About Town: MTV and Fort Lee

“Ladies and Gentlemen, Rock and Roll.”

Those were the words that resonated across the televised airwaves at 12:01 a.m. on August 1, 1981 and bore MTV into the world.

How many teenagers from Fort Lee sat in front of their television sets watching the screen as the countdown began, the rocket burst towards space and the astronaut landed on the surface of the moon as that simple, now iconic, logo floated onto the screen?

There was one teenager from Fort Lee who was not sitting in front of his television set watching the anticipated debut of the marriage of radio and television—Lou Azzollini. That’s because Lou was at the launch party with all the MTV executives, V.J.’s and crew at The Loft on Bergen Boulevard in Fairview.  

Azzollini said, “We were all sitting in The Loft staring at a television set that had footage from the first Space Shuttle launch countdown of Columbia and Apollo11. Then, the countdown went from 10 to blastoff, the astronaut jumped down, and the Buggles came on the screen singing ‘Video Killed the Radio Star,’ followed by Pat Benatar’s video ‘You Better Run.’”   

He continued, “The mood was exciting because something fresh and new had just aired, but nobody in that room could ever have anticipated the effect it would have on popular culture. I’m sure most of the V.J.’s were there that night, but everybody was still nobody and didn’t stand out.”

Why was the launch party for Manhattan-based MTV held in Fairview, New Jersey? Because Manhattan Cable Vision wasn’t yet offering MTV to their subscribers, but Fort Lee’s cable provider, Cable Vision was. And MTV, being a start-up company, didn’t have a large budget. They relied upon their producer friends in Fort Lee to help them find a place that had a T.V., a bar, and enough room to hold a party that wouldn’t break the bank. MTV was still an experiment that had yet to pay off.  

How did a boy from Fort Lee end up at a party for something that would so radically change the culture of music? Artistic genes and an encouraging teacher. As a student at Fort Lee High School, Azzollini excelled in art class and was encouraged by his art teacher, Miss DiTieri, to take on freelance assignments that would allow him to get paid for his talent.

He began by doing storyboards for music companies with offices in Fort Lee. Since the Beatles turned their albums into movies, there was a growing market for filming music, especially in the late 1970’s when Azzollini began freelancing.  

Exposed to this new medium of music video, Azzollini attended Bergen Community College where UA Columbia had just installed a state of the art studio that had all the cutting edge technology. It was here that he studied Video Production.

“It was so new that my professor told us that what we were learning, video production, will change the way people watch T.V.; they’ll become accustomed to short, fast, clips of information,” Azzollini said.

During this time Azzollini was hired as a freelancer by a company in New York City to do storyboarding for musicians and bands eager to produce videos of their music. 

This is where he first heard the rumblings that there was going to be a music video cable station that wanted to displace radio with their new format.

The executives of this new station were trying to get bands on board and began accumulating videos. Azzollini was kept busy storyboarding for many of these rock videos.

He storyboarded for Bob Marley, Pete Townsend and Danny Aiello. Danny Aiello, who had appeared as Madonna’s father in the video “Papa Don’t Preach,” decided to do his own video called “Papa Only Wants the Best for You” as a response to the Madonna video.

Eventually, Azzollini left video production to start his own graphic design company, Blue Point Graphics and RatsoRetro. Blue Point Graphics and Ratso Retro specialize in silk-screening tee-shirts, logos, posters, memorabilia, and more. His clients range from motorcycle gangs to big corporations. He’s also done a lot of work for the Chiller Theater Expo -- a convention where you can buy memorabilia from all your favorite horror and sci-fi movies and television shows.

Azzollini is also an integral part of The Fort Lee Historic Society and Commission, and the Fort Lee Film Commission.

So, in the 30 years since MTV blasted into the universe it now calls its home, the teenager from Fort Lee who was witness to that launch has his feet planted firmly in the place he still calls home—Fort Lee.

Lou Azzollini will be under the Fort Lee Historic Society tent at the Feast of Saint Rocco all weekend. Stop by, say hello, and share your MTV moment with him.