MTV Disses Vail, But What About Aspen?

November 12th, 2006 at 09:11am Michael Conniff 2

The announcement last season that MTV would launch its high-definition service from high atop Vail was a head-scratcher for those of us who saw Aspen as the perfect place for just such a venture.

So the announcement that MTV is pulling the plug on Vail comes as no surprise whatsoever. Why? Unlike Aspen, there was no way Vail was going to have the criticial mass of entertainers and artists heading to the Mountains. Unlike Aspen, Vail has no X Games and no U.S. Comedy Arts Festival to call its own, let along Jazz Aspen Snowmass and the bands busting through Belly Up every night.

In other words, the intersection of music, the arts, and sports that Aspen is so famous for has no analogy in the Vail valley. Sure, there's the Pilar Center for high culture and places to hear live music, but high culture hasn't had anything to do with high-definition since Bravo first went live in the 1980s.

"The studio in Vail was a short-term venue," said MTV's high-def general manager Eric Sherman, "used to launch the network in a captivating environment."

Yeah, well, maybe--though no one was talking short-term at the time of the launch, and it looked at the time as if Vail Resorts had beaten Aspen Skiing Co. to the punch. Now Vail Resorts are stuck with the high-def studios in the Eagle's Nest building at the top of the gondola, not exactly the most convenient spot for your next music video.

Meanwhile, while visions of video terrain parks were dancing in the heads of MTV, the world was moving inexorably toward MySpace.com, Facebook, iTunes, and other (better) ways for one and all to get their MTV. Would the idea of a high-def eagle's nest have worked in Aspen? Maybe so. But in either case, whether Vail or Aspen, MTV would have been heading for the mountains even as the industry it once dominated was moving to higher ground.

Entry Filed under: Music, Vail, Media, Aspen, Colorado, Comedy