Cable Music Channel

Cable Music Channel
	Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (1984—1985)
History
Launched	October 26, 1984
Closed	November 30, 1984; (1 month and 4 days)
Replaced by	VH1

The Cable Music Channel (CMC) was an American basic cable channel that was owned by the Turner Broadcasting System. The all-music video channel was created by Ted Turner and launched in 1984, providing the first national competition to MTV. Turner later stated that the channel existed at the behest of the cable industry as a defense mechanism against MTV's unsuccessful attempts to increase the fees that cable providers paid to carry the channel by twofold; Turner offered the channel without any carriage fees.^[1]

Launch

The idea of music on television was nothing new for Ted Turner. In 1970, Turner's

WTBS at that point, launched a late night weekend music video block called Night Tracks

. The success of Night Tracks led Turner to take on MTV with the Cable Music Channel.

CMC launched at 12:00 p.m.

Tom Bradley and Stevenson declaring October 26, 1984 as "Cable Music Channel Day." Turner then gave a brief speech stating that the network is "gonna play a wide arrangement of music. We're gonna stay away from excessively violent or degrading clips towards women that MTV is so fond of running." After he pushed a big red button on the wall behind him and exclaimed a defiant "Take that, MTV!", the channel kicked off with CMC VJs Jeff Gonzer and Raechel Donahue introducing the Randy Newman music video "I Love L.A.".^[4]

CMC vs. MTV

MTV focused on

Atlanta

, where the headquarters of Turner Broadcasting System are located).

CMC promoted itself as avoiding sexually and violently explicit music videos to capitalize on the perception that MTV actually played those types of videos. In fact, MTV had strict guidelines about the types of behavior that could be shown in videos and frequently returned clips to record labels for re-editing.

As a money-losing venture

It quickly became clear that CMC was losing money fast, due to an inability to reach agreements with cable providers (many of which did not have the space necessary to carry another all-music channel, and some of which had organized an unofficial boycott at the Western Cable Show in retaliation for Turner's strong-arm tactics in the battle between CNN and the fledgling

adult contemporary-focused sister network to MTV, VH1 (then known as Video Hits One, which featured a similar format as CMC), which launched just over a month later on January 1, 1985

.

Shutdown

Cable Music Channel officially shut down just before midnight

Take Me to Heart" by Quarterflash

, followed by a sign-off listing the entire crew of CMC interspersed through the video that first launched the network one month earlier, "I Love L.A." by Randy Newman. As the screen faded to black, CMC VJ Raechel Donahue said, "Well, it's not really goodbye, you know, darlings. We'll always be there somewhere, so watch this space. Say 'Goodbye, y'all' now." A male voice (allegedly belonging to a Turner executive sent to ensure CMC signed off as ordered) replied, "Goodbye, y'all." Three seconds later, the satellite uplink was disconnected.

CMC's five-week run made it one of the shortest-lived channels in American cable television history. It was also the shortest-lived service under the umbrella of

Turner Broadcasting until the company's eventual successor, Warner Bros. Discovery, shut down the streaming service CNN+

, which lasted five days fewer than CMC, on April 28, 2022. CMC's background graphics were recycled for use on Night Tracks for five years after the channel's demise.

References

^ The Cable Center - Freston, Tom Archived 2013-11-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved June 22, 2013
^ Billboard Magazine, 22 August 1970, p. 76
^ "Turner's Cable Music Channel Starts Tomorrow". The New York Times. October 25, 1984. Retrieved 2020-08-21.
^ "Mr. Pop Culture: Mr. Pop History - Music News from the week of October 27, 1984". Archived from the original on August 21, 2011. Retrieved August 27, 2011.
^ "8 Very Short-Lived TV Channels". Mental Floss. October 28, 2014. Retrieved 2020-08-21.

External links

[1] The Cable Center - Freston, Tom Archived 2013-11-19 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved June 22, 2013

[2] Billboard Magazine, 22 August 1970, p. 76

[3] "Turner's Cable Music Channel Starts Tomorrow". The New York Times. October 25, 1984. Retrieved 2020-08-21.

[4] "Mr. Pop Culture: Mr. Pop History - Music News from the week of October 27, 1984". Archived from the original on August 21, 2011. Retrieved August 27, 2011.

[5] "8 Very Short-Lived TV Channels". Mental Floss. October 28, 2014. Retrieved 2020-08-21.

[1]

[4]