R ock music demands visuals, whether it's outrageous fashion or gratuitous laser light shows. But until the early 1980s -- when MTV and VH-1 came along -- you couldn't see rock regularly in your own home. And MTV and VH-1 wouldn't have come along if it weren't for AT&T and communications satellites.

  AT&T launched the first active communications satellite, Telstar, when the top rockers in America were still Chubby Checker and Neil Sedaka. Today, the grandchildren of Chubby and Neil watch rock videos received by a home microdish -- signals sent via an orbiting communications satellite.

[More information about satellites.]