Mark Goodman

Mark Goodman (born October 11, 1952, Philadelphia) is a radio DJ, TV personality, and actor. He is best known as one of the original five VJs (along with Nina Blackwood, J.J. Jackson, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn) on MTV, from 1981 to 1987. He was supposed to be the first of the five to be broadcast at MTV's premiere on August 1, 1981. However, due to errors sequencing the clips, he was the last of the VJs to introduce themselves after "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles and "You Better Run" by Pat Benatar.

Mark Goodman
Born (1952-10-11) October 11, 1952
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
OccupationCable television and radio personality

Biography

Early life and career

Goodman has been in the music business since the 1970s. He started in radio in his hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at WMMR and in 1978, became the music director of the station. In 1980, he moved to New York City to work at WPLJ, the number-one rock station in New York. Goodman was on the air the night that John Lennon was murdered in New York City in December 1980 and reported extensively on the events as the terrible news began to spread throughout the country.

Goodman is Jewish.[1][2]

MTV

In 1981, Goodman left WPLJ to join the as yet unknown music video channel named MTV. As one of the five original VJs Goodman interviewed a variety of music and entertainment stars of the day. He also hosted several special shows for the channel, including The Week in Rock, 120 Minutes and The Top 20 Video Countdown, the first show syndicated to broadcast by MTV.

In a 1983 interview with David Bowie, the singer pressed Goodman on MTV playing few music videos by black artists during the day. Goodman's defense was that the network was thinking in terms of "narrow casting" and that they were concerned about backlash from white audiences at seeing musicians of color featured prominently on television.

Acting career and return to radio

In the late 1980s, Goodman began an acting career that saw him working in film and TV. Goodman appeared in several films, including Man Trouble with Jack Nicholson and Police Academy 6: City Under Siege. On TV, Goodman was seen in such shows as Married... with Children, The Practice, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Vinny And Bobby, and others.

In 1989, Goodman returned to radio in Los Angeles on “The Edge”. Over the next 10 years, he worked at stations KROQ-FM, KMPC-FM (The Edge) and Star 98.7 in Los Angeles; Q101 and WLS-FM in Chicago; and Mix 96.9 in Phoenix.

Through the 1990s, Goodman hosted several different TV shows and music specials. In particular, ”Fit TV” ran on cable for years after the final episodes were shot. Goodman receives no royalties from the show but is pleased he is still helping people learn how to eat right, exercise more, and be open to alternative methods of healing and stress reduction. Goodman also hosted the game show Illinois Instant Riches and its revamp Illinois' Luckiest from 1994 to 2001.

In 1999, Goodman became senior VP of Music Programming for Soundbreak.com, an internet radio station. He developed the format, hired and trained the air staff and developed all the special programming that became available for syndication to other sites, including British Telecom Open World, As Seen In (Aaron Spelling’s site), and Newgrounds.

After the dot com crash, Goodman was offered a position on Sirius Satellite Radio on its Big 80s channel with the three original MTV VJs Nina Blackwood, Martha Quinn, and Alan Hunter. Since starting there in 2004, Goodman has added shows on '80s on 8 (6:00 am – 10:00 am) Classic Rewind (late 1970s to early 1990s rock) and The Spectrum.

Concurrent with his work at SiriusXM, Goodman supervised the music for several pilots for Fox as well as for the Touchstone/ABC TV show Desperate Housewives.

In the mid-2000s, Goodman was seen on VH-1 and VH-1 Classic doing interviews and hosting special programs while continuing to broadcast seven days per week on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. As of 2016, he is one of the mainstay hosts of the Volume music talk channel.

References
  1. "After midnight, the (Jewish) stars come out" The Jewish Standard TimesofIsrael.com. Published December 5, 2014. Accessed January 12, 2016.
  2. MTV's first five VJs get 'unplugged' in new tell-all Today.com. Published May 6, 2014. Accessed January 12, 2015.
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