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Spring 2004

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Profile: Michael Garvey '87
The Making of a Classic

—Nikolas Markantonatos ’04




	Under the direction of Michael Garvey ’87, VH1 Classic draws in fans of vintage hits, both young and old. (photo by Ben Barnhart)

THE TELEVISION STUDIO OF VH1 Classic resembles a comfortable basement.

Album covers plaster its yellow walls and shag carpeting adds to the retro vibe of the fledgling digital cable channel known for playing music from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Though the channel was designed to attract aging baby boomers, Classic draws in young and old viewers alike. Chalk it up to audiences’ insatiable appetite for nostalgia—without having to break out the Aqua Net.

“We started with the assumption that we’d attract a post-VH1 audience because of the music we play,” says Michael Garvey ’87, executive director for VH1 Classic. “But magazines like Spin, Rolling Stone, and Magnet are praising the channel, and if you look at their demographics, you can see where we’re at.”

Overall, reviews of the channel have been enthusiastic. Entertainment Weekly gushed: “At the risk of sounding a bit hyperbolic, can we just say that VH1 Classic is the greatest channel ever in the history of the world?”

Garvey, 39, looks at home in Classic’s funky studio. Despite ownership by corporate media giant Viacom, which racked up $24.6 billion in revenues in 2002, the station is headquartered in New York’s artsy Greenwich Village. A music aficionado with a laid-back sensibility, Garvey finds the perfect outlet for his creativity in Classic. “This is an ideal job for me because the music I’m into—bands like sigur rós and 16 Horsepower—is very, very left of center,” he says.

As manager, Garvey oversees the production and programming staff, including video crews that film guests who drop by the studio (think of Al Green and Don McLean). “I direct the day-to-day music programming,” adds Garvey. He also communicates frequently with record labels about promoting artists’ work.

Garvey grew up in Auburn, Mass., and graduated from UMass with a degree in hotel administration. But his interest in music led him in a different direction. He earned an associate’s degree in audio engineering from Full Sail College in Winter Park, FL., in 1992.

At first, Garvey’s search for a job as an audio engineer was fruitless. Then he contacted Betsy Forhan ’90, a friend from UMass. She was working in the MTV news department and helped him land an internship at VH1 that same year.

He was on his way, except for one small detail: overcoming his fear of the big city.
“I had only been here once before,” he says. “Coming into the city, especially when you see the skyline, is a pretty crazy thing.”

By the second week of the internship Garvey was adjusting to life in New York—and had joined the VH1 payroll. “I suspect the producer was happy with my work,” he says of his big break. He steadily rose through the ranks at the channel until assuming his current executive role at VH1 Classic in 2000, a rising star in Viacom’s holdings.

VH1 Classic appeals to viewers for several reasons, according to Garvey. First, the channel plays videos most music fans have never seen; MTV and VH1 play videos in specific time frames for several months, then banish them from playlists. This creates a vast library of oldies but goodies for Classic to choose from, says Garvey.

“People are like ‘I can’t even believe the Cocteau Twins made videos.’ Sure they did, but unless you were watching in that brief window, chances are you missed it.”
Second, much of today’s music harks back to previous decades, making it popular with current audiences. Pop bands such as The Strokes, matchbox twenty and the Donnas count themselves among Classic fans.

Garvey and his team are still molding the channel, which currently reaches 30 million homes—up from three million in 2000. Its appeal to a potential market of 76 million affluent baby boomers ensures the channel long-term success. Record labels are courting the channel as they have come to realize its marketing potential.

“We’ve talked about doing big stunts like quarterly or yearly things. Like MTV’s Video Music Awards, or VH1’s ‘Big in 2003 Awards.’” He stops himself short. “If you look at us as if we’re a child learning how to walk, we’ve still got a few years before that kind of production budget is in place.”

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