Night Tracks

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Night Tracks
Format Music Videos
Created by Tom Lynch and Gary Biller
Starring (see article)
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Production
Running time up to 3 hours per episode
Broadcast
Original channel TBS / WTBS
Original run June 3, 1983 – May 30, 1992

Night Tracks is an American television series which ran from 1983 to 1992 on SuperStation WTBS (later known as TBS SuperStation) on late night weekends. It premiered on June 3, 1983 and the first music video aired was "Family Man" by Hall & Oates, from their H2O album.

Night Tracks was created and produced by Tom Lynch and Gary Biller (Lynch/Biller Productions).

Contents

[edit] Programming

Night Tracks produced shows include:

  • Night Tracks: Two 3 hour blocks (1983-1989) of music videos in which the Friday night airings are swapped and repeated on Saturday nights. This was done partly to accommodate sporting events such as Atlanta Braves Baseball and NBA Basketball games that run overtime into Night Tracks' schedule. Night Tracks did not get the benefit of being seen in its entirety and must abruptly end its broadcast just before 6:00 AM Eastern Time (Examples: [1], [2]). In the Spring of 1989, its cut off time for the Friday night broadcast was changed to 5:00 AM Eastern Time. This meant that viewers had to wait until Saturday night to catch the entire broadcast of the second 3 hour block. In the Summer of 1990 the Friday night cut off time was changed to 5:30 AM Eastern Time. In a few rare instances a sporting event ended early thus produced extra time for Night Tracks so the first 3 hour block of that evening was repeated until the cut off time just before 6:00 AM Eastern Time. In August 1989, this was changed to two 2 hour blocks and the remaining 2 hours became Night Flicks which can be considered as when the show started "jumping the shark". In the Spring of 1990, it was further reduced to two 90 minute blocks. In the Spring of 1991, Night Tracks introduced "College Crush Groove", two 30 minute blocks of Alternative music videos in addition to the two regular 1 hour blocks and in August 1991 it became completely Alternative with the subtitle "The Music That Matters". However, the ratings did not significantly improve and TBS canceled the show in May 1992.
  • America's Music Tracks (1983-1984): Following Night Tracks' success, WTBS aired a one hour Country Music version with different voiceover announcers but used the same Chyron font for music video identification. It premiered in the Fall of 1983 and aired on Sunday evenings. The show ran for 15 weeks before it was canceled in February 1984. [3]
  • Chartbusters (1984-1991): An hour long Top 10 (changed to Top 20 in 1990) music video show countdown that aired on Saturday nights preceding Night Tracks. Its chart listing is associated with Kal Rudman's Friday Morning Quarterback. The show also featured a BREAKER video that was destined to hit the charts soon.
  • Power Play (1985-1988): An hour of the best music videos that aired on Friday nights preceding Night Tracks.
  • Power Play Dancin' (1988-1989): An hour long Top 10 Dance videos. (replaced Power Play)
  • Power Hits (1989-1990): An hour of Hard Rock music videos. (replaced Power Play Dancin')
    Power Hits was canceled in February 1990 and nothing Night Tracks related was put in its place.
  • Night Flicks (1989-1991): A byproduct of Night Tracks, it is a 2 hour movie presentation (4 hours total for both nights) that uses Night Tracks' theme music. The name Night Flicks was once used on Night Tracks as a movie trailer commercial segment (Example: [4]). (replaced most of Night Tracks, changed to Nite Flix in 1991)
  • New Alternative Express (1991-1992): An hour long Top 10 Alternative videos. (replaced Chartbusters)

[edit] Night Tracks voiceover announcers

This list only include permanent announcers and not announcers filling in such as Bill Brummel and others.

The announcers faces are never seen except during a special year end show in 1991. During a typical Night Tracks show the announcers would mention artists and music videos that would be aired within the hour. They would also mention facts and information about the artists just before the videos are aired. The announcers were also heard in these segments during the show.

  • New Video of the Week
  • New Music Spotlight (changed to New Music Preview in 1989) - Highlighting a new artist to Night Tracks just before that artist's debut video is aired.
  • Original Classic - A classic music video is aired with info on that artist.
  • World Premiere - Occasionally Night Tracks would have the privilege of being the first to air a particular music video. The announcers would thank the people at the record company for the arrangement.
  • The Inside Track - A short one question interview segment just before that artist's video is aired.

[edit] Guest Hosts

[edit] Trivia

Following Night Tracks' debut, Lynch and Biller would go on to create a musical series for children, Kids Incorporated. Today, Lynch produces mainly children's programs, such as The Secret World of Alex Mack, Caitlin's Way and Romeo!.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links