Dave Kendall, MTV’s late-night alternative music champion, dies
The creator and longtime host of MTV’s 120 Minutes was remembered by former MTV colleagues Matt Pinfield and Jim Shearer.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
3 min read
Dave Kendall, the English music journalist who created MTV’s 120 Minutes and became one of alternative music’s key television guides, has died, according to Rolling Stone. His age and cause of death were not immediately available.
Matt Pinfield, the DJ and former MTV host who later became closely associated with 120 Minutes, confirmed Kendall’s death on Instagram. Pinfield called Kendall “one of the true believers” and said he had been bringing alternative bands to viewers before that music broke into the mainstream.
Pinfield wrote that Kendall did more than front a program, saying he gave overlooked music a place to be heard. He also credited Kendall with respecting artists and building a real connection with fans.
Kendall’s path to MTV began in print. According to his website, he worked as a journalist and editor, with bylines in American and British outlets including Melody Maker, Spin and The New York Post.
After moving from England to New York, Kendall created 120 Minutes. The program aired late on Sunday nights on MTV and became a destination for alternative, college rock and left-of-center music at a time when much of it had little room on mainstream television.
According to Kendall’s website, he spent seven years on the show starting in 1986, working not only as its host, but also as a writer, producer and news reporter.
For a generation of music fans, 120 Minutes was a weekly portal into a different corner of the record store. Pinfield said Kendall introduced viewers to bands that later helped define an era.
Kendall’s career kept moving after MTV. His website says he worked on the television program Music Scoupe and in radio, including the Hot 97 program Planet Traxx in New York. He also hosted the syndicated shows Left of the Dial and Cross Currents.
In the 1990s, Kendall also took on internet projects, including work connected to Raygun Publishing, Inc. and Soundbreak.com, according to his website.
He was active in club culture as well. Kendall’s website says he worked as a club DJ, including a seven-year residency at New York’s Limelight. In 2001, he released A Voyage Into Trance, Volume 2 through Hypnotic/Cleopatra Records.
Kendall later lived in Asia. His website says he moved to Thailand in the mid-2000s, then lived in Hong Kong and Shanghai. By 2017, he was working for Bangkok Post, where his duties included writing, editing, podcast production and podcast anchoring.
Jim Shearer, who hosted 120 Minutes when the show ended in 2003, told Rolling Stone he first met Kendall when MTV2 brought Kendall and Pinfield in for the final episode. Shearer said 120 Minutes had been his favorite MTV show and that sharing the screen with Kendall and Pinfield was an honor.
Shearer told Rolling Stone he had said at the time that Kendall and Pinfield would be remembered whenever the show was discussed in the past tense. More than two decades later, he said that prediction had held up.
Shearer also credited Kendall’s idea for 120 Minutes with helping shape a memorable period in music, particularly for listeners who came of age in the 1980s and 1990s.
This story draws on original reporting from Rolling Stone.