Back Porch Video

Back Porch Video was one of the first cable television-based music video programs. It premiered on January 28, 1984 as the brainchild of Russ Gibb, former owner of the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, Michigan.^[1] Gibb is best known as the radio DJ who suggested the Paul is Dead rumor, suggesting that Paul McCartney of the Beatles was actually dead.

Shown out of Westinghouse's Group W Cable studios in Dearborn, Michigan, Back Porch Video stayed on the air for the better part of 16 years.

What made Back Porch Video unique was that it was crewed and hosted primarily by area high-school aged students. The program aired live in Dearborn from 10pm - 1am on Saturday nights, Mark Porada and Steve "Hardcore Teddy" Turner,^[2] were the first "Porch Jockeys", with Mark hosting the first hour and a half, and "Hardcore Teddy" hosting the last hour and a half. Later, the show expanded to 9pm - 1am after about one year of cablecasting, adding additional hosts. The show was broken up into one-hour segments; each of which was hosted by a different personality (or personality team) known as a Video Jockey. This allowed for the programs to be distributed in one-hour segments to a myriad of other cable systems in the Southeast Michigan area. The program saw a short run of three programs broadcast nationwide on Detroit's PBS station WTVS Channel 56.

In 1985, Back Porch Video won a CableACE Award ^[3] for excellence.^[4]

The musical style favored by most of the hosts was alternative rock, although plenty of pop music, heavy metal, rap and hardcore punk was also shown. Within the first few years of being on the air, Back Porch Video was serviced by most every major record label, as well as dozens of smaller labels and independent video promoters.

In 1987, Back Porch VJ's Dino Kovas ^[5] graduated from the show join the New Monkees.

Some of the VJ’s from 1989 to 1992 were, Molly Williams,^[6] K.C. Groves,^[7] Nicholas “Big Nick” Sawabini, Peter Sawabini, Scott “Mad Dog” Cook, Eric “Gangster o' Love” Gubka, Stacey Corbet, Rebecca Ramirez, Damian Dobez, Bill Russell, Kevin Esser, Alex Garcia, Bryce Miller, Darryl Miller, and David Schroeder.

In December 2013 (some of) the original 13 co-creators of Back Porch Video held an informal Alumni reunion, open to the public and broadcast online.^[8]

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