Forty Years: The Very First Two Hours of MTV 1981

A killer trivia question. Everyone knows Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles was the first video played on MTV but no one knows the 2nd.

David bowie said early mtv was bad.

I only knew them from their hit below (the P H D name were the initials of the three band members' surnames)
This video has got to be deliberately absurd. Just look at 5'6  Jim Diamond earnestly pursuing a six foot tall dolly bird. I thought when it was released it was a case of 'I can do anything, I'm a rock star, get me the tallest, leggiest brass you can find, my height doesn't matter. I'm famous' but I see now it was a purely humorous sketch - at once sad and funny and with a damn good tune to accompany it.
Sadly Diamond passed away in 2015 in his sleep.

We had a local DJ here. Cyndy Chan, the Zeppelin fan (clever, huh?). She had the sexiest voice in radio history. Before the internet so it took us forever to see what she looked like. The voice did not match the mental image we had. Opposite of Nina Blackwood I guess

Don’t think they’ve played music since.

I'm in the UK so I guess that's why they are unknown to me.  Looked up their discography and they seem to be quite big in their home country, but over here no top 75 (at least) singles or albums.  

Chart wise...

ZZ Top had minor album success early but never really took off until the Eliminator period
Molly Hatchett - a live album reached 94 and dropped out of chart the next week
Lynyrd Skynyrd - a few Top 40 albums and 2 Top  40 singles (Free Bird didn't make the 40 until 1982!)
Creadance - didn't do too badly

That's not to say they didn't have their fans or wouldn't do well live.   It's not just the  Southern Rock bands.  Cheap Trick were huge in US ...in the UK 1 Top 40 single and one Top 40 album..never broke Top 20.  Kiss' success in the UK is minor compared to US.  When I was a kid they were probably at their peak - I only knew of them from adverts in comic books.

The thing about the UK is that it never really had stations for a specific genre until probably the 90s.  The biggest stations were national...not as big as the US so no worries about time zones.  The main music station was BBCs Radio One - pop in the day, but regular shows in evening for Rock, Indie, Dance, Reggae etc (though some of this would pop up daytime as well).   To a certain level it was the same on TV and the music press.  There were local stations as well, but they pretty much reflected the national stations.  

In a way it was a good thing- peoples music tastes were very varied. Thecharts were more fluid.  The size of the country for touring, music being exposed nationally on TV & Radio means new music gets exposed a lot quicker here.  Sparks were way bigger here than the US.  The Ramones and I think Public Enemy were more known in UK than outside New York in US.  Pixies were pretty big in the UK pretty much from the get go.  "Grunge" acts like Mudhoney and Nirvana were selling out decent sized venues nationally and making the covers of the weekly press a long time before Teen Spirit.

I think while Southern Rock trundled a long for some years in their homeland in the UK were were going through big glam rock, prog, pub rock disco, and punk waves over the same period.

I know there are many many bands in the UK the US never latched onto.  Pop acts like Kyle Minogue and Robbie Williams for example were/are massive here (and many other countries) for many years, but little or no success in US.   Band that are/were cult or niche in US were daytime national radio here - The Smiths, The Cure, New Order etc

Yeah, I never understood that, at least with this band. Why have two drummers if it's going to sound like only one? Trade fills or something, guys. Jeez.