Rock Cellar Magazine – End of an Era: MTV’s Remaining Music-Only Channels Are Going Dark Globally After Dec. 31

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It’s the end of an era for MTV. Today, Dec. 31, brings about not only the end of 2025, but the end of MTV as it’s been known: The remaining handful of dedicated music channels under the MTV brand will go dark at the start of the new year.

The network, which famously brought about a revolution in the music business when it launched itself as Music Television on Aug. 1, 1981, arrived as the first 24-hour music video channel.

Its introduction began with an airing of The Buggles‘ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” which of course has gone on to become a trivia question answer for the ages:

It was first announced back in November from parent company Paramount Skydance that MTV would be shutting down its channels. Per Rolling Stone, five separate U.K. channels will shutter: MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live.

Per the Rolling Stone story:

MTV’s parent company, Paramount Skydance, is also expected to shutter music-only channels in Australia, Poland, France, and Brazil. Reps for MTV in the U.S. did not immediately return a request for comment regarding the full slate of channels that are set to go dark.

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In tribute to MTV and the legacy it cast, here’s a flashback to 2013 and our interview with Martha Quinn, one of the original MTV “VJs” who became the faces of the network:

Rock Cellar: Thinking back to your early days with MTV, recall the moment when you first realized the VJs had become stars.

Martha Quinn: MTV was notoriously conservative with their funds in the early days and that’s because MTV literally had no money. It was a big start-up, no one was advertising with us. Everyone said it would never work. Meanwhile, we’re paying for these satellites and we’re paying for this huge studio crew. So it was a huge start-up and we had no money. So what us VJs would do is rent a Ford Tempo and I would drive around Manhattan and pick everyone up and we’d go across the bridge over to New Jersey to Brendan Byrne Arena to see whoever was playing—The Kinks, Judas Priest, Pat Benatar, Bruce Springsteen.

We didn’t have VIP parking or anything so we’d park back in lot G, section S, row 127 and start walking up to the arena. We’d all come out of the car, all of us VJs and you can’t miss us, JJ, Mark, Nina (Blackwood, Alan (Hunter), we’re all completely distinctive. It would be like seeing the cast of Gilligan’s Island get out of a car. People would be like (adopts heavy New York accent), “Hey, J.J. Jackson! Martha Quinn!” We were like, “Oh My God!” ‘cause this wasn’t happening to us in Manhattan at the time. At some point J.J, went into the MTV brass and said, “You guys are gonna have to pay for us to some kind of better car to drive out to New Jersey.”

I wish more than anything I could go back to those Ford Tempo days and just be a fly on the wall for one of those drives. Motley Crue talks about sharing an apartment on the Sunset Strip and splitting one stolen ham sandwich. Those were the good old days and I kind of wish I could go back to that moment.

See also:

Music With Your Eyes: A Chat with Original MTV VJ Martha Quinn

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