicated programming, network castoffs from WXIA, WAGA, and WSB, and foreign programming. Note: CBS-owned WUPA is still based in the same facility near Brookhaven off I-85 north that it used as the home of the VMC.
VMC interviews singer Marshall Crenshaw
Credit to Tom Roche/YouTube for these promos.
Night Tracks
Ted Turner brought music videos to his newly purchased Atlanta TV station in the early ’70’s, and then brought them back to WTBS in the ’80s with Night Tracks. Each weekend, late night (usually after 11:05 pm, NT would showcase the hottest music videos with classic clips interspersed in the sets. The show had no on-camera VJ’s but did have voice announcers before and after the sets. NT featured the state-of-the-art graphic presentation Turner productions were known for. Even the multi-colored video IDs were distinctive. For several years, outside of MTV and other national music video shows, NT became the only place to see music videos locally.
NT had the advantage of having strong ratings lead-ins from live sports events, including NBA basketball games and Atlanta Braves games. The shows would start first with an hour of specialized hour-long shows such as Power Play on Fridays, which would feature the top hits in Pop, Rock, R&B, new and retro clips, and Chartbusters on Saturdays, with the top 10 clips of the week. NT was so popular that Turner decided to challenge MTV with its own Cable Music Channel. That only lasted a month before it was sold to MTV’s parent company to become VH1 the following year.
As the popularity of music videos waned in the late 80’s, NT pruned back its airings of music video clips and began running movies at the tail end of its programming. In 1991, NT began airing more alternative rock clips (trending with the national move to alternative music by acts like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden). The next year, NT became New Alternative Express, with all alternative music videos, before the entire program would end after nine years on the air.
The show was created by Thomas Lynch and Gary Biller for Turner Program Services. It aired locally on WTBS and nationally on its Superstation TBS cable feed.
Night Tracks 1987 (from Internet Archive)
Night Tracks 1984 (from Internet Archive)
It should be noted that other local stations aired music video programming as well, but not as well-known as the earlier-mentioned shows.
Atlanta Rock Review, aired on TV on WAGA TV (then a CBS affiliate, now owned by Fox), simulcast live on the radio on 94Q. It featured hit clips and performances each Friday night. With 94Q DJ Craig Ashwood hosting. It aired in the mid 80’s.
WSB-TV had The Dance Show, which was similar to American Bandstand but produced locally. It aired each weekend in the mid ’80s.
In the early part of the ’90s, WATL aired Atlanta Jams, which like The Dance Show was a locally produced dance show with local dancers, but featured hip hop and rhythmic music. Taped at the long since closed Club XS off Moreland Avenue. Few clips from the show are available on social media.
WVEU got back into the music video business somewhat in the 90’s with the help of local content creator/producer Arnell Starr, who created two music video shows for the station, American Music Makers (earlier named American Rap Makers) and The Planet Rocks. Both shows focused on hip-hop and dance music videos and were produced in Atlanta. His programs featured such local acts as Lil John & the Eastside Boys, Kriss Kross, and more.
Note: The feature image was created using artificial intelligence software.
