On May 11, 1959, Martha Quinn was born in Albany, NY. She grew up to become one of the first VJs on MTV when the music channel launched in 1981. With her girl-next-door persona and a love for music, Quinn helped define 1980s pop culture. Almost 40 years later, Quinn is still a 1980s music guru. She currently shares her encyclopedic knowledge and passion for 1980s music as a morning host on iHeart80sRadio.
Quinn graduated with a degree in Broadcast Journalism from New York University in 1981. While a college student, Quinn starred in TV commercials (she was McDonalds’ first Chicken McNuggets girl!) and worked as a DJ at the NYU college radio station. During her senior year, she interned at WNBC. After graduating from college, she was working at the Weinstein Dormitory at NYU. As luck would have it, the day that she decided to visit her former coworkers at WNBC became the day that she’d land her dream job. Her former boss, Buzz Brindle, was reminded that Bob Pittman had left his job as WNBC’s program director to launch a new cable channel. He then suggested to Quinn that she try out for a job there. He called Pittman who requested that Quinn come to the Hell’s Kitchen studio immediately for a screen test. It was the last day for auditions. With barely any other information about the gig, Quinn took an impromptu cab ride to what became a life-changing interview. In her four-minute audition, she talked about Earth, Wind and Fire. Two days later, she got the call that she would join Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, Alan Hunter, and JJ Jackson as VJs on MTV, the nation’s first-ever music television network.
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With the blast of the now-iconic “moon landing” themed music video, MTV premiered on August 1, 1981. Music and pop culture would never be the same. Quinn’s palpable enthusiasm for music made her an instant MTV favorite. Teen girls wanted to be her and teen boys wanted to date her. Some of her personal MTV highlights include interviewing Bob Dylan, David Lee Roth and Sir Paul McCartney. By the end of the decade, Quinn had hosted a series of programs, including “Martha’s Greatest Hits,” “MTV Prime with Martha Quinn” and “Rockline.” Rolling Stone magazine readers voted Quinn “MTV’s Best-Ever VJ.”
After MTV, Quinn was a featured spokesperson for Neutrogena and had a series of TV gigs, including co-hosting “Star Search” in 1994 with Ed McMahon. Quinn first returned to the radio in 2005, with a Sirius Satellite Radio show. Today, you can listen to all of Quinn’s favorite 1980s hits weekday mornings on “The Martha Quinn Show” on iHeart80sRadio.