A unique program, the show featured locally produced music videos for hours on end just
like top forty radio and ten years before MTV..... Were you around then? Do you remember?

Dallas dancer Rebecca Miller interprets Rolling Stones hit Paint It Black Now Explosion creator Bob Whitney and WFAA-TV Director Jim Rowley start a two day recording session		Ideas for popular music TV were tried out over two years in New York, Memphis, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Dallas 10 years before MTV.
		Watching a playback of dancer Jeannie Wilson's rendition of Rolling Stones hit Honkey Tonk Woman Video from 3 cameras on dancer and multi-lens prism Background is chroma-key of combined sources CLICK to watch Jeannie Dance  (It will take a moment or two to load and then should start playing)

Did you dance 'til dawn in Atlanta?

Images below from The Now Explosion were recorded at:
WFAA-TV, Dallas, TX, WHBQ-TV, Memphis, TN, WKBS-TV, Philadelphia, PA, KMBC-TV, Kansas City, MO,
and from 16 mm film shot in Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlantic City (shoreline).
New Jersey,WATL-TV (Ch36, Atlanta), WTLG (Ch17 in Atlanta)
Miami TeleProductions, Miami, Videotape Associates,
Ft. Laudrdale, Florida
The
Now Explosion
went on the air in Atlanta, GA, in April, 1970.
Like MTV 10 years later, the show was programmed to stay on the
air for hours at a time. In Atlanta, The Now Explosion was on the air 28 hours each weekend.
Production of music videos was often done after midnight at channel 36 where many Atlanta residents performed
in synch with top forty songs. Some music videos were shot on film in Atlanta and suburbs. Later, when the program
was syndicated nationally the videos made in Atlanta were seen across the country in cities such as San
Francisco, CA, Washington DC, Sacramento, CA and Boston. In New York City, it ran for hours
with high ratings before and after Yankee baseball games. After thirteen weeks, in
Atlanta, The Now Explosion was picked up by Ted Turner, and was
seen on his Atlanta and Charlotte TV Stations
for an additional 13 weeks.

THIRTY YEARS LATER in 2000
The Now Explosion was Remembered By
The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Below is an excerpt from letter by Now Explosion producer Bob Whitney to Atlanta Journal-Constitution Radio TV Reporter, Miriam Longino, November 4, 2000 about The Now Explosion TV show produced in Atlanta in 1970. This letter followed an AJC feature article by Ms. Longino, August 3, 2000. Later the AJC published a followup article about a March 2001 reunion in Atlanta where some Now Explosion survivors celebrated and produced an archival video.

(Excerpt).....Atlanta energy and creativity did indeed launch the music video genre a full decade before MTV. The special effects that were the program's hallmark were not always easy to come by and continual invention was basic to the program's popularity.

Special effects previously unknown in video production were invented. The moving image of an individual dancer (below on the right) was created by running expensive two inch videotape that had just been recorded onto the control room floor. We - guided the moving tape - while still being recorded - across the room to be played back on a second machine seconds later. The image from the second machine was then combined ("keyed") with new images from the first machine. One camera, one dancer! Click the Image to see the video.

Click the Paper to Read the Article

Click the Picture to See the Video

The strangely redundant effect - never before seen - seemed to create many dancers out of one in an eerie montage which made the dancers seem to grow new bodies while they danced to top forty hits. Such things are simple today with digital video equipment but were off-the-wall inventions in 1970. (Or would it be off-the-floor inventions.) You can imagine what the traditional channel 36 employees thought when they saw videotape running along their less than spotless floor from machine to machine.

....

Below are some members of the original Now Explosion crew at
WATL Atlanta - TV (CH 36)

In 1970
Top row (l to r) Director Steve Rash, Producer Bob Whitney,
Financial Partner Joseph Field, founder of Entercom.
Bottom row Video DeeJay Bob Todd (Thurgaland),
Dancer/production assistant Maggie Spadafora,
and Video DeeJay Skinny Bobby Harper.

Miriam Pace Longino	Bob Todd (Thurgaland)
Skinny Bobby Harper	Bob Whitney