Gaithersburg Book Festival 2013: Nina Blackwood & Mark Goodman

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• published: 01 Nov 2013
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Nina Blackwood, along with MTV's other three original VJs who helped launch the music network in 1981, has written about her five years at MTV in the early 1980s in "VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave." Today she hosts daily radio shows on SiriusXM's "80s On 8" channel, plus her own syndicated weekend shows "Absolutely80s" and "New Wave Nation" across the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Nina hosts concerts featuring many of the same acts she introduced us to in the 1980s on MTV, including Terri Nunn and Berlin, Missing Persons, ABC, Colin Hay of Men at Work, Wang Chung, Naked Eyes, Loverboy, Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley, Men Without Hats, Howard Jones and more. Nina was born in Massachusetts, but raised near Cleveland, Ohio. Growing up, she studied piano and orchestral harp, later performing original songs and rock music like "My Guitar Gently Weeps" on her harp. Even before MTV, Nina spent time in Los Angeles experimenting with music videos. Her manager, Danny Sheridan, and the radical underground videographer called "Video-Mic" developed an imaginary music TV station called K.P.N.K. wherein she conducted interviews and did commercial parodies between musical film shorts. An actor trained at the Strasberg Institute, Nina did modeling work and has appeared on television shows like the sitcom "It's Your Move;" co-anchored "Farm Aid" and "Live Aid;" co-hosted the music series "Solid Gold" with Marilyn McCoo and Arsenio Hall; has been seen in movies like Sondra Locke's "Rat Boy," Disney's "Rock'n'Roll Mom," "Roseanne & Tom: Behind The Scenes;" and even performed in several cities on stage in "The Vagina Monologues." She played the tragic hooker character "Ginger" in the cult favorite "Vice-Squad" and was originally cast as the girlfriend/band manager in the classic rock film "Spinal Tap," but the launch of MTV kept her from taking the part. Since leaving MTV, she has done music commentary on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and hosted her own "Rock Report" on "Entertainment Tonight." Nina is a dedicated animal lover with several parrots, cats and an Alaskan Malamute. She often appears at fundraising events for various charities including a wild animal refuge, The Wildlife Waystation. Mark Goodman, along with MTV's other three VJs who helped launch the music network in 1981, has written about his experiences at MTV in the early 1980s in "VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave." Mark has been in the radio and music business for 35 years, beginning in his hometown of Philadelphia at WMMR and later at WPLJ, New York City's number one rock station. He joined the as yet unknown music video channel called MTV in 1981. As one of the five original VJs, Mark interviewed all the big names in music in the early 1980s -- Paul McCartney, Sting, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Billy Idol, Carlene Carter, Mark Knopfler, Journey, Pointer Sisters, Richard Marx, Rick Springfield, Duran Duran, Jack Nicholson, Paul Schaeffer, Phil Collins and Genesis, Bryan Adams, Huey Lewis, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, David Bowie, Tom Petty and many others. He also hosted several special shows for the channel including "The Week In Rock," "120 Minutes" and the first show ever syndicated to broadcast by MTV, "The Top 20 Video Countdown." In the late 1980's Mark began an acting career and appeared in several films including "Man Trouble" (called the worst film Jack Nicholson ever made), "Don't Be a Menace To Society When You're Drinking Your Juice In The Hood" with the Wayans brothers, and "Police Academy 6." On TV Mark could be seen in such shows as " Married With Children," "The Practice," "Superman," "Vinny And Bobby" and others. In 1989, Mark returned to radio and over the next 10 years worked at stations including KROQ, KMPC-FM (The Edge) and Star 98.7 in Los Angeles, as well as Q101 and WLS-FM in Chicago and Mix 96.9 in Phoenix. In 1999, Mark became SVP of Music Programming for Soundbreak.com, an Internet radio station. Today, Mark hosts shows on Sirius Satellite Radio on its Big 80's channel. Since starting there in 2004, Mark has added shows on Classic Rewind (late 70's through early 90's rock) and The Spectrum (a lively mix of rock, pop and indy). Recently, he served as music supervisor for the TV show "Desperate Housewives" and hosts special programs and interviews for VH1 and VH1 Classic.