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Martha Quinn
Martha Quinn is an American actress and radio and television personality, best known as one of the original video jockeys on MTV (along with Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and J. J. Jackson).
Quinn was born on May 11, 1959 in Albany, New York, the daughter of Nina Pattison, a retirement counselor, and David Quinn, an attorney.[citation needed] She is the stepdaughter of personal finance columnist Jane Bryant Quinn, and has two older brothers and a younger half-brother. Prior to joining MTV, Quinn graduated from Ossining High School in 1977, and NYU in 1981.
On July 13, 1981, Quinn was working at NYU's Weinstein Dormitory where she answered phones and gave students their toilet paper, mail, and lightbulbs. At the end of her day she decided to stop at WNBC (AM), where she had just finished up interning for her senior year. Coincidentally, California record company executive Burt Stein also was visiting WNBC. He asked out loud if anyone knew what Robert Pittman was doing. Pittman had been the program director of WNBC a year or so earlier, but had left to start a new venture: a cable channel called MTV (Music Television). WNBC assistant program director Buzz Brindle overheard Stein’s question and remembered the new venture. He turned to Quinn and suggested that she should try out for a role at the new network as a VJ. Brindle called Pittman and told him about his former intern, Quinn. Pittman told him to get her to the MTV studios immediately, as it was the last day of auditions. Quinn immediately took a cab to Hell's Kitchen for her audition. Brindle's idea had some merit. Quinn had spent much of her time at New York University doing two things: performing in TV commercials (McDonald's, Country Time Lemonade, Clearasil, Campbell's Soup) and working at WNYU-FM, the college radio station.
Quinn entered the studio knowing nothing about MTV or what its producers expected of her. She did a four-minute audition where she talked about Earth, Wind, and Fire; MTV executives immediately surrounded her, asking, "Who are you? Where did you come from? How old are you?" Quinn was stunned, realizing she had just found the perfect job for her talents. Two days later Quinn got the news she was an MTV VJ.
Quinn joined Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and J. J. Jackson as original faces and voices of MTV. Being hosts of the nation's first music television network provided them with an in-depth and up-close perspective on the most popular rock/pop music and artists of the 1980s.
In 1986, Quinn took part in the then-World Wrestling Federation's (later World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Slammy Awards, conducting interviews backstage.
Quinn initially left MTV at the end of her contract in late 1986. However, she was rehired by the network in early 1989 and stayed with the channel until 1992.
Quinn's presence on MTV through 1991 was noted by Rolling Stone magazine readers, who voted her "MTV's Best-Ever VJ," and by Allure Magazine, which referred to the '80s decade as "the Martha Quinn years." In a 2011 review of I Want My MTV by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, Dwight Garner recalled: "Every sentient straight male in the country developed a schoolboy crush on Martha Quinn, one of the first V.J.'s, fresh out of New York University and so cute she could make your cranium detonate."
Martha Quinn
Martha Quinn is an American actress and radio and television personality, best known as one of the original video jockeys on MTV (along with Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and J. J. Jackson).
Quinn was born on May 11, 1959 in Albany, New York, the daughter of Nina Pattison, a retirement counselor, and David Quinn, an attorney.[citation needed] She is the stepdaughter of personal finance columnist Jane Bryant Quinn, and has two older brothers and a younger half-brother. Prior to joining MTV, Quinn graduated from Ossining High School in 1977, and NYU in 1981.
On July 13, 1981, Quinn was working at NYU's Weinstein Dormitory where she answered phones and gave students their toilet paper, mail, and lightbulbs. At the end of her day she decided to stop at WNBC (AM), where she had just finished up interning for her senior year. Coincidentally, California record company executive Burt Stein also was visiting WNBC. He asked out loud if anyone knew what Robert Pittman was doing. Pittman had been the program director of WNBC a year or so earlier, but had left to start a new venture: a cable channel called MTV (Music Television). WNBC assistant program director Buzz Brindle overheard Stein’s question and remembered the new venture. He turned to Quinn and suggested that she should try out for a role at the new network as a VJ. Brindle called Pittman and told him about his former intern, Quinn. Pittman told him to get her to the MTV studios immediately, as it was the last day of auditions. Quinn immediately took a cab to Hell's Kitchen for her audition. Brindle's idea had some merit. Quinn had spent much of her time at New York University doing two things: performing in TV commercials (McDonald's, Country Time Lemonade, Clearasil, Campbell's Soup) and working at WNYU-FM, the college radio station.
Quinn entered the studio knowing nothing about MTV or what its producers expected of her. She did a four-minute audition where she talked about Earth, Wind, and Fire; MTV executives immediately surrounded her, asking, "Who are you? Where did you come from? How old are you?" Quinn was stunned, realizing she had just found the perfect job for her talents. Two days later Quinn got the news she was an MTV VJ.
Quinn joined Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter and J. J. Jackson as original faces and voices of MTV. Being hosts of the nation's first music television network provided them with an in-depth and up-close perspective on the most popular rock/pop music and artists of the 1980s.
In 1986, Quinn took part in the then-World Wrestling Federation's (later World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Slammy Awards, conducting interviews backstage.
Quinn initially left MTV at the end of her contract in late 1986. However, she was rehired by the network in early 1989 and stayed with the channel until 1992.
Quinn's presence on MTV through 1991 was noted by Rolling Stone magazine readers, who voted her "MTV's Best-Ever VJ," and by Allure Magazine, which referred to the '80s decade as "the Martha Quinn years." In a 2011 review of I Want My MTV by Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum, Dwight Garner recalled: "Every sentient straight male in the country developed a schoolboy crush on Martha Quinn, one of the first V.J.'s, fresh out of New York University and so cute she could make your cranium detonate."