Discovered composers & publishers of music themes

[TServo2049 81]

On 12/4/2020 at 10:24 AM, promoguy98 said:

@TServo2049@newsteam13 The WAFF/KUSA vocal campaigns brought back a memory. I have not heard this one in years. KLTV in Texas used the same vocals.  KLTV.... East Texas... USA... We're Proud of You (or) Proud of You. Heard it on a non-stop vocal campaign sampler years ago. Gets confusing here - maybe the vocal campaign preceded, by several years, the news package commission for KUSA in 1995? You can hear melody similarities on the nmsa USA NEWS montage - around :30-:54 and definitely around 1:25 and a few other places.

 

I personally believe the news package was created well before 1995 based upon the sounds and instrumentation which would back up the vocal campaign coming out in the 80's. Hope this may help in the answer, even if I'm wrong.

 

Wait...so that promo song was Non-Stop?! And @Samantha's reply makes it sound like it's connected to "KTRE 1993 News Theme", like I initially thought, and not "KSL 1989 News Theme", which is what I changed my mind to say it was connected to? I swear I hear the exact 4-note motif in both KSL 1989 and that promo song; that said, the KTRE 1993(-but-more-like-1988) package seems to have both those four notes and the notes that come after in the song, but the rhythm is different.

 

And I wonder...if that promo song actually was Non-Stop, and if KSL 1989 was the news package to which it was connected (only conjecture because I found that WAFF version of the promo dated 1988 - a year that WAFF was only using KSL 1989, while KTRE 1993 appears to be one of three packages they used in 1989 - and I thought the vocals sounded Tuesday-ish), then could KSL 1989 have also been Non-Stop, and not Tuesday? I always assumed it was Tuesday, it always sounded like Tuesday to me (almost like a quasi-sequel to News 88), and I thought I had gotten enough confirmation from Tom DiNoto before I submitted the composer ID to NMSA. But I went back and dug up his response from 2013, and he actually said "Sounds like us...but can't be sure." It still soundy Tuesday-esque to me...but is it really?

 

KSL and WAFF used KSL "1989", WAFF and KTRE used KTRE "1993", WAFF, KUSA and now apparently KLTV all used the same promo song which shares vague similarities to one or both of the aforementioned themes, and KUSA, KLTV and KTRE all used that Non-Stop "USA News" package whose NMSA samples sound very different (even though @promoguy98 can hear similarities, I haven't found them yet). What a crazy web of connections.

Edited December 8, 2020 by TServo2049

[Samantha 2895]

24 minutes ago, TServo2049 said:

 

Wait...so that promo song was Non-Stop?! Does that mean it was connected to "KTRE 1993 News Theme", like I initially thought, and not "KSL 1989 News Theme"? I swear I hear the exact 4-note motif in both KSL 1989 and that promo song.

 

I wonder...could KSL 1989 have also been Non-Stop, and not Tuesday? I always assumed it was Tuesday, it always sounded like Tuesday to me, and I thought I had gotten enough confirmation from Tom DiNoto before I submitted the composer ID to NMSA. But I went back and dug up his response from 2013, and he actually said "Sounds like us...but can't be sure." It still sounds very Tuesday to me...but is it really?

 

We're kinda thinking that KTRE 93 WAFF 88 and KSL 89 88 might be connected too.

 

Now that I think about it, one of the many articles I've dug up on Non-Stop over the years might actually be mentioning this: https://www.deseret.com/1989/8/28/18821472/recording-whim-led-to-a-hot-impulse-br-top-10-status-of-his-new-age-jazz-album-surprises-orem-musici

 

Quote

Work on the contemporary jazz collection was sporadic, sandwiched between other commitments in 1988, including composing and recording themes for ABC's Monday Night Football and Movie of the Week and music for local KSL and KTVX news.

 

Roll the tape:

 

 

[promoguy98 253]

16 hours ago, Samantha said:

 

We're kinda thinking that KTRE 93 WAFF 88 and KSL 89 88 might be connected too.

 

Now that I think about it, one of the many articles I've dug up on Non-Stop over the years might actually be mentioning this: https://www.deseret.com/1989/8/28/18821472/recording-whim-led-to-a-hot-impulse-br-top-10-status-of-his-new-age-jazz-album-surprises-orem-musici

 

 

Roll the tape:

 

16 hours ago, Samantha said:

 

Hey @TServo2049@Samantha wonder Samatha if you could move these replies and the initial videos or a part of this into the discovered/identifying composers thread? I didn't want to help accidentially steer off this thread in the wrong way haha. I agree with you TServo. I can hear the 4-note motif in KSL 1989 as well. The place where I hear similiarities is the melody in places between the image song and Non-Stop USA News on the NMSA montage. Otherwise, the older news themes have that Tuesday sound... for sure! Just a thought, but it's always possible Non-Stop created the vocal campaign initially without a news package and later on developed news themes based on the popularity and use of the song?  Tuesday could have been inspired by Non-Stop's song campaign and developed that KSL 89 etc theme... or Non-Stop initially made a theme or two when the vocal campaign was made and later on went all out with the legit orchestral news package update to supplement the vocals. So many ways this one could go.  :D

 

 

[Samantha 2895]

22 minutes ago, promoguy98 said:

 

Hey @TServo2049@Samantha wonder Samatha if you could move these replies and the initial videos or a part of this into the discovered/identifying composers thread? I didn't want to help accidentially steer off this thread in the wrong way haha. I agree with you TServo. I can hear the 4-note motif in KSL 1989 as well. The place where I hear similiarities is the melody in places between the image song and Non-Stop USA News on the NMSA montage. Otherwise, the older news themes have that Tuesday sound... for sure! Just a thought, but it's always possible Non-Stop created the vocal campaign initially without a news package and later on developed news themes based on the popularity and use of the song?  Tuesday could have been inspired by Non-Stop's song campaign and developed that KSL 89 etc theme... or Non-Stop initially made a theme or two when the vocal campaign was made and later on went all out with the legit orchestral news package update to supplement the vocals. So many ways this one could go. 

 

 

 

Done!

[ETX TV And Radio 0]

On 12/4/2020 at 4:21 PM, Samantha said:

 

Thank you!! KLTV + KTRE used the news theme as well and it seemed *really* obvious there'd be a sung something or other.

 

The Non-Stop "USA Package" is listed in ASCAP but with some surprisingly late users that we have never been able to confirm: KJCT, KOAM (which doesn't fit what we do know of their news music history), WAWS and WUSA. It appears to have been made in 1993 or so.

 

Bestor and Sam Cardon (Tamara is his wife) did not join Non-Stop until 1986.

 

 

I also went into BMI (that's ASCAP) and found a "USA FIRST NEWS PACKAGE" mention, but I dunno if that might have been the USA network or some sort of bridge package with First News.

Hopefully, someone can find this use of the package!

[Samantha 2895]

30 minutes ago, ETX TV And Radio said:

Hopefully, someone can find this use of the package!

 

We definitely do not have enough KLTV, and the clues we have are mighty interesting: Spirit of Oklahoma (Meeks), this whole thing, and the early 90s when they evidently kept using this theme. There's also the switch from "Pride of East Texas" to "Proud of East Texas".

I did just find two Copyright Office entries for "USA image song" to Randy Thornton of Non-Stop dated 1985. There are also credits for Looking Great (1985), Nowhere Else (alt. melody of First News, dated 1986), Right Before Your Eyes (1985), (The) Place to Be (1985, with a news package dated 1987 titled Action News/The Place to Be News), and Spirit of the '90s (1990).

Edited December 8, 2020 by Samantha

[TServo2049 81]

KLTV 1985 sounds like it came from Dallas (or VTS) - it reminds me of both Jim Kirk's WWL theme, and VTS' News '80s. I thought maybe it could be a hard cut from Spirit of Oklahoma, but there's video of it preceded by an older-style slide ID that doesn't have said slogan or music, so it may have been in use first.

 

We also don't have any video, or even audio, of them using that package KTRE was using in the late 80s/early 90s, but being KTRE's big sister, one would assume they used it too.

Edited December 8, 2020 by TServo2049

[ETX TV And Radio 0]

5 minutes ago, TServo2049 said:

KLTV 1985 sounds like it came from Dallas (or VTS) - it reminds me of both Jim Kirk's WWL theme, and VTS' News '80s. Perhaps it could be some hard-news cut from the Spirit of Oklahoma package (I forget if the demo is still up, but there's video of it preceded by a pre-Spirit of Oklahoma ID, so it may have predated their use of that.

 

We also don't have any video, or even audio, of them using that package KTRE was using in the late 80s/early 90s, but being KTRE's big sister, one would assume they used it too.

Will you post that video on here?

[TServo2049 81]

On 12/8/2020 at 11:40 AM, ETX TV And Radio said:

Will you post that video on here?

 

 

This is 1985; I believe the Bill Meeks Spirit of Oklahoma package was created in 1987. (Tracy Carman/Media Preservation Foundation uploaded the sales demo to Soundcloud, from the master reel, and it was dated 11-Nov-1987, so this KLTV news package must predate it.)

 

 

Edited December 11, 2020 by TServo2049

[Samantha 2895]

3 hours ago, TServo2049 said:

 

 

This is 1985; I believe the Bill Meeks Spirit of Oklahoma package was created in 1987. (Tracy Carman/Media Preservation Foundation uploaded the sales demo to Soundcloud, from the master reel, and it was dated 11-Nov-1987, so this KLTV news package must predate it.)

 

 

 

What's weird is that's a "second wave" that not even KWTV used.

 

The original debuted in 1985 at the latest.

[TServo2049 81]

2 hours ago, Samantha said:

 

What's weird is that's a "second wave" that not even KWTV used.

 

The original debuted in 1985 at the latest.

 

Oh, I didn't realize that. I feel like I've heard a demo of the original version at some point (though that just might be the Mandela Effect again), and I just assumed that was v.1 without giving it a re-listen first.

 

I'm still not sure whether KLTV 1985 is a hard cut from Spirit of Oklahoma, seeing as it showed up before "Proud of East Texas" with that logo imitating the TM "Spirit" design. I still have a hunch KLTV 1985 was also produced in Dallas, but obviously it's just a hunch.

Edited December 11, 2020 by TServo2049

[Ntropolis 596]

This KWTV theme reeks of VTS now that I'm hearing more of it. @TServo2049 do you have any info on this one?

 

 

[TServo2049 81]

21 hours ago, Ntropolis said:

This KWTV theme reeks of VTS now that I'm hearing more of it. @TServo2049 do you have any info on this one?

 

 

 

Nope. And with Hal Brown now in jail for fraud, I'd have to find someone else willing to talk about VTS to get any more insider info related to them. (Not sure if Brad Kelley was still there at that point, I believe Earl Grizzell left in 1990?)

Edited December 22, 2020 by TServo2049

[ThatSowislander 52]

3 hours ago, TServo2049 said:

 

Nope. And with Hal Brown now in jail for fraud, I'd have to find someone else willing to talk about VTS to get any more insider info related to them. (Not sure if Brad Kelley was still there at that point, I believe Earl Grizzell left in 1990?)

Did a Google search after you mentioned it and this article popped up.. Geez....

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/07/10/biltmore-park-ponzi-schemer-hal-brown-sentenced-federal-prison/5412474002/

[Samantha 2895]

1 hour ago, ThatSowislander said:

Did a Google search after you mentioned it and this article popped up.. Geez....

https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2020/07/10/biltmore-park-ponzi-schemer-hal-brown-sentenced-federal-prison/5412474002/

 

Quite the story, isn't it?

[Casey Buck 35]

NMSA now has clean cuts of the KTXL/WRAL/KRDO news theme, which they've titled "NewsPlus". The cut at 1:45 sounds quite a bit like the 80s KTLA theme, doesn't it?

[10Viewer 333]

WGN's late 70's theme is called "Botticelli's Theme" by the Botticelli Orchestra. Someone discovered it about a month ago and I submitted it to the NMSA.

[TServo2049 81]

12 hours ago, Casey Buck said:

NMSA now has clean cuts of the KTXL/WRAL/KRDO news theme, which they've titled "NewsPlus". The cut at 1:45 sounds quite a bit like the 80s KTLA theme, doesn't it?

Yeah, I've wondered whether the two were from the same producer for years, long before I had gotten a composer ID on the KTLA package from their former promo director who'd commissioned it.

 

I feel like I've asked one or both of the two composers who formerly ran AdMusic and did that KTLA package there. If I did, they didn't recognize it. I know one of them said they only did one other news package, and they recalled it being for a station in Charlotte. (Though now that I think about it, could they have misremembered Charlotte instead of Raleigh? Then again, that guy who posted the clean music implied that KTXL was the original client. Maybe I should reach out to one or both of those composers again.)

Edited February 22, 2021 by TServo2049

[onthesea 292]

I found this beautiful theme today but I don't know who composed it: Canal 13 in Buenos Aires used it on its lunchtime newscast (13.00) between 1984 and 1988. The sound quality of the excerpt is quite good: the user who uploaded this video to YouTube says he recorded the music from the TV speakers on a TDK audio cassette back in 1984.

 

[DENDude 216]

On 12/4/2020 at 11:24 AM, promoguy98 said:

@TServo2049@newsteam13 The WAFF/KUSA vocal campaigns brought back a memory. I have not heard this one in years. KLTV in Texas used the same vocals.  KLTV.... East Texas... USA... We're Proud of You (or) Proud of You. Heard it on a non-stop vocal campaign sampler years ago. Gets confusing here - maybe the vocal campaign preceded, by several years, the news package commission for KUSA in 1995? You can hear melody similarities on the nmsa USA NEWS montage - around :30-:54 and definitely around 1:25 and a few other places.

 

I personally believe the news package was created well before 1995 based upon the sounds and instrumentation which would back up the vocal campaign coming out in the 80's. Hope this may help in the answer, even if I'm wrong.

The "USA NEWS" package by non-stop that was used on KUSA was used only as a closer for the 6PM & 10PM newscasts. 

The "KUSA 1995 News theme" wasn't used very long it was on-air from April 1995 (graphics refresh)--September 9, 1995 and used on the 4PM & Midday newscasts (11AM or Noon at that time), it was dropped as soon as KUSA took on the NBC Affiliation.

[Chief-O 31]

(post temporarily deleted; FB embed wasn't working, and I'll need to make sure the jingle in question hasn't been posted before.)

Edited March 18, 2021 by Chief-O

[E. R. 66]

WSOC's 1985 open with VTS's "The Team To Watch" theme is using the Collier Concepts graphics, suggesting a link between it and the campaign.

 

[TServo2049 81]

On 4/5/2021 at 10:35 AM, E. R. said:

WSOC's 1985 open with VTS's "The Team To Watch" theme is using the Collier Concepts graphics, suggesting a link between it and the campaign.

<snip>

 

I've always assumed there was a link anyway. I forget if Hal Brown ever mentioned Collier, but I've always assumed this was an official news package adaptation of the promo music (which Tom Buckley told me or said somewhere was by Frank Becker Music). I know I was able to get sufficient info to convince NMSA to relabel the package as VTS.

Edited April 7, 2021 by TServo2049

[Samantha 2895]

I don't know quite how it showed up since it's now vanished, but I was able to get from one of the university databases reading access to Back Stage, a (still extant) industry publication that had a decent amount of press releases on news music material in the 1980s. There are truly some gems and a few composer IDs.

 

Tuesday

 

There's a lot about Tuesday Productions work.

 

Now More than Ever was composed for KCCI and debuted January 12, 1981. (1-30-81)

 

The News Image was composed for KRON. (4-24-81)

 

News People was written for a Portland station but rejected. It was Robert Rimes of the McGraw-Hill group who gave them the golden ticket. (Rimes...would end up succeeding Bo Donovan as the head of the broadcast division of Tuesday when Bo left to found Silvertree.) There is a mention of a strings and percussion-based package by Phil Davis for KSL that would have been have composed c. 1979 (it could very well be KSL '81). By this time, The News Image had some 20 clients, including the Seven Network. (9-17-82)

 

WPDS '84 is Tuesday and it is part of a custom station image package.

 

Reaching Out to You was made for WHBQ and debuted in the last week of 1983. (2-10-84)

 

Fred Weinberg Productions of Stamford, CT, produced a "TV-10, The Winners" theme package for WTEN. Presumably WTEN '85? (5-4-84)

 

Hmm...... (6-19-81)

 

March 23, 1984... Is this WRGB '86 which WLNE once used with the tagline "We're Looking Out for You"?

 

There's a new day dawning, and it's not necessarily in Boston. WMAR '85 perhaps? We have no KATU from this period. (3-15-85)

 

The only other thing I have from this is that Tuesday did an NBC 1988 affiliate package, the Business Channel (KWHY) was done by Telezign graphics and 505 Productions; and WCIX had something done for them by FourScore Productions in New York in 1990.

[TServo2049 81]

Excellent finds! Kudos for saving all this stuff while you had access to it. (You didn't save anything about commercial jingles, did you? Just asking as an aside.)

 

The "Energy Productions" mentioned in the WPDS article was run by husband and wife Louis Schwartzberg and Jan Ross. Schwartzberg was a time-lapse filmmaker. Since all the "animation" for this campaign seems to have been done with video mixing, I assume Energy Productions' visuals were time-lapse clips of Indianapolis, as seen in the promo in the inaugural sign-on video. (I set a start time just before the promo begins so you can hear "Indianapds" spoken out loud.)

 

The WLNE theme using a large orchestra seems to match up with WRGB '86. (Lucas-McFaul wrote something for WRGB, it has an ASCAP entry, but we don't know what. I can't remember if I ever tried to contact David Lucas to ask. The alternate title is "News Promo Theme" so it may not have actually been heard on the newscasts themselves, it may have been a station promo only, much like "We're With You on 11 Alive".)

Edited April 9, 2021 by TServo2049