Goodman, who merely introduced the clips and announced the concert dates, explained, "We seem to be doing music that fits into what we want to play on MTV. The company is thinking in terms of narrowcasting." Bowie pressed on. "There seem to be a lot of black artists making very good videos that I'm surprised aren't being used on MTV."

Goodman, placed in the highly uncomfortable position of defending a format totally beyond his control, echoed the company's demographic policy: "We have to try and do what we think not only New York and Los Angeles will appreciate, but also Poughkeepsie or the Midwest. Pick some town in the Midwest which would be scared to death by … a string of other black faces, or black music." He went on, "We have to play music we think an entire country is going to like, and certainly we're a rock-and-roll station."

The exchange got hotter. Bowie asked: "Don't you think it's a frightening predicament to be in?" The intimidated veejay resorted to the radio analogy, "Yeah, but no less so here than in radio."

The British singer pounced on the reply: "Don't say, 'Well, it's not me, it's them.' Is it not possible it should be a conviction of the station and of the radio stations to be fair … to make the media more integrated?"