Samantha

There's no doubt it's E.Q. Vance. Some of the other elements from this period are even more Vance-y; the dotted texture, the animation, the typefaces. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=uiflX0e1-pI;t=19

I wonder if some of the reorchestration was done by AM Music (Steven R. Allen and David C. Maddux). There's a relevant Copyright Office entry: "KIRO news, the spirit of the N. W.; K I R O radio and TV news Christmas song." (1984) The follow-up theme KIRO 1989/1990 was also done by them, we believe. AM Music also has a "KEZI TV theme" to its name and the original music theme to Almost Live!. Also, that KNSD look had to be so upscale for '88...it still holds up after thirty years, though more as a period piece.

The transition from "Area 10 Eyewitness News" to "The Daily News" at WAVY took place in 1981. Here's an aircheck of highlights of the last weeknight Area 10 Eyewitness News:

A three-part series on the early days of KPAX (1975-88). The station signed on in '75 but didn't begin any local production until two years later, starting up inserts in the MTN News then fed from Great Falls. A full-on local newscast from Missoula was introduced in 1986:

López went to KTMD within just a couple of years from that clip. Surprised it took KXLN a while to get news going.

If that's the name of it, then it's the Peters package for KNTV...

In 1984, you could get Paul Harvey's commentary in Flint on WEYI 25 News... (It's not much, but this is a rare station generally.) The WNYW 10 O'Clock News from 1992:

More Eric King goodies. WRBL in 1995 looked...pretty pedestrian: Another KMID newscast from 1995, this time at 6pm: WTVG's 13 Action News in 1997: WFLA in February 1998:

The WLVI open is interesting. Very WGN-esque. Here's its competitor, the WBZ 10pm for WSBK, from two nights prior:

Hey @Info Junkie you said you wanted more mid-90s KAKE because of those 2D graphics...

Alrighty then, but still...I wonder if he might know who wrote that theme then...

Yeah, that KQTV theme oozes Network. KTVO, KHQA and WGEM are extremely rare news-wise. As to the KTVO/WDAM similarities, both were owned by Federal Broadcasting. Compare the KTVO open to what WDAM had in the end-of-80s to 1994/95 period. The "NEWS" logos are almost exactly the same. And the open animation and style are fairly similar, though WDAM's is more elaborate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JnEufaZ-ek [MEDIA=vimeo]244040736[/MEDIA] (17:28) Also worth noting is the brief Rockies spring training shot, which shows a KOLD outfield ad that must be from 1993, or maybe a little earlier if it was up for the Indians when they were at Hi Corbett (oddly it must have stayed up in '94 even though CBS lost the World Series): The KOLD logo from this period is extremely rare, and so too is footage of the station.

Did KTVO call up WDAM and have them do their open? The WGEM open uses the WUAB/WICU syndicated graphics. The compilation is killer! The long KCNC 5pm tease is excellent. There's also one of just St. Louis and KC from him:

That sounds more likely, but who knows? Was that theme even in use in December '79?

Here's a late Canadian selection... The CFCF Pulse theme debuted in September 1997 was written by Peter McLaughlin of Montreal. The theme was the successor to Total News for CFCF, as demonstrated by this June 20, 1996 edition of Pulse: ——— Not quite a composer, but worth noting. The date is 12/21/79, so the theme mentioned is News People??? "He was, for example, largely responsible for the new set and opening-credit sequence on Channel 2's newscasts. ([Paul] Paolicelli, who used to be a trumpet player, even wrote part of the new theme music.) Before coming to Atlanta, Paolicelli was a consultant with Frank Magid Associates, the based TV news consultant firm that has, rightly or wrongly, become identified with the trend in local newscasts toward "cosmetics" over substance."

So...did they add any newscasts? Or just new news features? This was apparently a fairly long strike, too.

It's an LPTV talk show from Akron, Ohio in 1993! (Evidently this was taped over something from WTVT) The LPTV is no longer with us. It sold for spectrum last year.

The AZFamily site was not converted until the merger of the KTVK and KPHO sites and web presences. Until that time, kpho.com was on the old platform and azfamily.com was on something similar but with a slightly newer look.

The KSAZ 2018 minute image song is noteworthy if only because it only says Just You Watch, not Just You Watch the Best... Also note the clever use of the large screen on the news set in the beginning! The original slogan was simply Just You Watch — but it hadn't been just those three words since its first year as a campaign, in 1999! (And yes, we have the original.)

KRQE's late newscasts were thrown out the window tonight when the building was evacuated for a police situation. [MEDIA=twitter]1013649827459035137[/MEDIA] KOB, which is across the street, went on lockdown as well. KRQE viewers saw a black screen or color bars: [MEDIA=twitter]1013647892723130368[/MEDIA] [MEDIA=twitter]1013638906556764161[/MEDIA]

A WCCO weather warning inserted into a simulcast of an ESPN Sunday Night NFL game with the Vikings in 1993. 'CCO split-screens to cut in:

Two excerpts of early 80s WCTV. The second one includes the open from the period:

A KWQC tape (1 hour 20 minutes) on a 1990 flood in the Quad Cities area: And a WCPX morning cut-in from 1996:

They definitely wanted a...simpler look compared to the wild 1994 package they had [08:53]. There's a partial WCAX newscast from 1991 along with the CBS Evening News for November 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=xn_m6qRZ-C4;t=181

The Team to Watch inspiration is super visible in this WGRZ promo from 1985: