The Now Explosion
Encyclopedia
The Now Explosion was an early experiment in music video
produced in Atlanta, Georgia
in 1970, more than a decade before MTV
was launched. The program was televised in Atlanta on WATL and, later, WTCG-TV (later WTBS-TV, now WPCH-TV).
in Dallas, Texas
, WHBQ-TV
Memphis, Tennessee
, WKBS-TV
Philadelphia and KMBC-TV
in Kansas City
. Location scenes were filmed at station studios or at locations within a short distance from these facilities.
Whitney's aim was to create a cost effective television program that would emulate the success of Top 40 radio, all the way down to the use of an unseen disk jockey. The concept was born about ten years before the arrival of MTV
.
In 1970, The Now Explosion began its first regular broadcasts on Atlanta's WATL-TV, where it aired 28 hours each weekend. By this time, the show was produced at WATL's studios.
Programs were bicycled
to stations on 2 inch videotape and played back for extended periods from one to six hours. WPIX-TV in New York played five hours of The Now Explosion surrounding telecasts of New York Yankees
baseball games in 1970. Stations in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Sacramento and Boston had also picked up The Now Explosion.
After 13 weeks at WATL, Ted Turner
contracted to carry the program for a television station he had recently acquired, WTCG-TV. WATL closed down
shortly afterward. While it was unclear whether or not the show contributed to WATL's viewership, it has been said by some that many of their viewers only watched WATL for The Now Explosion. The move had also shifted production of The Now Explosion to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
, where Whitney established a new home production base. Program segments were produced at Miami Teleproductions in Miami and 2 inch video editing was undertaken at Videotape Associates in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, (now VTA of Atlanta, GA).
After 26 weeks in syndication in early 1971, Whitney cancelled The Now Explosion, when the high costs of production and distribution outpaced the commercial revenue.
Turner would once again enter the music video television business with the debut of Night Tracks
in 1983 which lasted nine years and Cable Music Channel
(albeit for only a month) in 1984.
Most performers were young amateurs recruited from the Atlanta audience. Many appeared with home-grown costumes - often after midnight when station facilities became available - and were recorded dancing extemporaneously as rock rhythms were piped into an almost bare and darkened studio. The lighting often placed performers "in limbo" so that only the illuminated dancers were seen against darkened studio walls. Extensive special effects were added in post production as images were combined and distorted to form what production people often called "eye candy".
Common special effects included aiming the camera into a monitor - a technique called "video feedback". The original video and the newly captured pictures from the monitor were combined with a video switcher to create an "infinity" effect as same video repeated itself in a seemingly endless visual loop. Changes in position or angle of the cameras were used to create trails of light which seemed to spill off dancers in a manner interpreted by many as "psychedelic." Producers felt the distorted video of moving bodies, often seeming to float in space, and moving "in tune" to pop songs, created enhanced enjoyment for viewers.
Other images and effects came from an Atlanta, Georgia 1960's style light show venture called the "Electric Collage". The Electric Collage production company was popular at major rock concerts and "pop festivals". Collage operators were able to produce complex lighting effects with projectors that were not possible using the video technology of the day. The Now Explosion had collage technicians create light effect images on a studio screen while videographers captured the effects with multiple studio cameras. Often these lightshow enhncements were combined with studio dance videos in later production before final programs were assembled on tape for broadcast and distribution. Information about the techniques developed may be found at www.electriccollage.com.
s Archives at University of Georgia
in Athens, Georgia
located and recovered significant amounts of this video which had been stored for 3 decades in south Florida. These segments were remastered to contemporary technical standards by the university archives where the video is stored and is available for public viewing and academic study.
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
produced in Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
in 1970, more than a decade before MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
was launched. The program was televised in Atlanta on WATL and, later, WTCG-TV (later WTBS-TV, now WPCH-TV).
History
In 1968 and 1969, veteran broadcaster Bob Whitney experimented with a new concept in television programming, in which the hit Top 40 songs of the day were coupled with the latest in the era's videotaping and filming techniques. The resulting pilot enlisted the studio facilities of several stations: WFAA-TVWFAA-TV
WFAA, channel 8, is an ABC-affiliated television station serving the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the top ten media markets in North America. The station is the flagship of Belo Corporation and the largest ABC affiliate not owned and operated by the network...
in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, WHBQ-TV
WHBQ-TV
WHBQ-TV, channel 13, is an owned-and-operated television station of the News Corporation-owned Fox Broadcasting Company, located in Memphis, Tennessee. Its studios and transmitter are located in Memphis.-Under RKO General:...
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
, WKBS-TV
WKBS-TV (Philadelphia)
WKBS-TV was an independent television station licensed to Burlington, New Jersey, which served the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area from 1965 to 1983. WKBS-TV had studio facilities located in South Philadelphia, and transmitter at the Roxborough tower farm in Philadelphia.-History:WKBS-TV began...
Philadelphia and KMBC-TV
KMBC-TV
KMBC-TV virtual channel 9 is a television station affiliated with the ABC television network, located in Kansas City, Missouri. KMBC-TV is owned by Hearst Television and its studios are located on Winchester Ave. near Swope Park in Kansas City, Missouri. The station's high guyed mast broadcast...
in Kansas City
Kansas City Metropolitan Area
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...
. Location scenes were filmed at station studios or at locations within a short distance from these facilities.
Whitney's aim was to create a cost effective television program that would emulate the success of Top 40 radio, all the way down to the use of an unseen disk jockey. The concept was born about ten years before the arrival of MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
In 1970, The Now Explosion began its first regular broadcasts on Atlanta's WATL-TV, where it aired 28 hours each weekend. By this time, the show was produced at WATL's studios.
Programs were bicycled
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
to stations on 2 inch videotape and played back for extended periods from one to six hours. WPIX-TV in New York played five hours of The Now Explosion surrounding telecasts of New York Yankees
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
baseball games in 1970. Stations in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Sacramento and Boston had also picked up The Now Explosion.
After 13 weeks at WATL, Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...
contracted to carry the program for a television station he had recently acquired, WTCG-TV. WATL closed down
Off-the-air
In telecommunication, the term off-air or off-the-air has the following meanings:# In radio communications systems, pertaining to a radio station or television station that is completely shut down, i.e. that is not transmitting any signal, not even an un-modulated carrier wave...
shortly afterward. While it was unclear whether or not the show contributed to WATL's viewership, it has been said by some that many of their viewers only watched WATL for The Now Explosion. The move had also shifted production of The Now Explosion to Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
, where Whitney established a new home production base. Program segments were produced at Miami Teleproductions in Miami and 2 inch video editing was undertaken at Videotape Associates in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, (now VTA of Atlanta, GA).
After 26 weeks in syndication in early 1971, Whitney cancelled The Now Explosion, when the high costs of production and distribution outpaced the commercial revenue.
Turner would once again enter the music video television business with the debut of Night Tracks
Night Tracks
Night Tracks was an American television series which ran from 1983 to 1992 on SuperStation WTBS on late night weekends...
in 1983 which lasted nine years and Cable Music Channel
Cable Music Channel
Cable Music Channel was an all-music video channel created by Ted Turner and launched in 1984 by Turner Broadcasting System, providing the first national competition to MTV...
(albeit for only a month) in 1984.
Special Effects
The special effects used in The Now Explosion were crude but state of the art for the early 1970 era. Video was shot with heavy, non portable studio cameras on large rolling tripods. The music videos were recorded on two inch magnetic tape. The video editing required the use of 3 massive and costly "quad" tape recorders allowing only simple transitions such as cuts and dissolves.Most performers were young amateurs recruited from the Atlanta audience. Many appeared with home-grown costumes - often after midnight when station facilities became available - and were recorded dancing extemporaneously as rock rhythms were piped into an almost bare and darkened studio. The lighting often placed performers "in limbo" so that only the illuminated dancers were seen against darkened studio walls. Extensive special effects were added in post production as images were combined and distorted to form what production people often called "eye candy".
Common special effects included aiming the camera into a monitor - a technique called "video feedback". The original video and the newly captured pictures from the monitor were combined with a video switcher to create an "infinity" effect as same video repeated itself in a seemingly endless visual loop. Changes in position or angle of the cameras were used to create trails of light which seemed to spill off dancers in a manner interpreted by many as "psychedelic." Producers felt the distorted video of moving bodies, often seeming to float in space, and moving "in tune" to pop songs, created enhanced enjoyment for viewers.
Other images and effects came from an Atlanta, Georgia 1960's style light show venture called the "Electric Collage". The Electric Collage production company was popular at major rock concerts and "pop festivals". Collage operators were able to produce complex lighting effects with projectors that were not possible using the video technology of the day. The Now Explosion had collage technicians create light effect images on a studio screen while videographers captured the effects with multiple studio cameras. Often these lightshow enhncements were combined with studio dance videos in later production before final programs were assembled on tape for broadcast and distribution. Information about the techniques developed may be found at www.electriccollage.com.
Archive recovery
In 2000, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody AwardPeabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
s Archives at University of Georgia
University of Georgia
The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...
in Athens, Georgia
Athens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
located and recovered significant amounts of this video which had been stored for 3 decades in south Florida. These segments were remastered to contemporary technical standards by the university archives where the video is stored and is available for public viewing and academic study.
Sources
- ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION ARTICLES Dates: August 3, 2000 - Page Number: F1 Word Count: 1957. Title: "Years before MTV, an Atlanta TV show created its own music videos. It was psychedelic. It was far out. It was the. . .'Now Explosion' "
- Feature followup AJC article: March 30, 2001 - Page Number: E1 Word Count: 624. Title: "TOTALLY COOL UPDATE: Far-out archives unearthed amid 'Now' reunion."