Martha Quinn was taken aback when she heard what the final video on MTV’s music channels was—because it was the same video that launched the music television channel in 1981.
On Dec. 31, 2025, MTV permanently ended its 24-hour music video feeds globally. MTV Music, MTV 80s, MTV 90s, Club MTV, and MTV Live ceased broadcasting in the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Australia, and Brazil after four decades, per Deadline.
After BBC’s Jono Read shared a video to confirm, “MTV Music’s last song was Video Killed The Radio Star,” Quinn, 66, responded on X. “Wowwww that’s intense,” the original MTV VJ wrote.
Quinn was one of the five original video jockeys (VJs) —along with Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, J.J. Jackson, and Alan Hunter—when MTV made its debut on Aug. 1, 1981. The world’s first all-music cable TV channel announced its arrival with a rocket launch and a voice-over that said, “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” before its first music video, The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” played.
In an interview with the Television Academy Foundation, Quinn noted that when the video for “Video Killed the Radio Star” was made in 1979, “there was no MTV at that time.” The two-year-old song came onto an MTV executive’s radar, and the band was asked if their video could be used for “this project over in New York City,” Quinn recalled.
“Little did they know they had no idea that their song was going to launch a generation,” she added.
Quinn continued, “It’s just really funny how you know when I hear the first strains of that song to this day— and I guarantee you could ask any of the cameramen who were there, any of the secretaries, any of us VJs, any of the executives, anybody who was in that first, you know, bunch of rebels for the cause—and I guarantee any of us will like get misty hearing that song. Because it just was the beginning of something that changed, certainly, our lives and the lives of so many people.”
As MTV said goodbye to its all-music channels, Quinn weighed in on a fan’s idea to relaunch MTV by replaying “the first decade of MTV in real time” as an “instant music-history channel” with zero production costs.
“I love it,” Quinn replied.
The beloved VJ marked New Year’s 2026 by reposting a photo from Dec. 31, 1983, when Van Halen’s music video for “Jump” premiered on MTV. Quinn and the other VJs celebrated the launch with frontman David Lee Roth during MTV’s third New Year’s Eve Rock and Roll Ball.
“Happy New Year! Love, The 80s,” Quinn captioned the throwback photo.
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This story was originally published by Parade on Jan 1, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
