Television news music is used bytelevision stations to brand their news operations. Each television station uses an identifiable newstheme; some themes are used by multiple stations while others are composed specifically for a certain station.
In theUnited 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 isOverture, created byStephen 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.
Opens: These are the cuts used to begin a newscast, usually accompanied by avamp straight out of the open (either a stripped or full version of the bumper). In a news package, opens come in short credit forms (for the main open) and long credit forms (for talent opens). Some packages even include different lengths of the talent opens for three- or four-anchor lineups.
Closes: Closes also come in different formats and lengths, many of which are similar in sound to that package's open. Usually, there are 60-, 30-, 20-, 15-, and 10-second versions of the close, designed to resolve at a precise time.
Bumpers: These are used primarily before the main open and teasing out to the next segment of a newscast. When the bumper is played, a summary of what will air in the upcoming newscast or later in the newscast will be shown.
Topicals/promo beds: These are the cuts of music used only in promos for a specific upcoming newscast. Topicals come in four types: theme donut/theme donut open beds, ID/promo beds, end theme news open/promo beds, and ID/stingers. These usually correspond with regular promo times (30, 20, 10, or 5 seconds).
Franchise opens/stingers: Franchise opens or stingers are used to open various segments of a newscast in-show, such as breaking news, special reports, sports, weather, or investigation.
IDs: This is a short package signature used to identify the television station. It can also be used in conjunction to identify talent. TheFederal Communications Commission requires several over-the-air (OTA) stations (including radio stations) to identify themselves at regular intervals by either stating theircall letters or brand name (sometimes known, particularly in the United States, as a "sounder" or "stinger", more generally as a station or network ident). Also, an ID can signify a network affiliation such as theNBC chimes or thedrum rolling intro to the20th Century Studios fanfare.
Utility tracks
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 alocal marketing agreement (LMA), or one station contracts out its news production to the other. For example, inFort Myers, Florida,ABC affiliateWZVN-TV is owned by Montclair Communications, Inc., whileNBC affiliateWBBH-TV in the same market is owned byHearst Television, which operates WZVN under an LMA. That said, both stations currently useThis is Your News byGari 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.
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:
KUSA News Package by Third Street Music (1995–2009; while it ceased to be the main theme as of October 2008, it was used for the talent ID until February 2009)
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 asHello[6] andTurn to... byFrank 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'sHello campaign briefly re-introduced it in the 2000s as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.Davenport, Iowa stationKWQC-TV, which had used the package into the 2010s, revived it in 2023 to commemorate 75 years on air.[9]
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:
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.
The News in Music (Tabloid Lament) (2017) byThomas Meadowcroft is an orchestral work of TV news music specifically written for the concert hall.[16] Commissioned by theSouthwest 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.[17]
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