Wade on Birmingham

Music Television and the Magic City

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When MTV hit the air 25 years ago today, the brash young network would change the world. Eventually.

alan hunter

On Aug. 1, 1981, you couldn’t even watch it in New York, its corporate headquarters, because the city couldn’t watch the yet-to-be-picked-up-there cable network. Hard to imagine.

Nowadays, its stamp is everywhere, from fast-cut musically driven movie sequences (and entire movies) to reality television to the relentless pursuit of free-spending teenagers.

Birmingham native Alan Hunter was there at the birth of Music Television, one of five VJs who introduced videos (a promotional tool and an emerging artform), interviewed bands and became the early face of the network. He has gone on to promote the film industry in Birmingham, opened WorkPlay with brothers Blake, Hugh and Randy, founded Hunter Films with brother Hugh and co-founded activist organization Catalyst.

He can also be heard on Sirius Satellite Radio and on your iPod in the biweekly WorkPlay podcast. Plus, he’s on television as a judge in the Starz reality competition, “Looking for Stars.”

In an e-mail interview, Hunter, 49, talked about MTV past, present and future, along with his latest projects and how to help Birmingham.

MTV

Watch Hunter kick off MTV in 1981 …

• How did you end up at MTV?

Central Park, New York City, summer of 1981. I bumped into bigwig Bob Pittman at a picnic function. I was a bartender/actor; he was working for Warner-Amex (Satellite Entertainment). I just got through weeks earlier doing a David Bowie video; he was starting this cable venture … something about music videos 24/7.

I got a call to audition three weeks later in Hell’s Kitchen. After three more weeks and three horrible auditions, they gave me the job. Three weeks later, a rocket blasted off, the Buggles sang a song, and I quit my night job of making daiquiris.

• Which original VJ — Martha Quinn, Nina Blackwood or Mark Goodman — could you take in a fight?

I’d never take on Goodman cause we are brothers in arms.

I’d never have conflict with Nina, because she’s too sweet. And besides she was a hottie in the ’80s, and since she appeared in the buff in Playboy just prior to the gig, she was exempt from my wrath.

Martha … well, we’ve bitch-slapped each other a couple of times.

mtv

• Quick, how many MTV channels are there?

5,231, or … too many?

• How much MTV do you watch nowadays? Fave music video (now or past)?

I watch no MTV unless my daughter is over watching like a zombie one of them dating shows. Two kids, split-screen, talking on the phone for 10 minutes … The resolution of that particular plotline? ”Hey, wanna meet me at the mall?” ”Uh-h-h, sure, OK, bye.” Riveting.

Funny, I’m not so much offended by the show where a young man stepped off a dating bus, proclaiming how he wanted to “sink his donkey” into the young featured woman, or was it another guy? I was appalled by the banality of it all. MTV of the ’80s was at least not banal.

Still my fave video is “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads. Simple and sweet. Cheesy blue screen. David Bryne with hieroglyphic moves. Loved it. Especially late night, and buzzed.

• Quick, you were a bartender before your MTV days. What goes in a Screaming Viking?

Chocolate syrup? Peanuts? Mel Gibson and “fre-e-e-e-edom!” This is why I sucked as a bartender.

• What has been MTV’s impact on culture and music? on your life?

Shortened attention spans; disposable everything; the devil’s workshop got some new lighting; a new generation of young people perhaps more tolerant and excepting of others; homogeneity; a new generation of young people who need constant stimulation; hyper-careers for artists that burn hot and out in seconds, maybe days; multitasking geniuses; a desire to communicate; interest in travel; dissatisfaction with whatever you presently have; podcasting; 15 seconds of fame; global awareness; tunnel vision.

On my life? An appreciation of the little things, of the process, of people, not a job. Getting the best job in the world at the age of 23, in the ’80s, then moving on to my other life or lives has been a trip.

So many stages, so many more to come, and it all seems fairly seamless. Kind of like MTV, one video morphed into another: Rod Stewart next to Thomas Dolby next to U2 next to Springsteen next to Whitesnake next to Basil, Hayze, REM, Furs, Boingo, Devo, Toto … happily co-existing, seamless.

• Describe MTV 25 years from now.

MTV will be compressed, packaged and downloaded via a suppository and slipped into one’s rectum on a monthly basis. Easy, painless, all encompassing and seamless.

Alan on Birmingham

alan hunter

• When and why did you come back to Birmingham?

Twelve years ago to start a business with my brother Hugh. Wanted to raise the kids away from the mess of Los Angeles (where Hunter worked post-MTV).

• What needs to be done, if anything, in the city’s film community to promote development, deals, etc.?

Already got a start on this by establishing the Birmingham-Jefferson Film Office and hiring Mark Stricklin as the director. It is only a service organization, meaning it will provide support and legislative impetus for the film industry in central Alabama.

It’s up to individuals to create projects, raise capital and pursue distribution. The Sidewalk Festival of course is a major center of cinematic activity, a great networking hub. (Hunter is president of Sidewalk’s board of directors.)

• In a recent travel feature, you told the Washington Post that Birmingham has low self-esteem. Why do you think residents have low self-esteem? What can cure it?

Birmingham has, as everyone knows, great potential. In many areas, we of course are well beyond mere potential, medical research facilities, to name one. But our inability to capitalize on the vast wealth of talent and resource that we have here — beyond the wild “American Idol” phenom — keeps us in a state of inertia. This “inability” has something to do with the collective sadness of our past combined with some guilt.

More importantly, we need our leadership to move beyond rhetoric and hyperbole. We’ve got to find leaders that understand and embrace progressive ideas based on intelligent, dynamic economic principles. We’ve got to find leaders that are more concerned with getting things done than with playing in the sandbox.

I hated that I was the sole spokesperson for the civil rights issue. What happened to all the other people in town, much more well versed on this subject than I?

What’s next

• Tell me about “Dreamland.” How did it come together? How was it received at Sundance? What’s next for the film?

“Dreamland” stars John Corbett and Gina Gershon.

I read the script several years ago, liked it, liked Echo Lake Productions, got some money from here and got in the mix. Echo Lake recently produced the 2005 Academy Award-winning Foreign Film “Tsotsi,” directed by Gavin Hood, who came to Sidewalk several years ago with a film called “An Honorable Man.”

Echo also produced the recently released “Water” directed by acclaimed Indian director Deepa Mehta.

“Dreamland” had great screenings at Sundance. It has Canadian and foreign distribution. It just got bought by Sony Home Entertainment for domestic release.

• What’s up at Hunter Films?

Hunter Films is a creative content company. Aside from developing movie projects, we are working in TV content as well.

Two film projects in development to shoot in fall:

  • “Under Lanesfield”: a meth drama that takes place in Kansas. Currently looking for lead actor.
  • “My Monster”: a family comedy to shoot possibly in Austin. Raising money now.

A TV project called “Kid Racer” is a documentary series about 18-year-old Brad Coleman, a kid from Texas racing in the Busch car series (NASCAR minor leagues).

We’ve been following his life and rise to fame as he races a stock car around an oval track at 170 mph and attempts to lead the life of an 18-year-old, prom date, high school grad, his marketing guru dad. Presently pitching the show to the ESPNs and MTVs of the world.

• “Looking for Stars” — supernovas or black holes?

This show for Starz represents the hosting side of my life, very busy of late.

“Looking for Stars” is “American Idol” for acting. It’s Starz’ first original programming effort, a microseries cause it’s only 10 minutes long. Two winners from four cities — New York, Orlando, Kansas City, Las Vegas — go to the finals in Los Angeles. The winner gets a small part in a Nick Cage movie called “Next.” It seems to be getting great response.

Show No. 7 (of 14) airs 7:50 p.m. Monday. [info and Hunter’s blog]

I just taped another series for Starz/Encore called “The Big ’80s Weekend,” ’80s movies and interviews I did with Jane Wiedlin (of the Go-Go’s), Martha Davis (of the Motels), Terri Nunn (of Berlin), Devo, Thomas Dolby, Toto, Naked Eyes, etc. They came to WorkPlay two days ago and taped me in our soundstage. I love it when I get to that kind of work in my house.

I will be doing more shows for Starz/Encore. They are gaining momentum.

(Hunter is also on Sirius seven days a week on the Big ’80s channel [schedule]. Today, the channel is doing a special MTV at 25 with VJs Hunter, Blackwood, Goodman and Quinn, airing at 9 a.m., repeating at 3 and 8 p.m. today and 2 a.m. Wednesday.)

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2 Yips for “Music Television and the Magic City”

  1. Jennifer
    Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 2:05 pm
    1

    Thanks, Wade. Great post!

  2. Wade
    Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 3:02 pm
    2

    You’re welcome. Thanks for the compliment.

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