Martha Quinn? Tom Freston? Judy McGrath? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: When MTV (music television) launched in 1981 numerous commentators were skeptical of its viability. Yet, the channel has persevered for decades. One of the early VJs (video jockeys) recalled the initial uncertainty, but the VJ added a twist with the following remark:
Everybody said MTV wouldn’t last. Well, they were right!
The channel has now become unrecognizable. Reality TV shows are highlighted, and music is almost an afterthought. The old MTV is gone. I do not recall the exact phrasing of this remark. Nor do I know who said it. Would you please help me to explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 2013 a group of VJs published the book “VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave”. Martha Quinn stated the following:1
In the beginning, everyone told us MTV wouldn’t last. As it turns out, they were right—our MTV doesn’t exist anymore. There’s no videos on the channel now: It’s Jersey Shore and Teen Mom and My Super Sweet 16.
Quinn continued with a melancholy anecdote about the format change:
Recently, I was shopping at my local farm stand, and the farmer introduced me to a teenage girl. He told her, “This is Martha Quinn—she used to be on MTV.” She said, “Really? What show?”
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1991 “The Los Angeles Times” printed a piece about MTV titled “The Channel That Ate the World” which contained the following:2
“A lot of people thought MTV wouldn’t last, and now we’re accepted as an institution on the TV dial,” Tom Freston, the 45-year-old chairman of MTV Networks, observed during a recent interview in his New York office.
In 2003 “The Big Book of Business Quotations” contained the following item:3
For a long time, people kept saying MTV wouldn’t last, but it has and it is always changing.
Judy McGrath (b. 1952) U.S. president of MTV. “The 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business,” Fortune (Patricia Sellers and Cora Daniels; October 1999)
In conclusion, Martha Quinn deserves credit for the comment she made in the 2013 book “VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave”. Quinn pointed out that the name MTV has endured, but the content of the channel has changed dramatically over time.
Image Notes: Singer shown in silhouette from Robert Arnar at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Cristina Cazares whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 2013 Copyright, VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave by Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and Martha Quinn, Chapter 50: We Can’t Rewind, We’ve Gone Too Far – Final Thoughts, Quote Page 312, Atria Books: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1991 July 28, Los Angeles Times, Section: Calendar, The Channel That Ate the World by Jane Hall, Quote Page 6, Column 2, Los Angeles, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2003 Copyright, The Big Book of Business Quotations, Topic: Success, Quote Page 345, Column 1, Basic Books: A Member of the Perseus Books Group, New York. (Google Books Full View) ↩︎