Martha Quinn | |
---|---|
Born |
Albany, New York |
May 11, 1959
Occupation | Cable television and radio personality from the 1980s |
Spouse(s) | Jordan Tarlow |
Martha Quinn (born May 11, 1959) is best known as one of the original video jockeys on MTV (along with Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter, and J.J. Jackson).
Quinn was born in Albany, New York, the daughter of Nina Pattison, a retirement counselor, and David Quinn, an attorney. She is the stepdaughter of personal finance columnist Jane Bryant Quinn, and has two older brothers and a younger half-brother. Prior to joining MTV, Quinn graduated from Ossining High School in 1977, and NYU in 1981.
Quinn is a vegetarian. In 1992, she married musician Jordan Tarlow (ex-Fuzztones); they have two children and live in Malibu, California.
On July 13, 1981, Quinn was working at NYU's Weinstein Dormitory where she answered phones and gave students their toilet paper, mail, and lightbulbs. At the end of her day she decided to stop at WNBC Music Radio, where she'd just finished up interning for her senior year.
Coincidentally, California record company executive, Burt Stein, also was visiting WNBC. He asked out loud if anyone knew what Bob Pittman was doing. Pittman had been the program director of WNBC a year or so earlier, but had left to start a new venture: a cable channel called MTV (Music Television).
WNBC assistant program director Buzz Brindle overheard Stein’s question and remembered the new venture. He turned to Quinn and suggested that she should try out for a role at the new network as a VJ.
Brindle called Pittman and told him about his former intern, Quinn. Pittman told him to get her to the MTV studios immediately, as it was the last day of auditions. Quinn immediately took a cab to Hell's Kitchen for her audition.