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Television news music is used by television stations to brand their news operations. Each television station uses an identifiable news theme; some themes are used by multiple stations while others are composed specifically for a certain station.

In the United States

In the United States, news themes used on local television stations are typically organized into news music packages, with each theme within a package sharing a similar musical signature. A typical television news music package consists of anywhere from 50 to as many as 1000 cuts of music. One of the largest news music packages is Overture, created by Stephen Arnold Music. This package consists of a total of 36 themes and over 1000 cuts.

News music packages consist of the following: opens, closes, bumpers, topicals (promo beds), franchise opens/stingers, IDs, utility tracks, and billboards.

Stations within the same market area will always use different music packages, unless they are related to each other in some manner; this could be the case if two stations are owned by the same company or operated by the same company under a local marketing agreement (LMA), or one station contracts out its news production to the other. For example, in Fort Myers, Florida, ABC affiliate WZVN-TV is owned by Montclair Communications, Inc., while NBC affiliate WBBH-TV in the same market is owned by Hearst Television, which operates WZVN under an LMA. That said, both stations currently use This is Your News by Gari Communications. In newscasts airing on WZVN, NBC network ID stingers can be heard in the news opens, even though WZVN-TV is an ABC affiliate.

A case where the opposite of the aforementioned is true is in Denver, Colorado, where Fox affiliate KDVR and CW affiliate KWGN are owned by Nexstar Media Group.

Custom news music packages

Single station

Some news music packages are custom made for one station only, as opposed to syndicated packages which are used by multiple stations. While syndicated packages are normal in the industry, there are some stations that still use custom-made packages. Such examples include:

Networks and affiliates

Some packages are custom-made for a specific station group company, or owned and operated stations and affiliates of a specific television network:

Station imaging packages

Some news music packages are accompanied by a station image package, featuring promotional jingles which often share the same musical signature as the parent news music package. Often, imaging packages include jingles for the holiday and elections. Such promotional packages first came to prominence in the United States in the 1970s, and had become widespread by the 1980s, used by many (though not all) television stations. Many memorable packages, such as Hello[6] and Turn to... by Frank Gari, were composed during this era, and some were even used on international and non-English stations.

Station image packages are designed to give a positive branding method for broadcast television stations. Many such packages from the 1970s and 1980s often portrayed stations in a community-oriented light, accompanied by footage of the stations' personalities participating in recreational activities and charity events with regular everyday people.[7][8] By the 1990s, many stations had adopted a more hard-hitting approach to branding, resulting in a reduced demand for traditional promotion campaigns. However, a few stations which used Gari's Hello campaign briefly re-introduced it in the 2000s as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

News music adopted from other sources

Besides standard news music packages, some stations had opted to use the soundtrack from some movies or other popular songs as their main news themes; examples include:

Rest of the world

Certain news music packages used in the United States have also been used worldwide. Eyewitness News by Frank Gari has been picked up for use in overseas markets; it has been used by Hong Kong Cable News for its morning newscast, and POP TV in Slovenia for its main newscasts.

News music in the concert hall

The News in Music (Tabloid Lament) (2017) by Thomas Meadowcroft is an orchestral work of TV news music specifically written for the concert hall.[15] Commissioned by the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra, the work positions orchestral news music, stylistically reminiscent of TV news music cues from the 1970s and 1980s, in a live, acoustic setting.[16]

News music composers and production companies

See also: Category:Television composers

Canada

United States

United Kingdom

The Netherlands

The Philippines

References

  1. ^ "Welcome to the News Music Search Archive". Archived from the original on 2021-09-04. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  2. ^ "Welcome to the News Music Search Archive". Archived from the original on 2021-09-04. Retrieved 2021-08-18.
  3. ^ "Philly's Old "Action News" Theme". Steve Hoffman Music Forums.
  4. ^ "Part of Your Life: Created in 1974 for WBTV".
  5. ^ "KPHO New Graphics, Set and Music". TVNewsTalk.net. Retrieved 2021-08-26.
  6. ^ "The Last Word on 'Hello, Milwaukee'". www.jsonline.com.
  7. ^ Chris Lewis (30 November 2006). "WSMV Stand Up 4 Nashville 1992". Archived from the original on 2021-12-22 – via YouTube.
  8. ^ thenightbeat (6 February 2009). "Hello Image Campaign - Hello Houston - KPRC". Archived from the original on 2021-12-22 – via YouTube.
  9. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-09-26.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  10. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-01-03.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-01-03.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  12. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2006-06-15. Retrieved 2007-01-03.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-09-26. Retrieved 2007-01-03.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  14. ^ "Archived copy". www.southernmedia-nmsa.com. Archived from the original on 14 June 2006. Retrieved 13 January 2022.((cite web)): CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  15. ^ "The News In Music (Tabloid Lament)". 29 September 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
  16. ^ "Le Sacre du Primetime". Retrieved 17 February 2018.

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