Remembering Dave Kendall of ‘120 Minutes’

MTV legend helped introduce a generation to alternative and underground rock

July 15, 2026July 15, 2026 Ron Hart 0 Comments 120 Minutes, Bad Brains, Black Flag, Dave Kendall, Flying Nun Records, Homestead Records, Husker Du, Matt Pinfield, MTV, Sonic Youth, SST Records

Sad day for fans of late night MTV as news has revealed that 120 Minutes creator and imperial host Dave Kendall has passed away.

“Heartbroken to hear about the passing of Dave Kendall,” wrote longtime MTV colleague Matt Pinfield on his socials. “Dave was one of the true believers. Long before alternative music found its way into the mainstream, he was there every week on 120 Minutes, introducing people to bands that would go on to define an era. He didn’t just host a show. He gave a home to music that deserved to be heard.

“He loved the music, respected the artists, and connected with fans in a way that always felt authentic. That’s a rare gift.”

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For a generation of kids, Kendall served as a guide into alternative and underground rock that existed below the mainstream when he took over hosting duties from Kevin Seal in 1989 until leaving the show in 1992. He created the show as a producer at MTV in 1986.

For those of us who were living outside the frequencies of WLIR in New York or in the middle of nowhere somewhere out west, Kendall introduced music from such stalwart indie labels as Flying Nun, Homestead and SST to a wider audience.

“I sent him many videos from bands on SST,” wrote former SST promotion director Ray Farrell on Facebook in honor of Kendall’s passing. “He championed most of them. He really liked Sonic Youth, Black Flag’s ‘Drinkin and Drivin’ and Hüsker Dü’s low budget double whammy ‘Makes No Sense At All/Love Is All Around.’ Despite the huge budgets of major label videos, we did not have to spend a lot of money to make the key videos. Some directors made them for cost of materials. Kevin Kerslake and Randall Jahnson were faves. Dave approved lip sync videos of Slovenly and Divine Horsemen, made by a French company for its ‘Musiccalifornia’ series. Getting a video played on the show was like having a song played on every college radio station in the country at the same prime time. He told me that Tom Petty’s label submitted a low budget b&w video specifically for 120. Y’know to capture that college audience. Dave turned it down. He defended me with MTV’s Standards & Practices dept. Lyric sheets were required as part of the approval process. I could not explain what the lyrics meant in Bad Brains ‘House Of Suffering’ 🙂 Better still, Sonic Youth’s ‘Candle’ has the line ‘I’m the cocker on the rock.’ MTV insisted that he was singing ‘I’m the rocker on the cock’ and that I was lying about it. Dave went to bat for me and we got it through. RIP Dave.”

VIDEO: Dave Kendall remembers 120 Minutes

In recent years, the British-born Kendall — who got his start as a music journalist writing for such publications as Melody Maker, SPIN and the New York Post — had been living in the Far East and writing for The Bangkok Post until his death.

“My close friend died,” wrote my Facebook friend Sunshine Dunham of Fiasco Records fame. “He was a complicated guy. I never thought in a million years when I was watching 120mins in college that one day I would become friends with Dave. We had a blast for several years when we were both living in LA. When he moved to Thailand and on to Indonesia, I was his person in America, holding on to his stuff for decades, til he just said to throw it all away, and also his address for mail. We were like a goth Mary Tyler Moore and Murray Slaughter. Always there when the other needed a shoulder or lift out of a perpetual dark place.”

Kendall’s presence will live forever online through bootlegged copies of 120 Minutes broadcasts that pop up on YouTube and the Internet Archive, and we salute those heroes who kept their VHS collections close through the decades.

Thank you, Dave, for projecting your love and knowledge of rock ‘n’ roll left of the dial to kids hungry for sounds beyond the mainstream.