MSNBC's On-Air Launch 1996-07-15

And so it began. On 15 July 1996, the U.S. gained a new 24 hour news channel which was then a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft. For some hours leading up to the launch, MSNBC was running a countdown of continuous commercials for their new cable network. When the counter finally reached zero, MSNBC came on the air for the first time. Jodi Applegate (who later left the NBC family after her failed "Later Today" show) was the first anchor. (Apologies for the tracking issues -- this is from a VHS tape recorded at 6 hour, EP speed.)