Maybe it was his tale of having no place to lay his head or a hairdo that looked as if he had laid that head too close to a nuclear reactor, but MTV viewers have spoken, and Jesse Camp, 18, is the winner of the music network's first I Wanna Be a VJ contest.

Camp was one of 4,000 hopefuls who waited outside MTV's New York City studios to compete for the $25,000 gig. He auditioned his way into the finals and on April 18 took on-air trivia tests, conducted a mock interview with actress Kathy Griffin and was interviewed himself by MTV news anchor Kurt Loder while viewers voted via telephone and the Internet.

Victory was as timely as it was sweet for the Hartford, Conn. native, who, after wandering the U.S. for over a year, has been crashing on the floor of a pal's Manhattan pad.

"I can buy a waterbed!" Camp exulted. His long range goal is "To leave my own unique mark, so people will remember me when I'm gone. But I hope that won't be for a long time." More Immediatly, the veejay job he won is described by MTV as temporary, with details to be worked out.

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