Life On The V

For those of you who didn't grow up on East Coast New England in the 1980's, let me take just a second to tell you about V66.

In 1985 a new station burst onto televisions in Eastern Massachusetts. It was V66 and it was entirely music videos, 24 hours a day, every day of the week, and it was in stereo! I remember them saying that all the time "in stereo". That was a big deal, I mean keep in mind, that not nearly as many people had cable then. We didn't, and getting a new station was already a big deal, nevermind that it was music videos. On the UHF dial there was 25, 28 (bad reception), 38, 56, 68 (bad reception), and now 66!

They played videos just like on MTV, they had VJs, many of whom had been radio DJs in Boston. There was this wonderful homey DIY feel to the station. It was low budget and scriptless and it was often awkward and goofy - kind of like college radio. They even played videos by local bands, some of them I didn't even realize were local until years later.

Anyway it was a short-lived station but it had an impact on me and my friends. I wrote a song about it called fittingly, "V66". It's on my solo album called "School for the Dead". Confusing I know. Anyway, some nice folks are in the process of making a film about the station and we've got a link here to the short teaser reel for it. Make sure you listen to the music in the background, you might notice a surprise.