{"id":21537,"date":"2026-07-15T12:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=21537"},"modified":"2026-07-15T12:46:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T17:46:59","slug":"dave-kendall-creator-and-longtime-host-of-mtvs-120-minutes-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/?p=21537","title":{"rendered":"Dave Kendall, Creator and Longtime Host of MTV\u2019s 120 Minutes, Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dave Kendall and MINISTRY’s Al Jorgensen Lollapalooza 1992<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SOURCE: VARIETY<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave Kendall, creator and former host of MTV\u2019s \u201c120 Minutes,\u201d has died, according to a post from his friend and latter-day host of the show, Matt Pinfield. No cause of death or age were cited, although he was likely in his sixties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From scrappy beginnings, the show launched on March 10, 1986 and quickly became a high-profile platform for the rising wave of indie and left-of-center musicians that would soon be dubbed \u201calternative.\u201d While Kendall, a British-born music journalist, was sometimes seen as an emissary of the \u201cestablishment\u201d by the snooty intelligentsia of the indie-sphere, his knowledge of and passion for the music he presented was obvious and genuine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt the beginning it was pure chaos,\u201d he said in a SiriusXM documentary video on the show. \u201cI wanted to play music that I thought was cool and original, but the programming department wanted to include all the videos that were in light rotation, folks like Michael Barnes and Jermaine Jackson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had zero experience as a tv producer,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless, Kendall was hired and his vision won out, and he made the show happen his way. The MTV management team realized he was onto something, and artists from Sonic Youth to the Mighty Lemon Drops and beyond received big looks on the show at a time when there was no email or internet, let alone social media and YouTube, and few televised outlets for that type of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally its producer, Kendall hosted the show from 1989 until 1992 \u2014 ironically, just as the genres of music he\u2019d championed were reaching peak popularity \u2014 and worked as a DJ and video host for SiriusXM and a number of outlets. In recent years he lived in Thailand and Indonesia, working as a correspondent for the Bangkok Post and championing environmental causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDave was one of the true believers,\u201d Pinfield wrote. \u201cLong before alternative music found its way into the mainstream, he was there every week on \u2018120 Minutes,\u2019 introducing people to bands that would go on to define an era. He didn\u2019t just host a show. He gave a home to music that deserved to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe loved the music, respected the artists, and connected with fans in a way that always felt authentic,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThat\u2019s a rare gift.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dave Kendall and MINISTRY’s Al Jorgensen Lollapalooza 1992 SOURCE: VARIETY Dave Kendall, creator and former host of MTV\u2019s \u201c120 Minutes,\u201d has died, according to a post from his friend and latter-day host of the show, Matt Pinfield. No cause of death or age were cited, although he was likely in his sixties. From scrappy beginnings,… Read More »Dave Kendall, Creator and Longtime Host of MTV\u2019s 120 Minutes, Dies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21538,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21537"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21539,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21537\/revisions\/21539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mkultramagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}