Leavellebrett 85 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Shelly Palmer's landmark news theme, Palmer News Package, has been around since the mid-80s. As I watch the News Music Search Archive, I see less stations use it. The Palm Springs ABC, Fox and Telemundo affiliates all used PNP. They are all sister stations. But, the Fox affiliate has gone to use it's sister CBS affiliate's theme of Stephen Arnold's Convergence. The Telemundo affiliate is now using the new KXTX Theme that I believe will become a Telemundo standardized concept. KESQ is the only station is the country still using PNP at this point. Is anyone else saddened a bit by this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Shelly Palmer's landmark news theme, Palmer News Package, has been around since the mid-80s. As I watch the News Music Search Archive, I see less stations use it. The Palm Springs ABC, Fox and Telemundo affiliates all used PNP. They are all sister stations. But, the Fox affiliate has gone to use it's sister CBS affiliate's theme of Stephen Arnold's Convergence. The Telemundo affiliate is now using the new KXTX Theme that I believe will become a Telemundo standardized concept. KESQ is the only station is the country still using PNP at this point. Is anyone else saddened a bit by this? Not really. PNP is so old it's about time it goes. 615 Music (they assumed licensing the Shelly Palmer themes a few years back) really needs to stop licensing the Palmer themes. This also includes Millenium 3, that packages screams 90's, unless 615 is willing to do updates. The PNP pack screams 80's and I was surprised KESQ even dropped 615's High Velocity and switched to PNP b/c High Velocity fit them so well. KESQ should take a hint from sister station KEYT and use Impact V6 or some other newer package. Also, does Palmer still own the rights to his packages? I know 615 (or Warner Chappell or whatever it is now) does the licensing to the stations for him, but can they just go in and update it for him? Or does he have final say? Millenium 3 would sound pretty good with updates and maybe Brave New World and Building Pride could stand some updates too. But PNP already has tons and tons of updates, it's called CBS Enforcer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hathawaynson2 38 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 The last I heard, Millennium 3 had updates that were called Millennium 3.2, it added couple of opens, cuts etc. The last I heard that KCTV was using it from 1997 to 2011. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 The last I heard, Millennium 3 had updates that were called Millennium 3.2, it added couple of opens, cuts etc. The last I heard that KCTV was using it from 1997 to 2011. KYTV still uses it and has since 1997. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
News 9 Viewer 100 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 Not really. PNP is so old it's about time it goes. 615 Music (they assumed licensing the Shelly Palmer themes a few years back) really needs to stop licensing the Palmer themes. This also includes Millenium 3, that packages screams 90's, unless 615 is willing to do updates. The PNP pack screams 80's and I was surprised KESQ even dropped 615's High Velocity and switched to PNP b/c High Velocity fit them so well. KESQ should take a hint from sister station KEYT and use Impact V6 or some other newer package. Also, does Palmer still own the rights to his packages? I know 615 (or Warner Chappell or whatever it is now) does the licensing to the stations for him, but can they just go in and update it for him? Or does he have final say? Millenium 3 would sound pretty good with updates and maybe Brave New World and Building Pride could stand some updates too. But PNP already has tons and tons of updates, it's called CBS Enforcer. Not exactly. Shelly Palmer and Frank Gari took two completely different approaches to building a news music package around the WBBM signature. Palmer created a grand sound with some synthesized elements, partly a product of the piece being composed in the '80s. Gari created a harsh, electronic sound which after several updates has been replaced in favor of a gentler sound. I think the Palmer News Package would sound great if updated, but if Palmer has control over whether 615 Music can update his package, he probably doesn't want 615 to touch the piece that established him as a legitimate composer of news music. If Palmer isn't willing to allow 615 to update his package or 615 doesn't think it's worth the effort to update it, then the Palmer News Package deserves to die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidwestTV 1173 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 The last I heard, Millennium 3 had updates that were called Millennium 3.2, it added couple of opens, cuts etc. The last I heard that KCTV was using it from 1997 to 2011. And if it wasn't for the re-branding campaign KCTV started to go through at that time too, they would probably still be using it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2876 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 The drop of PNP by KDFX and KUNA was due to a couple factors: #1. KESQ, KDFX and KUNA are in a cluster. In early 2012, NPG (which owns said cluster) acquired the non-license assets of CBS outlet KPSP (KESQ is the only full-power station in said cluster and one of two in the Palm Springs market; NPG bought the license earlier this year). NPG maintains two separate anchor teams and brands for KESQ and KPSP, and they changed over the KDFX 10pm newscast to KPSP "CBS Local 2" branding and anchors. It doesn't take a lot to realize that if they did that, they're probably using Convergence. #2. That new Telemundo news package. We're still finding new stations using it, and I went to the "KUNAMundo" section of the KESQ website, which just happens to feature their full newscast. And so they had phased out Palmer there in favor of the NMSA's "KXTX 2012 News Theme".* *It should be noted that it's atypical to see a Spanish-language TV station pick up a major TV news music package, especially on its own without network coordination. More typical is production music. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ntropolis 593 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 The last I heard, Millennium 3 had updates that were called Millennium 3.2, it added couple of opens, cuts etc. The last I heard that KCTV was using it from 1997 to 2011. Even then, wasn't KCTV using the original M3 themes for most of its run? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAnewsjunkie 6 Posted June 25, 2013 Share Posted June 25, 2013 And the reason KDFX switched the 10PM from KESQ's news brand to CBS Local 2 is because they currently can't have CBS and KESQ broadcasting live newscasts at the same time at 11p. So CBS is live at 10 on KDFX and rebroadcast taped at 11 on CBS Local 2. Then KESQ is live at 11p. That should change when they both move into KPSP's old building - that was acquired during the buyout and is being rebuilt with two sets and two control rooms. I wonder if KPSP had an existing contract with Stephen Arnold for Convergence that is compelling them to keep it for the time being? Must be costly dealing with different composers and using two (three if you count KUNA) separate packages. I guess we'll see how it all shakes out after the whole cluster moves into their new (old) digs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hathawaynson2 38 Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Even then, wasn't KCTV using the original M3 themes for most of its run? Yes it did, and even had graphics for it to be used on and also used Ed O'Brien as a Voice Over for Talent and News Opens until the re branding and the reshuffling of the anchors plus the rebranding of its your news which made it much better, somewhat. Then when Meredith Corporation bought KSMO-TV, it used the M3 themes as well for its newscast. KYTV still uses it and has since 1997. I'm fully aware of that so far... however, they won't quit using after its shelf life as an music theme. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 I've been planning on writing a few notes about the PNP for my blog, but because this is brought up, I'll post my thoughts here. I'm from Philadelphia. I've lived here for 30 years. My childhood dinner times were examples of routine. We ate at the same time every night, we sat in the same spots, and we always, always watched the news during dinner. Scratch that. We didn't just watch the news - we watched Action News. Marc Howard, Lisa Thomas-Laury, Scott Palmer, Dave Roberts, Gary Papa, and Jim Gardner (oh, and of course Rob Jennings too!) were our dinner guests, each and every night. And, yup, this child growing up in the 80s and 90s was intimately familiar with the marching band theme music, singing hippies, and the distinctive flying glass/chrome graphics and shimmering logos. Here, in 2013, that theme and the CapCities Chrome graphics are iconic to me. But, here's my dirty little secret. I didn't care for 6's look. I thought the graphics were cheesy. And the theme - I thought it was a lousy relic from the 70s. Well, I wouldn't have used those words at 9 or 10 years of age, but you get the idea. That's because, long ago, I found the forbidden fruit. Past 6, then ESPN, then TBS, then WWOR EMI Service. Yup. Channel 10 News was my secret love. 10 was everything 6 wasn't. 10 had younger anchors and reporters. 10 had hipper anchors and reporters. 10 actually had a guy stand up in front of really nice looking computerized graphics - no frowny clouds and magnetic map here! And, just as importantly, 10 looked and sounded cooler. And a large part of it was their theme music: the PNP. It was modern, it was urgent, it was memorable. It suggested that Channel 10 had more action than Action News. It was my first exposure to what I'm dubbing the "Enforcer Signature"(1), and I was humming that bad boy all day while doodling at school. When they'd play a close - nowhere near as often as WPVI back then, where you would at least get the vocals every night - I heard something more triumphant and thrilling than those damn hippies on WPVI. Part of it has to be the way WCAU used it, of course. While many stations just used the cuts for the uses they're given on the tin, WCAU mixed together its own bumper cuts, and realized that the beginning of the promo cue and the end of the close would make for some amazing open music. And, truth be told, I'm here on this board because of the PNP. Seeing that pop up on the internet and finally getting a name for it, not to mention hearing the close in all of its glory, was one of those "holy crap the internet has this" moments. The benefit of time and age has allowed me to see MCTYW for the masterpiece it truly is and not the cheesy theme of my youth, but I'd be lying if I said it was the gateway drug. The PNP was my gateway drug. I still listen to it, the parts that WCAU used, to this day - hell, I had it in my car as I was on the Turnpike this morning. It's easy to see that its time had come, but I still think the theme is masterfully done. To me, this is the definitive version of the Enforcer Sig. One of them, anyway.(2) Hail and farewell, PNP. 1. Okay, okay, I know it predates Enforcer by several decades, but what else can you really call it at this point? WBBM Sig or "I Love Chicago" limit it to one city when it's truly a signature that's been used in practically every market. "CBS, Inc. Signature" or "CBS O&O Signature" or "CBS Affiliate Signature" also make no sense, because other networks have used Enforcer Sig themes. Plus, it fits, so... 2. It depends on what day it is. John Hegner's News In Focus is another theme that sounds like the definitive version. I'll go with the PNP, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
channel2 869 Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 News In Focus is so much better than Enforcer. Pity it isn't/wasn't more popular. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2876 Posted June 26, 2013 Share Posted June 26, 2013 Hulkie, I'm 18. Unfortunately, I've grown up in an era when television news and its presentation have become more and more mediocre. Talent opens were on the critically endangered list long ago. Good news music seems to be following the same route. I was born in the middle of what I would call one of the greatest changes in television history. Growing up in Phoenix, some things just never made sense to me about local news (and I've been a TVNT lurker, and later poster, for the past 11 years). Why in the world did Phoenix have five full-blown news operations? How did ABC land on a station like barren 15? I would later learn the answers to questions like those. And I would become a TV news graphics buff thanks to a fateful find (the original Part 24 of the NewsActive3 collection—started with the original KSAZ 1994 open, which still makes me a bit misty-eyed). But that's another story. The Palmer News Package is one of the great news themes of all time. Without it, there would be no wildly-successful Gari Enforcer, now used on 83 stations and accounting for almost 1 in 4 current American clients of Gari music packages. Stations like KCRG in Cedar Rapids, Iowa (which used PNP, the PNP version of M3 and now has Enforcer to this day—oh yeah, and it's an ABC affiliate) and KVII in Amarillo (used Palmer in the 80s and returned to Enforcer in the late 90s—another ABC affiliate) might never have even used Enforcer without Palmer, nor would Enforcer have been able to rely on the way paved by the PNP. It was used on stations of all four networks plus Telemundo, heard in 27 states. And few themes have been able to last 28 years. Only fabled packages like MCTYW (43 years, set for life with WPVI and WKBW) and Hello (35 years, two Texas stations left) can do that; Wall to Wall News (introduced 1984) barely hangs on in Chattanooga, and Gari's Good News (introduced 1986) just faded away this year. Few packages have made it like PNP has. Shelly Palmer, congratulations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country News 435 Posted June 27, 2013 Share Posted June 27, 2013 I come from a land where Counterpoint, Image, and Building a Better Texas (KTAB) + The Rock, Advantage, and Impact (KRBC) are memorable. Nobody much cared for KTXS...and Signature or Primetime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capsgm2002 65 Posted June 29, 2013 Share Posted June 29, 2013 It's had a good run. WJET in Erie used it for 12 years until 2011. I still listen to some of the cuts they used on TVPMM (which if you haven't been, is a great website and worth the price). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RetroCirq 148 Posted July 19, 2013 Share Posted July 19, 2013 When I think of PNP, I will always associate the theme and logo with WCIX (currently WFOR) in Miami-Ft. Lauderdale. Sure, this market will always be associated with WSVN's signature tabloid style, but 6 Action News with the use of PNP is very iconic in a sense. Once it moved to WFOR, so long PNP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compubit 670 Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 I remember when WCIX went to CBS - I had been through Chicago, NY and Philly and associated the "Enforcer Theme" with CBS O&O stations. I knew other stations used it, but (at the time) thought all CBS O&O stations used the theme (later finding out KCBS wasn't using it on any regular basis (on and off over the years). On Jan. 1, 1989, sure enough, WCIX used PNP (with their old graphics) - but I nailed it! I did prefer the later open (after they changed from the TVX 6 to the one everyone was familiar with (Futura Bold, I believe)). J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ntropolis 593 Posted July 20, 2013 Share Posted July 20, 2013 I did prefer the later open (after they changed from the TVX 6 to the one everyone was familiar with (Futura Bold, I believe)). "You're going to be watching a lot more six!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Samantha 2876 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 No, WCIX was using Avant Garde. I will note that KDFX is using the Palmer package for something which I was not aware of. Their 10pm news is KPSP-branded, but KESQ has an extension of their morning show that I didn't even know was airing. And I think that's KESQ-branded. (Yes, that makes it appear to a comparatively uninformed viewer as if two different stations are producing the news on KDFX.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deangelomywayentfans 0 Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 WBRC Channel 6 used this PNP theme in 1989 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CAnewsjunkie 6 Posted August 13, 2013 Share Posted August 13, 2013 Here's a look at KESQ's (relatively new) open with PNP. Note they're on the new set they got when they moved to KPSP's studios. KPSP's look, by comparison: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leavellebrett 85 Posted October 5, 2014 Author Share Posted October 5, 2014 Today KESQ transitioned into usage of Impact. 'Tis a sad day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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