Anyone? And was it just because of ratings?

scriptgirl said:

"New York Hot Tracks", ran from 1983-1989.

"Friday Night Videos", ran from 1983-2002.

I would imagine their cancellation was due to poor ratings..

shorttrini said:

Friday Night Videos got the MTV disease, it stopped playing Videos those last few years and they shrunk the show, at one point every week their was a host usually someone with an nbc show, then every week it was a Cosby Show kid then it became nothing more than a variety show witha video tossed in here and there

lastdecember said:

Very true....

No idea that Friday Night Videos lasted that long.

My Main Stain Carlos De Jesus hosted hot tracks

"Night Tracks" on WTBS was another good one.

I live in Los Angeles, and back then it was Goodnight L.A. on Friday Nights on ABC. I remember they would play all the promo videos from the 1999 album on a regular basis, including Automatic. I don't think even MTV whould broadcast that promo . When I finally got cable around 1984 or 1985 I discovered cult movies and bands like Bauhaus on USA channel's Night Flight.

vainandy said:

OMG! J'adore Night Tracks!!!

With "Night Tracks", you didn't need any other show. I knew people that had MTV but it was mainly pop/rock and crossover black artists only. "Night Tracks" had a much more wide variety. I remember seeing "Boys" by The Mary Jane Girls and "Pop Goes My Love" by Freeeze on "Night Tracks" played right alongside the extremely popular pop/rock videos.

vainandy said:

Yeah I remember that's where I would usually watch music videos and I think it was BEFORE Video Soul aired...if I'm not mistaken, it aired between 6 and 7 (I think, I forgot). In Night Tracks, you had your pop, you had your rock, you had your dance, you had your R&B and you had your funk. And artists of ALL ages from new artists to top pop stars to music legends.

"Night Tracks" used to air on Friday and Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. I used to switch over and watch it around 1:00 or 1:30 a.m. after I finished watching "Friday Night Videos". I'd watch "Night Tracks" until I feel alseep.

vainandy said:

That's right. Friday and Saturday nights! I was only 2, 3 years old, I didn't know no better. I did remember it seeing it around that time tho.

I still have some episodes of FNV from 1990-1991 on VHS tape. I know for certain I have the one where a certain awful movie by Prince was making its debut, and they showed "videos" fromhis concert in Tokyo, interviewed ingrid and Robin, etc.

Whoever said that MTV was the reason NY Hot Tracks and FNV went off the air was right on the money. Although it was on the air since '81, MTV really didn't jump off until 1990.

MTV in the early 90s was THE place to spolight artist of all genres, plus they had a bigger, broader promotional pull than those shows, they showed not just their music videos 24-7, but they had spotlight shows, interviews, behind the scenes, concert footage, etc.

But I still have much love for New York Hot Tracks and FNV, as well as other alternatives to MTV like:

BET in the 80s and early 90s of course

SoulBeat (for those from the Bay Area, precursor to BET)

Casey Kasem America's Top 10

Early years of VH-1

My personal favorite, Video Jukebox aka The Box ("call-in" network to request videos that were uncensored and videos they didn't show on BET and MTV)

SoulAlive said:

Thank you so much. A family friend was also a DJ on NY radio (before my own disastrous foray in the field) and Carlos was always nice to the youngstas.

The years go by so fast...

Timmy84 said:

that show was the shit, they were the only ones that played Cover Girls videos from the second album "we cant go wrong" not even Video Music Box was playing them second album.

SoulAlive said:

I had that episode on VHS!!!

bboy87 said:

I think i still have an episode where Lisa Lisa was interviewed with the cult jam and she talked about the audition for full force and being scared because she showed up and here where these huge guys

bboy87 said:

Were you even alive in 1985?

SoulAlive said:

LOL I dated a girl who dressed just like the "Candie's? girls

thatruth said:

Because of The Box, I was able to watch plenty of Miami bass videos.

vainandy said:

Night Tracks was real good within 1988-90. I knew about the first 2 videos from Tara Kemp because of that show.

I remember "Friday Night Videos" when I was a teenager in the nineties. I would stay up super late to watch. At the time it was hosted by some cute blonde who might have been an actress. They did movie reviews and everything....really cool.Sucks that they canceled it (likely when that awful Caron Daly show came on....I also sort of remember the show morphing into a stand up showcase).

thatruth said:

On the same tape as the New York Hot Tracks episode, I found an old interview from 1979 when Michael Jackson came to the Bay Area promoting Off The Wall

scriptgirl said:

Google will direct you to Wikipedia, which has that information.