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History

Night Tracks also had its own related programs over its 9 year history:

America's Music Tracks (premiered 10/??/1983): An hour of the best Country music videos. (last air date 0?/??/1984)

Chartbusters (premiered 05/19/1984): An hour long Top 10 (changed to Top 20 in 1990) music video show countdown. It also featured a BREAKER video that was destined to hit the charts soon.

Power Play (premiered 10/04/1985): An hour of the best music videos.

Power Play Dancin' (premiered 02/??/1988): An hour long Top 10 Dance videos. (replaced Power Play)

Power Hits (premiered 08/18/1989): An hour of Hard Rock music videos. (replaced Power Play Dancin', last air date 02/??/1990)

Night Flicks (premiered 08/18/1989): A byproduct of Night Tracks, it is a 4 hour movie presentation that uses Night Tracks' theme music. If I recalled, the name "Night Flicks" was once used on Night Tracks as a sneak preview trailer of an upcoming movie at the theaters. (replaced most of Night Tracks, later changed to Nite Flix)

New Alternative Express (premiered 08/03/1991): A hour long Top 10 Alternative videos. (replaced Chartbusters, last air date 05/30/1992)

Timeslot History

Here is what I can recall the timeslots that Night Tracks and its related programming were placed over its 9 year history. My favorite is from 1985-1989 of course! Please note that the schedule below is listed as if the shows were aired in those timeslots without Sports and/or other programs preempting them. On all cases, Night Tracks is to terminate at 6:00 AM ET/ 3:00 AM PT for the exception on late Fridays/ early Saturdays when in:
1989-90 it was 5:00 AM ET/ 2:00 AM PT and in
1990-92 it was 5:30 AM ET/ 2:30 AM PT.

1983-1984

TIMES (ET/PT)	FRIDAY NIGHTS	SATURDAY NIGHTS	SUNDAY NIGHTS
8:05 PM/ 5:05 PM			America's Music Tracks (1:00)
12:05 AM/ 9:05 PM	Night Tracks (part 1) (3:00)	Night Tracks (part 2) (2:55)
3:00 AM/ 12:00 AM		Night Tracks (part 1) (3:00)
3:05 AM/ 12:05 AM	Night Tracks (part 2) (2:55)

1984-1985

TIMES (ET/PT)	FRIDAY NIGHTS	SATURDAY NIGHTS
11:05 PM/ 8:05 PM		Chartbusters (1:00)
12:05 AM/ 9:05 PM	Night Tracks (part 1) (3:00)	Night Tracks (part 2) (2:55)
3:00 AM/ 12:00 AM		Night Tracks (part 1) (3:00)
3:05 AM/ 12:05 AM	Night Tracks (part 2) (2:55)

1985-1989

TIMES (ET/PT)	FRIDAY NIGHTS	SATURDAY NIGHTS
11:05 PM/ 8:05 PM	Power Play (Power Play Dancin' in 1988-1989) (1:00)	Chartbusters (1:00)
12:05 AM/ 9:05 PM	Night Tracks (part 1) (3:00)	Night Tracks (part 2) (2:55)
3:00 AM/ 12:00 AM		Night Tracks (part 1) (3:00)
3:05 AM/ 12:05 AM	Night Tracks (part 2) (2:55) (abbreviated in 1989)

1989-1990

TIMES (ET/PT)	FRIDAY NIGHTS	SATURDAY NIGHTS
11:05 PM/ 8:05 PM	Power Hits (1:00)	Chartbusters (1:00)
12:05 AM/ 9:05 PM	Night Flicks (2:00)	Night Flicks (2:00)
2:05 AM/ 11:00 PM	Night Tracks (part 1) (2:00)	Night Tracks (part 2) (1:55)
4:00 AM/ 1:00 AM		Night Tracks (part 1) (2:00)
4:05 AM/ 1:05 AM	Night Tracks (part 2) (abbreviated)

1990-1991

TIMES (ET/PT)	FRIDAY NIGHTS	SATURDAY NIGHTS
11:05 PM/ 8:05 PM		Chartbusters (1:00)
12:05 AM/ 9:05 PM	Night Flicks (2:00)	Night Flicks (2:00)
2:05 AM/ 11:05 PM	Night Tracks (part 1) (1:30)	Night Tracks (part 2) (1:25)
3:30 AM/ 12:30 AM		Night Tracks (part 1) (1:30)
3:35 AM/ 12:35 AM	Night Tracks (part 2) (1:25)
5:00 AM/ 2:00 AM	Night Tracks (part 1) (abbreviated)	Night Tracks (part 2) (abbreviated)

1991-1992

TIMES (ET/PT)	FRIDAY NIGHTS	SATURDAY NIGHTS
11:05 PM/ 8:05 PM		Night Flicks (2:00)
12:05 AM/ 9:05 PM	Night Flicks (2:00)
1:05 AM/ 10:05 PM		New Alternative Express (1:00)
2:05 AM/ 11:05 PM	Night Tracks: The music that matters (part 1) (1:30)	Night Tracks: The music that matters (part 2) (1:25)
3:30 AM/ 12:30 AM		Night Tracks: The music that matters (part 1) (1:30)
3:35 AM/ 12:35 AM	Night Tracks: The music that matters (part 2) (1:25)
5:00 AM/ 2:00 AM	Night Tracks: The music that matters (part 1) (abbreviated)	Night Tracks: The music that matters (part 2) (abbreviated)

History

Also, I'm still depressed about Night Tracks' cancellation that sometimes I dream about its return.

Here is the chronological order of what I remember about Night Tracks' rise and demise:
(Notes: This does not include the short lived one hour sister program of Night Tracks called America's Music Tracks which aired country music videos on Sunday nights in 1983. Please see Night Tracks Related Programs And Timeslot History for more information on that show. Notice that I'm not much of a fan of Alternative/Grunge music.)

The rise of Night Tracks...

1983 JUNE 3: 12 hrs. of Night Tracks premiered.
1984 SUMMER?: From 12 hrs. to 13 hrs.
Reason: The premiere of Chartbusters on Night Tracks Saturdays.
1985 SUMMER?: From 13 hrs. to 14 hrs.
Reason: The premiere of Power Play on Night Tracks Fridays. It is like a shortened version of Night Tracks which is sort of redundant.
1988 SPRING: Power Play became Power Play Dancin' which played the top 10 dance videos.

The start of the decline...

1989 APRIL: From 14 hrs. to 13 hrs.
Reason: Friday nights ended 1 hour early.
1989 AUGUST: From 13 hrs. to 9 hrs.
Reason: The premiere of Night Flicks, which took away the time allotted for music videos and can be considered as when it started "jumping the shark". Instead of Night Tracks being 3 hours long for each of the two shows, it became only 2 hours. Also, Power Play Dancin' became Power Hits which played Hard Rock and Metal videos.
1990 FEBRUARY: From 9 hrs. to 8 hrs.
Reason: Power Hits got cancelled.
1990 MARCH: From 8 hrs. to 6 hrs.
Reason: Each half of Night Tracks was cut 30 minutes so instead of the already reduced 2 hours long for each of the two shows, it became only 1½ hours.

Here was one small breath of hope.

1990 SUMMER: From 6 hrs. to 6 hrs., 30 min.
Reason: 30 minutes went back to Friday nights.

Now back to the gradual demise.

1991 FEBRUARY: From 6 hrs., 30 min. to 4 hrs., 30 min.
Reason: College Crush Groove (Alternative videos) replaced 30 minutes from each half of Night Tracks.
1991 AUGUST 3: From 4 hrs., 30 min. to 3 hrs., 30 min.
Reason: The New Alternative Express (top 10 Alternative videos) premiered which replaced Chartbusters.
1991 AUGUST 16: From 3 hrs., 30 min. to 0 hrs.
Reason: Night Tracks completely abandoned Pop/Top 40 and went towards Alternative Rock and Rap.
1992 MAY: The 6 hrs., 30 min. that was all devoted to mostly unknown music was cancelled. To me, the original show was cancelled that sad day in August of 1991.

1995 JANUARY: TBS Superstation had this one hour show on Friday nights (repeats on Saturday nights) called "Live At The House Of Blues" that comes on 12:05 ET where Night Tracks used to. Sometimes I pretend that Night Tracks is somehow back but in reality it's not. At least once a month I have dreams that Night Tracks is back and I keep forgetting to tape it to make sure that I'm not dreaming. I wake up later to realize that it was all a dream.