Headquartered in New York City, Music Television (so that's what MTV stands for) was the first channel devoted to airing videos, videos, and more videos. 

For those who had their sets on at 12:01 on August 1, 1981 - and the rabbit ears positioned just so - what they witnessed as the channel launched was C.O.O. John Lack's apt invitation: "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll!" while the theme song played over footage of the Apollo q11 moon landing, boldly implying the importance of this date in history. Ironically, the first video played the The Buggles" Video Killed the Radio Star. MTV has boosted the star-dust-factor of musicians blessed with great abs (real or fake), great pecs (real or fake), and great bling (real or real). In recent years, MTV has begun to feature less video content, and more tabloid and youth-based reality programming. Leaving critics to wonder if John Lack's first words shouldn't have been: Girls and boys, let's gossip!"