This is a minute by minute review of the MTV "Live Aid" live broadcast on July 13th, 1985 :

MTV did a very bad work on this day (IMHO) (But ABC tv is best at the game ;-))

Their only good point was that they had access to the backstage area and made some exclusive interviews with various musicians. The bad point was that their questions are completely irrelevant, artists are bored or just bemused by the stupidity of the MTV staff ...

Also, they inserted LOTS of commercials (really a lot), with the fake argument that "today, even the commercials are raising money for the cause, so we're gonna brake away for a minute ...". This is MTV's credo on that day ! They sometime even cut a performance (say Clapton or Judas Priest ...) to insert advertisements. Included in the advertisements were some "Live Aid appeals" with messages from personnalities (including some "at the limit" personalities such as the president of Pepsi with an ambiguous message in which we don't really understand if he speaks about the Pepsi team or the global community when he says "join us" ...) urging the viewers to give money for africa.

But there was also adverts for Chevrolet, Pepsi with Lionel Richie (Lionel Richie being involved in the "USA for Africa" charity record makes it even more confusing about Pepsi being or not sponsor of the event), or other products such as "Sun Country Cooler", "English Leather" and other crap of the same magnitude. This just make me sick to see such things that are so irrelevent on that day. I think this kind of attitude from MTV can lead people to think that Live Aid is sponsored by those products that are 180° away from the cause.

Another bad point for MTV was that they have quite never taken opportunities to playback performances they have missed, during the moments when the stages were empty. The only two artists they have playedback are Sade and Autograph ... After the Philadelphia finale, they say they will replay some of the acts they were forced to strip, and we see Paul Young "Everytime You Go Away", before my tape cuts.

Also, they were very few appeals from the MTV crew to remember to the viewers that the main goal of the day was to give money. Phone numbers and "Live Aid fundation" address were screened regularly, but contrary to the BBC coverage, they nearly never talked about the need to send money on MTV ...

But all this is only philosophy ... And is worth getting if you're looking for a Live Aid complete coverage.

Here is the detailed content of the MTV broadcast :

note 1 : the notation MTV at JFK is placed for the MTV chatter.
note 2 : the notation MTV is placed for the MTV Live Aid teaser.
note 3 : the notation MESSAGE is placed for the personalities messages patronized by Sally Fields. They all include phone numbers and address of the Live Aid fundation for donations and a presentation of the African famine relief, and what are the actions needed to stop the famine.
note 4 : Chevrolet have two types of commercials. The commercials noted here Chevrolet Sponsor are spots I would qualify "racists". We can hear a sloappy song in the background that goes along "Let them know we are America ..." it shows "all the Americans that spend efforts in Africa to help the populations". It makes me sick. At least AT&T (that supplied lot of free phone numbers and furnitures) made a sponsor clip with images of hunger and Band Aid actions, with no "proud America" lyrics and the simple message "AT&T is honoured to participate in this event" ... It is called dignity, isn't it ? Of course the other type of Chevrolet commercials are using the typical symbols melting power sensation / girl attraction. 180° away from the topic of the day.
note 5 : the tapes I bought are the result of merging many tapes on only three. At moments you can see there was a switch on the original tape that is noted below Tape switch. Fortunatley the tapes were switched very fast and only few seconds are missing on the broadcast.
note 6 : all interviews are recorded earlier backstage, unless when noted "live" and are them made on the MTV spot on the left of the stage.
note 7 : some timings may not be identical as on the other pages of this site, as timings on this page do not include the inter-song chatters.