SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
After 36 years, MTV News is shutting down.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MTV NEWS")
SONYA SAUL: Hi. Sonya Saul here with MTV News.
PFEIFFER: The channel started in the '80s. And in its heyday, it was an essential source for music interviews with guests like Madonna, Prince and Tupac. Here he is in 1992.
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TUPAC: There's no way. There's no way that these people should own planes, and there are people that don't have houses, apartments, shacks, drawers, pants.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And it was home to journalists like Sway Calloway, SuChin Pak, Alison Stewart, Kurt Loder.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MTV NEWS")
KURT LODER: Hi, I'm Kurt Loder with an MTV News special report. On a very sad day, Kurt Cobain, the leader of one of rock's most gifted and promising bands, Nirvana, is dead. And this is the story...
KELLY: It was a meaningful source of the day's news for many millennials and Gen Xers - like us, Sacha - remembering the fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989.
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SAUL: How do you feel about this situation now? Tomorrow, the wall is open. What do you think about that?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Well, I think it's great. I'm just - I don't know - I can't believe it. I think I'm in a dream or something. I went to...
PFEIFFER: MTV News found a way to speak to young people and with them. Remember this town hall with then-President Bill Clinton in 1994?
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LAETITIA THOMPSON: Mr. President, the world is dying to know. Is it boxers or briefs?
(LAUGHTER)
BILL CLINTON: Usually briefs.
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: I can't believe she did that.
KELLY: I can't believe she did either.
PFEIFFER: (Laughter).
KELLY: Totally unforgettable moment. The staff of MTV News joins journalists from other outlets that have recently endured layoffs or closed completely, including Vice, BuzzFeed News, Vox and Gawker.
PFEIFFER: So for one last time, with nostalgic memories for people like Mary Louise and me, who were teenagers when MTV News came out.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: MTV News - you hear it first.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN PETERSEN'S AND JONATHAN ELIAS' "MAN ON THE MOON (OFFICIAL MTV THEME)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
