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Hit Video USA was a 24-hour music video television network based out of Houston, Texas. The station debuted in 1985 as a low power television station in Houston, operating on channel 5 there as 'TV5'. From 1985 to 1993, the station was located on the 35th floor of the Allied Bank Plaza/First Interstate Plaza (now Wells Fargo Plaza), a skyscraper in Downtown Houston.

History

On September 17, 1987, a station spokesperson explained that the channel would sign off within 30 days unless it received $5 to $6 million in new equity. By 1990, it distributed music videos to 57 television stations in the United States. The venture removed obscenities from music. Across the country, several independent TV stations elected to carry the programming, along with numerous cable television systems.

Original Veejays included Chris Kinkade, Suzanne Vafiadis, Greg Johnson, EJ Thacker, Karen Kay, Todd Stevens, Eric Easton, Betsy King and Dangerous Darren Burns.

Backlash

MTV, alarmed by the competition, began making exclusive deals with record companies -- effectively blocking Hit Video USA from broadcasting some of the most popular videos ever made.

Shutdown

Hit Video USA owner Constance Wodlinger sued in federal court, claiming numerous violations of the nation's antitrust statutes. The litigation, protracted for many years by the lawyers, was finally settled out of court. Viacom, owner of MTV, bought out Wodlinger and closed the network down.

References

1. Billboard Magazine Oct 5, 1985
2. Rendon, Ruth. "HOUSTON'S HIT VIDEO VIES FOR LARGER SHARE OF VIEWERS." Associated Press at The Dallas Morning News. March 29, 1987. Retrieved on April 8, 2010. "This isn't MTV -- it's Hit Video USA -- and the video jockey is talking not from New York but from the 35th floor of a skyscraper in downtown Houston."
3. "HIT VIDEO USA." Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Retrieved on April 8, 2010.
4. "HIT VIDEO CITES NEED FOR MORE FUNDING TO STAY ON AIR." The Dallas Morning News. September 18, 1987. Retrieved on April 8, 2010. "Hit Video, begun July 1985 as a music service on a Houston low-power television, started" and "A 24-hour music video service based in Houston, Hit Video USA, will go off the air in 30 days unless $5 million to $6 million in new equity can be raised, a spokesman for the company said Thursday."

• Television stations in Houston