Episode Details

Some songs become hits. Others become history. And then there's "Video Killed the Radio Star," a song that practically announced the arrival of the 1980s.

This week on Stuck in the '80s, we welcome Bruce Woolley, the songwriter who co-wrote that iconic tune with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes before The Buggles turned it into a worldwide hit. Of course, the song earned an even bigger place in pop culture history when MTV chose it as the first music video to air on the network on Aug. 1, 1981.

But there's much more to Woolley's story than one unforgettable song.

Bruce takes us back to the early days of "Video Killed the Radio Star," including its creation at his apartment piano, the different approaches he and The Buggles took to recording it, and the unexpected journey from songwriting experiment to new wave immortality.

We also explore his time fronting Bruce Woolley and the Camera Club, a band whose lineup included a young Thomas Dolby, years before "She Blinded Me with Science" made him a household name.

Along the way, Bruce shares stories about working with Horn and Downes, the arrival of new technology in popular music, and what it was like to help create a song that would become a symbol of an entire musical revolution.

It's a fascinating conversation with one of the unsung architects of the '80s — a musician whose work helped shape the sound of a decade before the decade had even begun.

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