Discovered composers & publishers of music themes

[SoFloTVClassics 972]

 

4 hours ago, jerseyfla said:

Yes, you’ll need to watch it on a desktop with Adobe Flash. If only I knew how to rip it to mp4 and put it on Youtube.

Try using puffin.

Edited June 6, 2020 by SoFloTVClassics

[KnoxvilleTVFan 286]

I recently got to see a WLKY newscast clip from April 1984 and if I am not mistaken, the WLKY news theme they used may have been done by the same composer who did the "9 Country/11 Country" package for WTCN/KBTV. 
 

You can go to 2:14 to hear the opening theme they used.

[Info Junkie 1286]

30 minutes ago, KnoxvilleTVFan said:

I recently got to see a WLKY newscast clip from April 1984 and if I am not mistaken, the WLKY news theme they used may have been done by the same composer who did the "9 Country/11 Country" package for WTCN/KBTV. 
 

You can go to 2:14 to hear the opening theme they used.

Makes sense, because both stations had the same owners a year earlier. Maybe this was commissioned for WLKY under Gannett??

Oh wait a minute.....

Its possible WLKY and WBTV both we’re commissioners, or both were different firms altogether.

[Samantha 2895]

Huh, that's an interesting thought.

 

We know that it's from an image package called Looking Better All the Time which WBTV also used. (We know WLKY used the image, too.) KAMR also used the theme.

 

They also emerged around the same time (circa 1983).

 

WBTV would make more sense of the stations that used it to have it written. 'BTV had a lengthy history of custom music (Part of Your Life, Bringing It Home to You, the "Turn to People You Know" image they used in 1980-81, this, and Signature). But not everything the station used was custom (particularly the WCCO '83/84 set, or the Palmer package).

Edited June 12, 2020 by Samantha

[Ntropolis 596]

17 hours ago, Samantha said:

WBTV would make more sense of the stations that used it to have it written. 'BTV had a lengthy history of custom music (Part of Your Life, Bringing It Home to You, the "Turn to People You Know" image they used in 1980-81, this, and Signature). But not everything the station used was custom (particularly the WCCO '83/84 set, or the Palmer package).

Related to WBTV... they appeared to have an “On Your Side” campaign during the PNP era; an instrumental is heard during this sign-off/sign-on message:

 

 

Shelly Palmer has done station image songs in the past, but this doesn’t sound like Palmer to me.

Edited June 12, 2020 by Ntropolis

[10Viewer 334]

So it sounds like WTOL was another station that used the "WPXI 1981 News Theme" based on the ID at the beginning of this clip:

 

 

I also found a print ad that proves without a doubt that WTOL used "News People" in the late '70s. The print ad matches word for word the lyrics of that package.

[capsgm2002 65]

The WJZ 1975 News Theme has been identified:

 

It’s Pulsar by Stardrive. 
 

Edited June 19, 2020 by capsgm2002

[10Viewer 334]

10 hours ago, capsgm2002 said:

The WJZ 1975 News Theme has been identified:

 

It’s Pulsar by Stardrive. 
 

Awesome song! Almost sounds like it was written for TV news, the first minute anyway.

[CircleSeven 1955]

How about the music at the beginning & the ending of that NMSA sample? That's different from the now-identified music on the middle of the sample.

 

 

 

[10Viewer 334]

3 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

How about the music at the beginning & the ending of that NMSA sample? That's different from the now-identified music on the middle of the sample.

 

 

 

 

I noticed that, too.

[capsgm2002 65]

I think the songs in the beginning and end of that clip are a different song, perhaps the WBMG News Theme of the 1970’s? I don’t think they used Pulsar in any form. 

[CircleSeven 1955]

30 minutes ago, capsgm2002 said:

I don’t think they used Pulsar in any form. 

 

Pulsar was used..... Especially in this Al & Jerry promo at the beginning of this vid.

 

Vid courtesy of "eyeontv" from YT,

[capsgm2002 65]

11 hours ago, CircleSeven said:

 

Pulsar was used..... Especially in this Al & Jerry promo at the beginning of this vid.

 

Vid courtesy of "eyeontv" from YT,

Oh no, I meant WBMG. There are a few opens from the Oprah era at WJZ on the Internet Archive with Pulsar in it. 

[TServo2049 81]

I am assuming that WBMG only used Pulsar as bumper music going to commercials; it's heard behind a "coming up" tease / stock market summary / community bulletin board or something like that, in that compilation of 70s/80s Florida/Alabama news clips that has floated around for years. In fact, I believe NMSA's audio montage is just ripped directly from that compilation, without any edits.

Edited June 22, 2020 by TServo2049

[NewsStar2 90]

Finally found a non horrendously recorded version of KHOU's 1989 theme that plays effectively at length (almost 1:30!) - though I am still curious as to who did it.

 

The news package and the image stuff are somewhat of a departure from TM's better known work which inspired this, and several of the other subsequent packages that they used over the years.  

 

 

[NewsStar2 90]

It looks like KHTV (currently KIAH) was another user of the music the NMSA currently has listed as the "WTVX 1983 News Theme"

 

A minute long clip of it appears at 6:13 in this video as part of a promo for the daytime lineup, circa June 1983.  10 second IDs featuring it appear at 8:43 & 14:27

 

I'm curious if, though doubt, they used it for their hourly news briefs during this period. They didn't use any music for the news briefs they did during the "39 Gold" era that followed just a few months later, though that branding came with a completely different look and sound.

 

 

[TServo2049 81]

Correction from a post I did some weeks back theorizing about the possible origins of the KTXL/WRAL early 80s music package: Cascom most certainly did not do the WRAL 1982 animations. I was re-reading a Millimeter back issue in my personal collection, and was reminded that I had already seen stills from the WRAL '82 animation package in an ad for Bill Feigenbaum's studio (which was based in NYC). Just wanted to put that here.

 

As to that WTVX package, I still think it could have been done in Dallas. (KHTV's music image package in the "39 Gold" period - which, as you say, didn't have corresponding news music - also sounds to have been done in Dallas. I swear it sounds like the late Chris Kershaw on solo vocals, but whether it was done by JAM, or he did it independently, I have no idea. Also I don't think I've heard a version that wasn't camcorded off a TV, as most of the YT clips I've seen of that period were.)

Edited July 31, 2020 by TServo2049

[Ntropolis 596]

I'm trying to identify a theme that isn't on the NMSA... yet. It's the music WBTW was using in 1985. I think it's a production track. It sounds a bit like Network Music, but I can't find anything from their albums on the Universal site.
 

 

It was used in the opens too. Listen at the 1:14 mark
https://www.wbtw.com/news13-digital-first/news13-turns-65-a-look-back-at-the-station-and-the-stories-its-told/

[sfomspphl 490]

Anyone want to bet the 83ish KPRC theme (also used at KICU San Jose) was a Telesound production

 

http://www.newsmusicsearcharchive.com/#3,1,524

 

Shrill strings, opens with the repeating text of the anchor names scrolling down seem the giveaways

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2020 by sfomspphl

[TServo2049 81]

On 8/31/2020 at 5:05 PM, sfomspphl said:

Anyone want to bet the 83ish KPRC theme (also used at KICU San Jose) was a Telesound production

 

Shrill strings, opens with the repeating text of the anchor names scrolling down seem the giveaways

Oh, I’d almost bet actual money on it, especially considering that KICU used Telesound’s “You Should See Us Now” promo campaign concurrently with that news package.

Edited September 6, 2020 by TServo2049

[onthesea 292]

I'm trying to identify 2 themes:
The first one (used by an Argentine cable channel to present the frontpages of the morning newspapers) sounds like being from Stephen Arnold.

(here's the full clean cut, but without information about its composer)

Also, this theme used by Brazil's Rede Bandeirantes evening news in the early 1990s. It's been used by Georgia Public TV for one of its idents.

 

Edited October 7, 2020 by onthesea

[promoguy98 253]

It's been a while! So glad to be back on TVNewsTalk and hope to contribute occasionally on this thread that I started ages ago.

 

Someone once asked about the KTAL 1997 THEME, so here's a clean 60 second copy inside my shared TVNT dropbox folder. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qaae8xleopm5u0i/AACWvWssd11wXNjJOYO2fIUza?dl=0

 

This may be of interest to you @T.L. Hughes

 

Theme title is "Newsworthy"  - - it has about 5 lengths and was produced by Backtraxx, a buyout collection which supplemented a bunch of looping video backgrounds on DVD, all which later merged into what is now Digital Juice. I have no idea if any of those original CD cuts were incorporated.

 

Here's the wonky (broken link) site I once discovered it from:

http://www.tingfong.com.tw/BackTraxx1/volumes/corpind3.htm

 

 

 

Edited October 9, 2020 by promoguy98

[Samantha 2895]

Very nice snag @promoguy98!

 

I actually nailed a trio of interesting finds lately that are somewhat in the NMSA, but I wanted to put them here too:

 

Shreveport

 

The Shreveport Journal in 1984 did an article on news music and it included IDs for three different pieces of news music!

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59728001/

 

KSLA's theme is a custom by Jake Pittman of Dallas. (He died at 50 in 2004.)

 

KTBS is also a custom done by Skeetz Music Co. of Indianapolis. The NMSA has yet to add this one because it actually represents a date change for KTBS '82. The mention of not having a final beat is a glove fit for this.

 

KTAL used a theme by Al LeGrand (LeGrand and Associates, a local ad agency) and Dan Newman. We've never heard it, either!

 

KOVR/Dan Milner

 

Years ago, I ran on ASCAP into an entry for a KOVR News Theme by Dan Milner (Wintermoon Music) but had nothing to go on.

 

Until @Spectrum27 turned up its use as a background bed on American Gladiators:

 

 

Milner composed the theme to the show, too, and one of his demos has a few cuts from the KOVR '95 package in it. That's one way to ID a theme!

 

KCST - Working to Be Your 1st Choice

 

KCST 1985 (now correctly dated 1984) was not a package I expected to have an image associated. Well, I was very wrong!

 

 

Wanted to bring this to the attention of the music hounds. Tuesday? Silvertree (which was formed at the start of '84)?

[TheOneManHerd 553]

18 minutes ago, Samantha said:

 

 

Wanted to bring this to the attention of the music hounds. Tuesday? Silvertree (which was formed at the start of '84)?

Dead ringer for Tuesday.

 

And speaking of Tuesday, I'm pretty sure these promos from WCPX are from Tuesday, as well. The first one even has the same musical signature as Tuesday11. The WCPX 1982 themes might very well be from Tuesday11, possibly a different package, but definitely Tuesday.

 

Edited October 9, 2020 by TheOneManHerd

[promoguy98 253]

 

15 minutes ago, Samantha said:

Very nice snag @promoguy98!

 

Shreveport

 

The Shreveport Journal in 1984 did an article on news music and it included IDs for three different pieces of news music!

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59728001/

 

KSLA's theme is a custom by Jake Pittman of Dallas. (He died at 50 in 2004.)

 

Awesome find @Samantha over the KSLA Theme. I known for some time that it came from Dallas, just didn't know who. Jake also composed and produced tracks for TM Century. Sometime in the late 90s/early 2000's, TM formed a TV music division called "Jake and The Boys", so there could be a few other unknown themes out there that he was a part of.

Edited October 9, 2020 by promoguy98