The story of MTV is set to be rolled out in a new podcast series hosted by former VJ Dave Holmes.
Audacy Podcasts is launching Who Killed the Video Star? The Story of MTV, an eight-part series that launches today, March 27.
“MTV is still on the air in 2024, and it’s still profitable, but my nieces and nephews know it as a logo on an Urban Outfitters t-shirt. I wanted to know what happened, and where the spirit of MTV exists now,” said Holmes.
The series will explore the cultural history, impact, legacy, and phenomenon of MTV and looks at what it turned into.
Holmes, who previously hosted Waiting for Impact, the wild story of boy band Sudden Impact, is hosting with guests including former VJs such as Julie Brown, Damien Fahey, and Kevin Seal, former MTV News correspondents Gideon Yago, Chris Connelly, and Suchin Pak, former Viacom Music and Entertainment Group president Doug Herzog, Brian Graden, former president of Entertainment, MTV Networks Music Channels, and Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp as well as Rob Dyrdek and producer Shane Nickerson, whose Ridiculousness now takes up a large part of the MTV schedule.
“In the ‘80s and ‘90s, MTV was a window into an alternate universe of music– and art and style and sex and politics– that commanded the attention of my whole generation. At the turn of the millennium, I climbed through that window and worked there, and found myself surrounded with the smartest, hardest-working people on Earth, people who loved music and pop culture the way I did,” added Holmes. “As I gathered the story, in real time, a few other bulletproof media brands– Vice, Pitchfork, Sports Illustrated, MTV News itself– went out of business. The story of MTV is a fascinating one in its own right, but it’s also turned out to be, in microcosm, the story of media in 2024.”
“Dave’s insider perspective makes him the perfect person to dissect the trajectory of the cultural phenomenon that is MTV,” added Jenna Weiss-Berman, EVP, Podcasts, Audacy. “This series is a treat for listeners across all the generations who made MTV a part of their lives.”