The NOW Explosion Music Video in 1969 - 1970

Dallas dancer Rebecca Miller interprets Rolling Stones hit Paint It Black Now Explosion creator Bob Whitney and WFAA-TV Director Jim Rowley start a two day recording session		Ideas for popular music TV were tried out over two years in New York, Memphis, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Dallas 10 years before MTV.
		Watching playback of dancer Jeannie Wilson's rendition of Rolling Stones hit Honkey Tonk Woman Video from 3 cameras on dancer and multi-lens prism Background is chroma-key of combined sources   CLICK to watch Jeannie Dance (QuickTime)

The unusual special effects were made possible
by the Grass Valley video switcher introduced in 1969.
For the first time, video could be switched, faded and blended
rapidly and "played" in real time to the beat ofTop Forty music.
Although never intended by the manufacturer, producers literally
played the switcher like a musical instrument creating
dazzling visual effects never before seen on TV.

Below are a some images from the Now Explosion Pilot in 1968-70 at the following facilities:
WFAA-TV, Dallas, TX, WHBQ-TV, Memphis, TN, WKBS-TV, Philadelphia, PA KMBC-TV, Kansas City, MO,
and from 16 mm film shot in Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlantic City (shoreline). New Jersey
The
Now Explosion
went on the air in Atlanta, GA, in April, 1970.
Like MTV 10 years later, the show was programmed to stay on the
air for hours at a time. In Atlanta, The Now Explosion was on the air 28 hours each weekend.
Production of music videos was often done after midnight at channel 36 where many Atlanta residents performed
in synch with top forty songs. Some music videos were shot on film in Atlanta and suburbs. Later, when the program
was syndicated nationally the videos made in Atlanta were seen across the country in cities such as San
Francisco, CA, Washington DC, Sacramento, CA and Boston. In New York City, it ran for hours
with high ratings before and after Yankee baseball games. After thirteen weeks, in
Atlanta, The Now Explosion was picked up by Ted Turner, and was
seen on his Atlanta and Charlotte TV Stations
for an additional 13 weeks.

THIRTY YEARS LATER in 2000
The Now Explosion was Remembered By
The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Below is an excerpt from letter by Now Explosion producer Bob Whitney to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Radio TV Reporter, Miriam Longino, November 4, 2000 about The Now Explosion TV show produced in Atlanta in 1970. This letter followed an AJC feature article by Ms. Longino, August 3, 2000. Later the AJC published a followup article about a March 2001 reunion in Atlanta where some Now Explosion survivors celebrated and produced an archival video.

(Excerpt).....Atlanta energy and creativity did indeed launch the music video genre a full decade before MTV. The special effects that were the program's hallmark were not always easy to come by and continual invention was basic to the program's popularity.

Special effects previously unknown in video production were invented. The moving image of an individual dancer (below on the right) was created by running expensive two inch videotape that had just been recorded onto the control room floor. We - guided the moving tape - while still being recorded - across the room to be played back on a second machine seconds later. The image from the second machine was then combined ("keyed") with new images from the first machine. One camera, one dancer! Click the Image to see the video.

Click for the AJC website articles

Click the Picture to See the Video

The strangely redundant effect - never before seen - seemed to create many dancers out of one in an eerie montage which made the dancers seem to grow new bodies while they danced to top forty hits. Such things are simple today with digital video equipment but were off-the-wall inventions in 1970. (Or would it be off-the-floor inventions.) You can imagine what the traditional channel 36 employees thought when they saw videotape running along their less than spotless floor from machine to machine.

Nowadays - you can do all of this stuff on your Laptop computer.
But in 1970 we needed 3 of these monster videotape machines
to do simple video editing.
Three mashines? Close to a million dollars!
Just the tapes alone, about $300 per hour.
(No wonder we went belly-up!)

We had to keep erasing tapes - to make new tapes!

We thought they were all erased and lost!

But After more than three decades a few old tapes were discovered in
a south Florida garage...by a University interested in rescuing cultural artifacts.
We were the artifacts and the University of Georgia found us somehow...

....

Below are some members of the original Now Explosion crew at
WATL Atlanta - TV (CH 36) in March, 1970

Top row (l to r) Director Steve Rash, Producer Bob Whitney,
Financial Partner Joseph Field, founder of Entercom.
Bottom row Video DeeJay Bob Todd (Thurgaland),
Dancer/production assistant Maggie Spadafora,
and Video DeeJay Skinny Bobby Harper.

First Staff Meeting

New staff gets ready for first full weekend of The Now Explosion
on WATL-TV in Atlanta, March 14, 1970. Shown in front are Atalanta
Director Steve Rash, Associate Director Maggie Spadafora (later to
become Mrs. Steve Rash), Now Explosion Creator-Producer
Bob Whitney and Administrative Associate Debra Miller.
In the rear are the world's first tele-jockies (we called 'em VeeJays)
Skinny Bobby Harper and Bob Todd (Thurgaland.) (See below.)
John Prager, Editing Manager, is on the right.
________

The Now Explosion ran every hour, all weekend
and these VeeJays were worn to a frazzel for sure!

Skinny Bobby Harper and Bob Todd - on the air - 1970
In 1970, Harper made a video and talked about
The Now Explosion.

Go to YouTube to watch the Bob Harper Interview

 

The Now Explosion spent 13 weeks at Channel 36 in Atlanta.
The VeeJays were not seen on the video, but worked
from a control room adjacent
to the main studio.

With Todd is his wife, Jodie.
Director Steve Rash is
in the foregound.

"It was a radio show, really. Except you knew the audience was
watching something...instead of just listening ...so,.. ofcourse, you
had something to say about what everybody was looking at as
well something about the artist, or the lyrics and the music.
We kind of had to get used to doing a
top forty show with pictures."

"Eventually - when I cut my hair and went back to just plain radio - well -
something was missing, you know what I mean?"

The Now Explosion moved to Ted Turner's Channel 17 in
Atlanta. Turner Director R.T. Williams became it's new director
and the production operation was moved to
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida

Now Explosion producer Bob Whitney dreaming up special effects at
Videotape Associates in Ft. Lauderdale. Whitney also
doubled as Veejay as Stocky Bobby Woodstaock.

Also added as featured VeeJay was South Florida radio Legend
Rick Shaw - one of the first Top forty radio jocks at
WQAM in Miami in the late Fifties. Rick was
still on the radio playing those very
same songs at Majik 102.9
in Miami until 2007.

National syndication began. First subscribing station was WPIX-TV, New York.
Stations followed quickly in Washington, San Francisco and Sacramento.
Program tapes were assembled at VideoTape Associates in
Ft. Lauderdale from video and film shot at
Miami Teleproductions in Miami and
were duplicated at Turner's
Channel 17 in
Atlanta.

Miriam Pace Longino	Bob Todd (Thurgaland)
Skinny Bobby Harper	Bob Whitney

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