I Want My MTV by Craig Marks Page B

that.
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    JOHN SYKES: They were in the conference room for three hours, and we waited outside. It was like waiting for a verdict from the jury.
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    SUE STEINBERG: We were all pretending to work. Some of us were playing a board game to occupy ourselves.
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    TOM FRESTON: If they’d said no , we would have all been fired.
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    JOHN LACK: We got the okay in January 1981. I said, “We will be on the air in seven months.” Once I got approval, I said to Michael Nesmith, “Come be my creative consultant, I’ll give you a piece.” He said, “I don’t want to do it the way you’re doing it, and I don’t like Bob Pittman.” He didn’t need the money.
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    JOHN SYKES: Pittman said, “We have to get it on air by August 1.” We hardly knew where to begin. My business card said, “Music Program Development, Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment Company.” There was no MTV yet.
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    JACK SCHNEIDER: People wonder why we picked August 1 for the launch. It was my knowledge that most fads start in the summer. I wanted the kids who saw it to go back to college or their high-school cafeteria and say, “Did you see this new channel?” I told everyone, “We’re gonna make it by August 1 or there’ll be hell to pay.”
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    FRED SEIBERT: Once they got the green light, right away I said to Pittman, “Hey, I know more about music than anyone here.” And he said, “You’re right. Start working on the music channel.” I said, “Great! Should I find somebody to replace me at The Movie Channel?” He said, “Oh no, no. You have to do that job, too.”
    One of the first things we needed to do was come up with a name for the new network. At first, Bob wanted to call it The Music Channel. Like The Movie Channel. Then he decided it should be called TV1. We all rebelled. We were adamant about it, so we walked into his office one day and told him we didn’t like the name. He said, “Well, come up with a better one.” There were six or seven of us, and no one could agree.
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    STEVE CASEY: I was scribbling down different names, and I liked the way MTV looked when I doodled it. I said, “Let’s call it Music Television.”
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    FRED SEIBERT: Music Television became the final compromise. Nobody liked it. We all hated the name MTV.
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    RICHARD SCHENKMAN, MTV staff: Fred ran the program services department. I’d never heard the phrase “program services” in my life. Fred explained to me that his department was going to make all the stuff that came in between the videos. And even though what he was making would occupy only two minutes an hour, it was the most important stuff on the air, because it explained to the viewers who we were.
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    FRED SEIBERT: I called my oldest friend, Frank Olinsky, who had started Manhattan Design with two partners. I asked them to design a logo. All I told them was, it’s radio on television, and I don’t want any musical instruments or notes. At this point it’s April or May, and we’re down to the wire. Bob is tapping his foot, saying “Where the hell is the logo?”
    So one day Frank comes to my office. I’m flipping through one after another. I’m depressed. This one’s not gonna work, that one’s not gonna work. On the bottom of the pile is a piece of tracing paper that looks like it had been crumpled up and then flattened out. And on it was the M that we now know. I’m like, “ That’s great.” Frank spray paints TV onto the M, leaves the drips on, and comes back. We go, “That’s it!” Graffiti. Done .
    Then I said, “Okay, what colors will it be?” They do a couple dozen treatments, and each one looks good to me. So I put them up on my wall in my cubicle, and for weeks I looked at them, every hour, every day. Finally I said, “What if we use all of these in a single piece of