VH1 is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Skydance. Launched on January 1, 1985, VH1 (which was an acronym for Video Hits One) originally focused on music and, later, pop culture-related programming aimed at older audiences than its sibling channel MTV. The network currently targets African-American audiences with original reality television programming, and unscripted comedies.

Early history (1985–1994)

Format and VJs (1985–89)

VH1, an acronym for Video Hits One, launched on January 1, 1985, over the channel space of Turner's Cable Music Channel. The channel originally focused on music and programming aimed at older audiences than its sibling channel at the time, MTV.

VH1's aim was to focus on the lighter, softer side of popular music, including American and foreign musicians such as Olivia Newton-John, Kenny Rogers, Carly Simon, Tina Turner, Elton John, Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, Sting, Donna Summer, Rod Stewart, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, Anita Baker, Chicago, and Fleetwood Mac, in hopes of appealing to people aged 18 to 35, and possibly older. Also frequently featured in the network's early years were "videos" for Motown and other '60s oldies consisting of newsreel and concert footage. It was introduced on January 1, 1985, with the video performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Marvin Gaye, who died a year before the network launched (the national anthem was also played at the launch of Cable Music Channel) It was programmed to fit many of the radio formats popular with adults at the time including soft rock, smooth jazz, oldies, and adult contemporary.

From the start, Video Hits One was branded as an urban version of its sister/parent channel. It played more jazz and R&B artists than MTV and had a higher rotation of urban-contemporary performers. Its early on-camera personalities were New York radio veterans Don Imus (then of WNBC), Frankie Crocker (then program director and DJ for WBLS), Scott Shannon (of WHTZ), Jon Bauman ("Bowzer" from Sha Na Na), and Rita Coolidge.

Later VJs included Bobby Rivers, who joined in 1987, Tim Byrd of WPIX-FM (the current day FM rebroadcast of WFAN), a station whose eclectic ballad-and-R&B oriented format mirrored that of VH-1, Roger Rose - Actor and comedian (Ski Patrol), and Alison Steele ("The Nightbird" of WNEW-FM). Rosie O'Donnell later joined the outlet's VJ lineup. O'Donnell would also host a comedy show featuring several comedians each episode. As an added touch to make the network more like a televised radio station, the early years of the network featured jingles in their bumpers produced by JAM Creative Productions in Dallas, who had previously made jingles for radio stations worldwide.

The format left room for occasional ad-libs by the VJ, a godsend for emcees such as Imus and O'Donnell. In true Imus style, he used a 1985 segment of his VH-1 show to jokingly call smooth-jazz icon Sade a "grape" for her oval-shaped head.

Typical of VH1's very early programming was New Visions, a series which featured videos and in-studio performances by smooth jazz and classical and new-age bands and performers, including Spyro Gyra, Andy Narell, Mark Isham, Philip Glass, and Yanni. At first many different musicians guest-hosted the program, but eventually musician/songwriter Ben Sidran became the permanent host.

New Age music videos continued to play on the channel into the 1990s. They would be seen on the Sunday morning two-hour music video block titled Sunday Brunch.

On August 27, 1985, parent company Warner Communications sold 31% of VH1 and its siblings (MTV and Nickelodeon; which were already divested by Warner into MTV Networks) to Viacom. Viacom would eventually buy the remaining 69% of MTV Networks from Warner for $326 million on May 20, 1986.

Early programming (1989–1994) Once VH1 established itself a few years later, they catered to Top 40, adult contemporary, classic rock, and 1980s mainstream pop.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: For a time, even country music videos aired in a one-hour block during the afternoons. They started out using MTV's famous Kabel-based credits for their music video credit tags. It was later replaced in 1991 by a larger, vertically oriented font, with the year the video was made added to the lower column that identified the label on which the album was released. In 1993, the name of the videos' director was included at the bottom of the credits.

During this time, they also had some non-music programming, such as a comedy hour hosted by Rosie O'Donnell with various amateur and veteran comedians, called Stand Up Spotlight,Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: an in-depth look at current movies called Flix,Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: and reports on good civilians and volunteers in the community, called Good News People.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:

Every week, the Top 21 Video Countdown usually had a different guest host. Occasionally, they had themed countdowns as well, such as Elvira hosting creepy videos for Halloween in 1991.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:

Long blocks of music videos by a particular artist or band, theme, or years were also very popular in this era. One popular weekend program was called Video Rewind, in which blocks of 1980s videos from one particular year would play for an hour. There was also a short-lived hour-long program called By Request in which viewers could call a 1–900 hotline number to request their videos.

Another program was "History of Music Videos A to Z", which would include mini-marathons of videos mostly centered around artists based on a given alphabetical letter. During Independence Day weekends all the way to 1998, a large percentage of their library of music videos would be shown. A weeknight 11p.m. hour-long broadcast of Madonna videos, titled The Madonna Show, aired around that era. The videos were aired without introduction by a VJ and the program was soon shortened to thirty minutes, and then scrapped altogether.

Also in 1991, a popular morning program was introduced called Hits News & Weather that ran from 7am to 9am ET. (It later expanded to 10am ET.) It was composed of music videos both past and present along with a 90-second update of the day's news & weather provided by All News Channel. The updates were typically shown twice an hour during the program. A box displaying the minutes past the hour was shown below the logo during the period. It was discontinued a week before the channel was re-branded in the Fall of 1994. During the week prior, classic music videos from forgotten artists/bands aired, titled Whatever Happened To...?

The channel's playlist was gradually expanding, and, by 1994, included contemporary musicians such as Ace of Base, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Lisa Loeb, Amy Grant, Seal, and other slightly heavier, or more alternative rock-influenced music than what it had originally played, although favorites such as Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Rod Stewart, Cher, Elton John, Madonna, Phil Collins, Janet Jackson, and Céline Dion still continued to receive heavy play for several more years as well. VH1 to One was a program in the Video Hits One era that was very similar to Behind The Music. It profiled artists such as Phil Collins, Michael Bolton, and Paul McCartney, plus other various artists of interest at the time that were playing the network's chosen style of music at the time and their music careers. It was one of the programs that would continue into the incoming Music First era.

VH1 Corvette Give-away Sweepstakes In order to reach a wider and younger audience, VH1 announced in late 1989 that in 1990 they would be holding a contest where the grand prize was a collection of 36 Chevrolet Corvettes, one for every model year from its introduction year of 1953, to the then current model year of 1989 (there is no model for 1983), all going to a single grand winner. All cars were to be certified as roadworthy and in "good" to "excellent" condition. The collection at the time had an estimated worth of over 1 million. Contestants entered by calling a 1-900 number and registering, at $2 per call. VH1 received over 4 million call-in entries. The winner was a man from Long Island, New York, who immediately sold the entire collection to artist Peter Max for $500,000. Max intended to use the cars for an art project, but it never got started and the entire collection was left in an underground parking lot in New York City for over 20 years, and deteriorated into poor condition.

VH1: Music First (1994–2003)

On October 17, 1994, VH1 re-branded itself as VH1: Music First,Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: following a slight ratings decline in the early 1990s. By 1996, VH1 was heading down the same path as its sister channel, MTV, choosing to focus more on music-related shows rather than just music videos. Additionally, the network began to expand its playlist of music videos to include more rock music. Old episodes of American Bandstand could regularly be seen on the channel. By that time, the channel's ratings were beginning to fall.

Video Countdown

As part of VH-1's re-branding as "VH1: Music First" in 1994, the channel launched a new series, the VH1 Top 10 Countdown, replacing the old Top 21 Countdown, that counted down the top 10 music videos played on VH1 each week. A combination of record sales, radio airplay, video spins, message board posts, and conventional mail would decide the order of the countdown. A rotating cast of VJs picked up hosting duties for the show over the years. The series expanded from 10 to 20 music videos, becoming the VH1 Top 20 Video Countdown, in 2001. In early 2015, the show was renamed The 20 and discontinued later that year.

Pop-Up Video In Fall 1996, VH1 premiered Pop-Up Video, in which music videos were accompanied by "pop-ups" (also known as "bubbles" or "info nuggets")—small enclosed areas of the screen containing facts about the band artists, and videos such as career highlights, discography, biographical details, quotes, and anecdotes. For a time, this was VH1's highest rated show.

VH1 Storytellers

In February 1996, VH1 again hit it big with the premiere of the first of the network's flagship shows, VH1 Storytellers. The show began with a broadcast of Ray Davies, during his "Storyteller" tour, and took its name from this first show. In each hour-long episode, artists appear in front of a (mostly small and intimate) live audience, interspersing musical performances with anecdotes related to the songs' meaning, the songwriting process, audience reaction, etc. Along with Davies, the series has featured a widely diverse list of artists, including Culture Club, Stone Temple Pilots, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kanye West, Tom Waits, and Def Leppard. Meat Loaf enjoyed the show's format so much that he bought the stage decorations from VH-1 and went on to do a "Storytellers" tour in 1998/1999.

Behind the Music

VH1 scored another hit in August 1997 with the debut of Behind the Music. The hour-long show features interviews and biographies of some of popular music's biggest stars qualified to be profiled on the series. The premiere episode featured Milli Vanilli. Episodes have ranged from Aaliyah to Stryper to Keith Moon, as well as others such as, Meat Loaf, Tori Amos, MC Hammer, Cher, Oasis, Steppenwolf, Fleetwood Mac, TLC, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Megadeth, Britney Spears, Selena, Petra, Pantera, and Eminem, with more episodes being produced periodically. By late 1996, the show began to run out of artists to profile, leading to the short-lived BTM2 program, half-hour looks into bands and artists whose popularity was rising, but not yet at its peak.

Legends