MTV Begins Broadcasting

Date: August 1, 1981 • Location: Washington, United States

MTV begins broadcasting in the United States and airs its first video, "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles.

MTV is an American cable television channel and the flagship namesake property of the MTV Entertainment Group, a sub-division of the Skydance TV General Entertainment Group, division of Skydance Corporation. Launched on August 1, 1981, the channel originally aired music videos and related music entertainment programming guided by television personalities known as video jockeys (VJs). MTV soon began establishing its presence overseas, eventually gaining an unprecedented cult following and becoming one of the major factors in the rise of cable programming, leading American corporations to dominate the television economy in the 1990s.