IN THE ’80S, MTV brought music videos to mainstream America. Then the cable network made a small but, in retrospect, meaningful move toward the “alternative.”

March 10, 1986, was the debut of a show called 120 Minutes. It provided a showcase for underground acts, the types of bands that had grown out of the punk scene and become popular on college radio stations across the U.S. They weren’t big enough then to merit regular TV airplay, but could perhaps find their audience in a late-night Sunday slot. Some of these bands, such as the Cure, Depeche Mode and R.E.M., later crossed over to wider success.

The late J.J. Jackson hosted the first episode. Eventually, British music journalist Dave Kendall settled into the role. “I was an old punk rocker, and I had a fairly grating persona—brash and sarcastic,” says Kendall. “I took great pleasure in annoying my public.”

During his 3½-year tenure, Kendall interviewed the band Live while riding a waterslide and staged a fistfight with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, among other adventures.

“120 Minutes was attractive to people who had a sense of being different,” he says. “Humans have always looked for ways to differentiate themselves from other people. There was an element of ‘I like this band, and that makes me cooler than you.’ ”

The show gave a boost to alternative rock, a groundswell that eventually burst into a music movement. By the early ’90s, Live and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had become stars, Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction had launched a successful package tour of alt-rock acts called Lollapalooza, and Nirvana had risen to become the most popular rock band in the U.S. What had once been rebellious was now mainstream. “Some of the biggest stations in every city were ‘alternative’ stations,” adds Kendall. MTV rode the wave farther, launching a regular weeknight video show, Alternative Nation. Ironically, this alternative boom marked the end of Kendall’s run at MTV. “Grunge was taking off,” he says. “It wasn’t the right time for a Brit to be hosting the show.” —Rob Tannenbaum