Night Tracks


Night Tracks is an American television series which ran from 1983 to 1992 on SuperStation WTBS on late night weekends. It premiered on Friday, 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
.

Programming

Night Tracks produced shows were :

''Night Tracks'' (1983–1992)

This was the main program, composed of two 3 hour blocks of music videos. On Friday the program normally began at 12:05 AM Eastern Time/9:05 PM Pacific Time and ran throught the night until 6:00 AM ET/3:00 AM PT. On Saturday the two blocks were repeated, but in reverse order.
Interest in music videos began to wane in the latter half of the 1980s. USA Network cancelled its Radio 1990 video program in 1986; MTV suffered a ratings slump that same year that led it to replace its original crew of Video Jockeys and begin creating non-music programs; and in the Summer of 1987 Friday Night Videos was pushed back an hour to accommodate a Friday episode of the higher-rated Late Night with David Letterman. In 1989 TBS began cutting back the amount of airtime devoted to music videos. Beginning in March, 1989, the Friday night schedule comprised one hour of Power Play and one three-hour block of videos, beginning at 1:00 AM ET/10:00 PM PT. TBS assigned the cut three hours to live sports events on Friday evening and reruns of Hogan's Heroes and Gomer Pyle early Saturday morning. That August, TBS reduced Night Tracks to two and a half hours on Friday, and Chartbusters plus two two-hour blocks on Saturday, while the remaining hours each night were assigned to Night Flicks.
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 two 1 hour blocks of the customary top 40 videos. The next August Night Tracks became wholly devoted to Alternative and Rap, adopting the slogan "The Music That Matters". However, the ratings did not significantly improve; TBS replaced more of Night Tracks' airtime with the now-renamed Nite Flix on May 15, 1992 and eventually cancelled Night Tracks altogether; Friday, May 29, 1992 saw the final episode, albeit in an abbreviated 40 minute airing. The only program that aired on the night of Saturday, May 30, 1992 was New Alternative Express.

''America's Music Tracks'' (1983–1984)

Following Night Tracks' success, WTBS launched a one-hour, Country Music-oriented version with different voiceover announcers. It premiered on Sunday, October 2, 1983 at 8:05 PM Eastern Time/5:05 PM Pacific Time. The show ran for 15 weeks before it was canceled in February 1984.

''Chartbusters'' (1984–1991)

An hour long Top 10 music video show countdown that aired on Saturday nights preceding Night Tracks. It premiered on Saturday, May 19, 1984 and its chart listing was associated with Kal Rudman's Friday Morning Quarterback. The show also aired an additional BREAKER video that was predicted to hit the charts in the following weeks.

''Power Play'' (1985–1988)

An hour of top ranking music videos that aired on Friday nights preceding Night Tracks. It premiered on Friday, October 4, 1985. This brought the total time to a peak of 14 hours of music videos aired each weekend.

''Power Play Dancin''' (1988–1989)

An hour long Top 10 Dance video block; this replaced Power Play.

''Power Hits'' (1989–1990)

An hour of Hard Rock music videos which replaced Power Play Dancin'
Power Hits was canceled in February 1990, and nothing music-related was put in its place.

''Night Flicks'' (1989–1991)

A 2 hour movie presentation that used the Night Tracks' theme music. The name Night Flicks had originated onNight Tracks as a movie trailer commercial segment. Over time, it replaced most of Night Tracks, and the title was changed to Nite Flix in 1991; under this name, it lasted into 1994.

''New Alternative Express'' (1991–1992)

An hour long Top 10 Alternative video block, replacing Chartbusters. Its final episode aired on Saturday, May 30, 1992 and officially signaled the end of the Night Tracks franchise.

The ''Night Tracks'' DJs

This list only include permanent announcers a.k.a. the DJs of Night Tracks and not announcers filling in such as Bill Brummel and others.
The announcers faces were 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 were aired. The announcers were also heard in these segments during the show.