30 years ago today - Feb 11, 1985

In a vote taken by residents of Carriage Cove Apartments in Provo, Utah, 221 tenants said "yes" to MTV. Only 167 voted "no," 188 didn't vote, and 4 said they didn't care. Four bishops had banded together to stop MTV availability in various off-campus BYU-approved housing complexes. Before the vote Bishop Leo Wiedner (also Carriage Cove's part-owner and manager), confident that BYU students will vote MTV down, says, "I think I pretty well know how it's going to turn out." At nearby Raintree Apartments a non-secret poll is taken at the bishop's request by manager Hyde Taylor. 27% return the polling letter with 13% against MTV and 14% in favor. Taylor concludes this is insufficient to restore MTV. The story is picked up by the national media and Weidner and Raintree Apartment bishop Jack Christensen appear on "Take Two" TV program from Salt Lake City to defend their actions. Christianson is the author of MUSIC: APPLES OR ONIONS?, a book that defends the LDS church position that hard or "acid" rock music is harmful. Part of the research for this book involved listening to such rock groups as "Black Sabbath," and, he claims, such listening adversely affected him. "I was not as happy as I used to be," he recalls. "I was ornery and disagreeable." However, he adds, "Just because people don't have the same high standards I'm trying to uphold, I don't think less of them."