Retro Jams was a

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devi ...

network that played music videos from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s, with the vast majority of clips used in the

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...

to reduce rights fees. Established in 2007, it was owned and operated by now-defunct

Equity Media Holdings Equity Media Holdings Corporation was a broadcasting company based in Little Rock, Arkansas that owned and operated television stations across the United States. Prior to March 30, 2007, the company was known as Equity Broadcasting, a name later ...

. Retro Jams was formerly carried full-time as a

free-to-air Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscripti ...

TV channel on

Galaxy 18 Galaxy 18 is a Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) 1300-series hybrid communications satellite owned by Intelsat and located in geosynchronous orbit at 123° W longitude, serving the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Mexico, and Canada with 24 ...

( K_u band

DVB-S Digital Video Broadcasting – Satellite (DVB-S) is the original DVB standard for Satellite Television and dates from 1995, in its first release, while development lasted from 1993 to 1997. The first commercial applications was by Star TV in Asia ...

, 123°W) and on various Equity-owned terrestrial low-power

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the ear ...

s nationwide. The "Retro Jams" name and branding have also been used by

Retro Television Network Retro TV (stylized as retrotv), formerly known as Retro Television Network, is an American broadcast television network owned by Get After It Media. The network mainly airs classic television sitcoms and drama series from the 1950s through t ...

to refer to two individual programming blocks, "Retro Jams" and "Retro Jams by Request".

History

Retro Jams was established in December 2007 by Equity Media Holdings to provide music video programming to a few individual, local Equity-owned stations which lacked a conventional television network affiliation. Programming consisted primarily of music videos from the 1980s and early 1990s. On most of these stations, Equity replaced Retro Jams with the

in mid-2008. As Equity had founded RTN and owned the network until 2008, the "Retro Jams" name was moved to individual RTN programming blocks "Retro Jams" and "Retro Jams by Request" when the full-channel music video format was dropped. While most affected stations (such as KCBU and KEGS-LP) simply replaced Retro Jams with RTN, a few stations went to other networks.

WEVU-CA WEVU-LP, VHF analog channel 4, was a low-powered television station licensed to Fort Myers, Florida, United States. The station was owned by Silver Point Capital, and was a satellite of Univision affiliate WUVF-LP. History Caloosa Television, t ...

switched to

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the Latino public and inclu ...

affiliation and K25DM was operated as an independent station. The "Retro Jams" name and branding was then used by the

to refer to two programming blocks: * Retro Jams, an individual RTN program. * Retro Jams by Request, another individual television program. Cash-strapped

sold Retro Television Network to

Luken Communications Get After It Media, formerly known as Luken Communications and Reach High Media Group, is a privately owned American broadcast holding company, based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which owns or operates around 80 television stations in the United St ...

in June 2008 and entered federal

chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whet ...

bankruptcy protection in

Little Rock, Arkansas ( The "Little Rock") , government_type = Council-manager , leader_title = Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_party = D , leader_title2 = Council , leader_name2 ...

in December 2008. An option allowing Equity to re-purchase RTN from Luken expired unexercised on December 24, 2008. Equity continued to provide

broadcast automation Broadcast automation incorporates the use of broadcast programming technology to automate broadcasting operations. Used either at a broadcast network, radio station or a television station, it can run a facility in the absence of a human opera ...

facilities and operate RTN on behalf of Luken Communications until January 2009, when Equity's failure to pay RTN's programming suppliers caused Luken Communications to move RTN to independent facilities. RTN was permanently removed from all Equity-owned or operated stations on January 4, 2009. While many of the affected stations replaced RTN with

This TV This TV (also known as This TV Network and alternately stylized as thisTV) is an American free-to-air television network owned by Allen Media Broadcast Networks, LLC, part of the Allen Media Group division of Entertainment Studios. Originally f ...

, classic cinema or similar content, Equity returned the full-channel Retro Jams to the air in January 2009 in order to provide programming to the remaining Equity-owned stations. This all-music video format continued until what remained of Equity's equity was liquidated and the individual stations sold at auction later that same year. Retro Jams and the associated Equity Broadcasting

satellite television Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna commo ...

feeds on

( K_u band, 123°W) are now silent. While RTN is a trademark of the Retro Television Network, there is no record of any registered trademark on the Retro Jams name by either RTN or Equity.http://uspto.gov TESS search

References

{{American broadcast television Defunct television networks in the United States Equity Media Holdings Music video networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2007 Television channels and stations disestablished in 2009

History

See also

References