Sidequests
MTV Launches and Kills the Radio Star
8:48
At 12:01 AM on August 1, 1981, MTV launched in a handful of cable markets with fewer than two million viewers, an ironic first video, and enough content to fill maybe a week before repeating. This episode of Sidequests marks the anniversary by tracing how a long-shot cable experiment transformed music, television, fashion, and advertising within a decade — how Michael Jackson's "Thriller"…