{"id":7123,"date":"2026-07-16T00:36:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:36:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7123"},"modified":"2026-07-16T00:36:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T19:36:25","slug":"dave-kendall-dead-former-mtv-host","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=7123","title":{"rendered":"Dave Kendall Dead: Former MTV Host"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/dave-kendall\/\" id=\"auto-tag_dave-kendall_1\" data-tag=\"dave-kendall\">Dave Kendall<\/a>, the creator and host of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/t\/mtv\/\" id=\"auto-tag_mtv_1\" data-tag=\"mtv\">MTV<\/a>\u2018s <em>120 Minutes<\/em>, has died.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKendall\u2019s former colleague Matt Pinfield announced his death on social media. No cause of death has been presented, and Kendall\u2019s age has not officially been confirmed. Kendall\u2019s Wikipedia page lists his age at 68.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cHeartbroken to hear about the passing of Dave Kendall,\u201d Pinfield wrote on Tuesday. \u201cDave was one of the true believers. Long before alternative music found its way into the mainstream, he was there every week on <em>120 Minutes<\/em>, introducing people to bands that would go on to define an era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t<em>120 Minutes<\/em> was not some sort of ironic or deep series title \u2014 the late, late night show played music videos for two hours. What a time it was. These days, MTV barely exists. The Paramount Global-owned cable channel pretty much just airs <em>Jersey Shore<\/em> shows, <em>The Challenge<\/em>, and reruns of old <em>Ridiculousness<\/em> episodes. Music videos exist pretty much just on YouTube and Vimeo. But in the time of Kendall and Pinfield, MTV and the visuals it provided could launch (and sometimes stifle) an artist\u2019s entire career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201c[Kendall] didn\u2019t just host a show,\u201d Pinfield continued. \u201cHe 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\u2019s a rare gift.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tPinfield would know \u2014 he hosted <em>120 Minutes<\/em> a few years after Kendall\u2019s tenure ended.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKendall created the program in 1986 and became its host in 1988. In 1991, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WMYGkhm3DRk\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=WMYGkhm3DRk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">famously debuted<\/a> Nirvana\u2019s music video for <em>Smells Like Teen Spirit<\/em>, the song that launched grunge into the stratosphere and changed pretty much everything about rock and alternative music. Kendall exited the program the following year; Pinfield took over in 1995.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tLater, Kendall would host a radio show on SiriusXM and return to journalism via the Bangkok Post.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\t\u201cSending love to everyone whose life he touched,\u201d Pinfield\u2019s X post concluded. \u201cRest easy, Dave.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/  a-font-body-m     \">\n\tKendall began his career as a music journalist in his home country of England.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dave Kendall, the creator and host of MTV\u2018s 120 Minutes, has died. Kendall\u2019s former colleague Matt Pinfield announced his death on social media. No cause of death has been presented, and Kendall\u2019s age has not officially been confirmed. Kendall\u2019s Wikipedia page lists his age at 68. \u201cHeartbroken to hear about the passing of Dave Kendall,\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Dave-Kendall-Obit-Template-Headshot-Getty-H-2026.jpg?w=1296&h=730&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}