As a preteen, freshman Taylor Eck watched "Total Request Live" everyday after school.
In the epic boy band battle of the late '90s she sided with *NSYNC. As for pop princesses, her allegiances lay with Christina Aguilera.
But when asked about her feelings on TRL's final countdown, Eck said she had no idea the show was even being canceled -- or still on the air.
"Carson Daly is the only host I remember," she said.
After 10 years of filling our after-school music video and live performance fix, "Total Request Live" (aka TRL) is retiring its mainstay status of the countdown era.
From its heyday in the '90s to 2008, TRL was a destination for musicians, movie stars and celebrities promoting new music, movies and other projects.
It debuted in September 1998 amid the teen pop music craze led by Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC. Its final episode is set to air 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Music video lovers and '90s pop culture fans can send one last shout out to MTV's longest running music video countdown show by tuning in to the finale, but will have to access upcoming and vintage music videos via mtvmusic.com instead.
Along with the usual social media element, mtvmusic.com includes a library of videos and the ability to embed the them on personal Web pages. The Web site launched on Oct. 28.
Ball State University TCOM professor Dominic Caristi said one of the reasons TRL may have lost some of its initial televised appeal is due to the increased demand for online, streaming content within the 12- to 25-year-old demographic -- the show's target audience.
Ratings for the show peaked in 1999 with 757,000 viewers tuning in daily, according to Nielsen Media Research.
With entire Web sites and networks dedicated to specific genres coupled with the accessibility of videos on YouTube and iTunes, along with other genres of television, the music video market is fragmenting, Caristi said.
"TRL was early to the interactive game and engaging viewers with voting for videos, which we now see on shows like 'American Idol' and 'Dancing with the Stars'," Caristi said, "but linear television isn't the best way to market music videos anymore. It's a good thing, but alone is not enough."
Caristi said a lot of media companies are trying to go from television to online to collect demographic data, which is "nothing new" and effective for target marketing.
"MTV can only show one thing at a time on TV but has the ability to present multiple things online," he said.
Like Eck, freshman Rachel Hoke tuned in for her daily countdown fix in the late '90s when she was in middle school.
While never really into the boy band craze back then, she still occasionally watches TRL for celebrity appearances.
Hoke still watches MTV, but more for reality shows like "Making the Band" and "Parental Control".
"I probably wouldn't visit the online site [mtvmusic.com], but it sounds like a cool idea," she said.
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
