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Discovered composers & publishers of music themes


promoguy98

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TV-8 would be WCHS, then. No wonder the opens seen in those clips seemed pretty dusty for that time...

 

The WBRZ campaign must be tied to the 1985 theme, then. The signature could definitely spell "2's The One To Watch".

 

Would you happen to have a link to the demo reel somewhere? I can't seem to find it.

 

It's currently part of my private collection. I am trying to clean it up (it's an extremely muddy, low quality dub) and might find a place online for it eventually.

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Great find!

 

I wonder, could the WITI "You Can Count On Us" promo campaign from the 70s have also been the work of Terry Sweet? I only ask because WITI is in Milwaukee, and because the promo was later redone for KTNV in 1989, after they dropped the " People You Can Count On" campaign...

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WBRZ 1985 *is* Sweet and we knew that because someone had the music on reel-to-reel (from WEAR) and confirmed the composer. The other finds though are new — they confirm the connection between the image campaign and the theme.

 

Also, now that you say it, the voiceover makes a lot of sense.

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Finally, a clean one minute closing cut of "News '80s" by VTS Productions was added to the NMSA site. I noticed musical stylings and instrumentation similar to the 1985 WAVY theme and hints of the WWLP-WANE-WLOX theme, which is listed as the "KTVW 1986 News Theme"... I still think the KTVW package was produced and released by VTS. One of these days, hopefully someone will uncover a music reel or something for the proof. :)

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Finally, a clean one minute closing cut of "News '80s" by VTS Productions was added to the NMSA site. I noticed musical stylings and instrumentation similar to the 1985 WAVY theme and hints of the WWLP-WANE-WLOX theme, which is listed as the "KTVW 1986 News Theme"... I still think the KTVW package was produced and released by VTS. One of these days, hopefully someone will uncover a music reel or something for the proof. :)

 

The signature at 0:13/the end is the same as the KTVW/WWLP package!!

 

I bet that the KTVW set (from the "barrel roll" open) is a "News 80s v2".

 

BTW, I do not believe KTVW would have commissioned a package. If anything they were kinda cheap.

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The signature at 0:13/the end is the same as the KTVW/WWLP package!!

 

I bet that the KTVW set (from the "barrel roll" open) is a "News 80s v2".

 

Makes sense. Like your thinking over that!! Yeah, seems like we've got just about definite proof that VTS did some kind of spinoff, v2, variation of the original and added an additional ending note to the signature.

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Oh yeah, KTVW 1986 is spot on in instrumentation and signature. Thirded on it being VTS. The question is...if KTVW didn't commission it, then who did? I'm not sure any of the stations we know of would have been the original clients...perhaps there's another one waiting in the weeds somewhere.

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That theme was available in the clear on YT for years, on a Dolphin Productions animation reel. However, it wasn't known to be a WKRC news theme until the original open audio clip was submitted to NMSA, and WKRC posted a vintage promo online (with the EDGE animation that also appeared in the Dolphin reel).

 

I actually cobbled together a complete version from the audio in the Dolphin demo, but never sent it to NMSA. And the audio quality on this newscast close is better anyways...

 

I remembered hearing that at the end of the Dolphin demos (where they had brief clips of their work). Just curious now as to how far back that theme's usage on WKRC went (the Dolphin reel in question was labeled as 1977; and based on a comment in a 1978 demo reel Image West swallowed Dolphin up sometime in late 1978).

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I found News '80s, it was on a demo on a CD of news/talk radio jingles put out by Ken R. back in the early 00s. (Sorry, this was literally the only music in the clear, the rest had narration or announcer/newscaster voices - and the latter were probably demonstrations done by VTS, not using actual station talent.)

 

There was some TV stuff on the CD too, including another VTS demo. The only other TV news music I could recognize in this other demo (or anywhere else on the CD) was KSBW 1987, nothing else in it has ever shown up on any recordings, so we can't know who used any of the others...

 

News 80s was mistaken as being the KENS 80s package by NMSA until I emailed a correction. That's when he finally posted the MP3 of the clean 1:00 which I sent him.

 

Fourth-ed on that other theme most likely being VTS. I will have to get in touch with Hal Brown again sometime.

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I found News '80s, it was on a demo on a CD of news/talk radio jingles put out by Ken R. back in the early 00s. (Sorry, this was literally the only music in the clear, the rest had narration or announcer/newscaster voices - and the latter were probably demonstrations done by VTS, not using actual station talent.)

 

There was some TV stuff on the CD too, including another VTS demo. The only other TV news music I could recognize in this other demo (or anywhere else on the CD) was KSBW 1987, nothing else in it has ever shown up on any recordings, so we can't know who used any of the others...

 

News 80s was mistaken as being the KENS 80s package by NMSA until I emailed a correction. That's when he finally posted the MP3 of the clean 1:00 which I sent him.

 

Fourth-ed on that other theme most likely being VTS. I will have to get in touch with Hal Brown again sometime.

 

Was this WAVY image promo a VTS composition? It debuted with the 1985 theme that's been confirmed as VTS, and sounds like it has ties to the song.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL-Iw7wbXjY

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Was this WAVY image promo a VTS composition? It debuted with the 1985 theme that's been confirmed as VTS, and sounds like it has ties to the song.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL-Iw7wbXjY

 

It sounds like it's got the VTS style, and I can hear a couple of points in the news theme that sound like they could match with some of the lyrics...

 

I'd say they're a match.

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It sounds like it's got the VTS style, and I can hear a couple of points in the news theme that sound like they could match with some of the lyrics...

 

I'd say they're a match.

 

I have a memory of one of my first phone conversations with Hal Brown where I sang the promo song to him and he confirmed it was VTS' work. I'm pretty sure it was the same call where I confirmed WAVY 1985 was VTS.

 

The perfect segue from the top of hour ID jingle (which is based on the promo) into the news open is another point in its favor. Same key, same tempo, same instrumentation.

 

The fact that this promo has Dallas vocals (some of the same singers as TM or JAM) is yet another point in its favor. VTS was headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, but did the majority of its production in Dallas.

 

I'm pretty confident that WAVY 1985 goes with "You're Covered". (Also, that KENS 1980s goes with "Clearly the One", and we already know WRTV 1990 - not yet ID'ed as VTS at NMSA, but I believe this is either 99.9% or 100% confirmed by us - goes with "Making a Difference".)

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and we already know WRTV 1990 - not yet ID'ed as VTS at NMSA, but I believe this is either 99.9% or 100% confirmed by us - goes with "Making a Difference".)

 

TServo, you are 100%, without any doubt, correct! I recall you and a few of us discussing this a couple of years ago inside this thread. I had a demo of the news package and vocal campaign from Hal many moons ago, as well as a long demo of his 200+ cut package for KTLA which is listed as the KTLA1990 News Theme in the NMSA.

 

The WRTV 1990 listing is definitely VTS and the image campaign featured vocals by Sandi Patty. For anyone who hasn't heard the song, here is the loooong-ass version of it!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=AaAw77z2j7g;m=0;s=40

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Great find!

 

I wonder, could the WITI "You Can Count On Us" promo campaign from the 70s have also been the work of Terry Sweet? I only ask because WITI is in Milwaukee, and because the promo was later redone for KTNV in 1989, after they dropped the " People You Can Count On" campaign...

 

I do know Frank Gari did at least one campaign for WITI in the late 70's (Not sure which "Winners" campaign is being referenced, a lot of the old 70's promos online used the "The Winners on TV-6" tag) and they all have a similar feel to them. It might be a Gari one-off.

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"You sure look like a winner" seems to indicate that this campaign was "The One 4 All" - WJKW used the same tag line in their version of said campaign.

 

NMSA says WBZ debuted The One 4 All in 1979, so if it WAS that campaign, either WITI was one of the earliest to use it, or perhaps it was actually originally written for WITI and not WBZ. If only more clips of WITI were out there...

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  • 3 weeks later...
"You sure look like a winner" seems to indicate that this campaign was "The One 4 All" - WJKW used the same tag line in their version of said campaign.

 

NMSA says WBZ debuted The One 4 All in 1979, so if it WAS that campaign, either WITI was one of the earliest to use it, or perhaps it was actually originally written for WITI and not WBZ. If only more clips of WITI were out there...

 

WITI's "Winners" sound nothing like One 4 All.

 

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I finally got around to tracking down the KTNV version of the WITI promo that's been discussed here and found something else.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id=feJbrxfkb7w;t=319

 

That image campaign is recycled from a WTMJ radio campaign that was done by Terry Sweet.

 

[MEDIA=vimeo]48277908[/MEDIA]

 

i'm still not convinced Sweet did the "Count on TV6/Count on 13" campaign. The KTNV version looks like it was copied from WITI (especially the anchors laughing and looking at the camera part, which was in

of the WITI promo) and the music style is different. Hearing his stuff on the radio pretty much daily, the "Count On" campaign sounds nothing like anything else he's done.
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WITI's "Winners" sound nothing like One 4 All.

 

I re-read the article in question, it said WITI was reviving a campaign they had used for four months in 1979. The clips you posted are definitely older than that, because they have a different TV 6 logo. (I know the classic late-70s/80s logo was in place when the affiliation swap from ABC to CBS happened, because there is a little animation on a Dolphin Productions demo with the CBS eye turning into the classic TV 6 logo, set to an instrumental of the "Count On" song. Did the logo change occur at the same time as the affiliation swap?)

 

And I will defer to you on possible authorship of "Count On", if you don't think Terry Sweet did it, you certainly know his style 100% more than I do. Do you think it was produced in Milwaukee though?

 

And it's always intriguing when radio station image campaigns migrate to TV. The other example I can think of is Tuesday's "Real Radio" campaign for WCCO-AM being reworked for WTVJ (including a news theme with the same melody, otherwise known as "Tuesday16").

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I re-read the article in question, it said WITI was reviving a campaign they had used for four months in 1979. The clips you posted are definitely older than that, because they have a different TV 6 logo. (I know the classic late-70s/80s logo was in place when the affiliation swap from ABC to CBS happened, because there is a little animation on a Dolphin Productions demo with the CBS eye turning into the classic TV 6 logo, set to an instrumental of the "Count On" song. Did the logo change occur at the same time as the affiliation swap?)

 

And I will defer to you on possible authorship of "Count On", if you don't think Terry Sweet did it, you certainly know his style 100% more than I do. Do you think it was produced in Milwaukee though?

 

And it's always intriguing when radio station image campaigns migrate to TV. The other example I can think of is Tuesday's "Real Radio" campaign for WCCO-AM being reworked for WTVJ (including a news theme with the same melody, otherwise known as "Tuesday16").

 

The logo changed by the time they moved into their new building in 1978, which may have been when it debut.

 

I found another article from 1981 talking about WISN and Hello Milwaukee, which references ad agency Frankenberry Laughlin and Constable as WITI's "long-time advertising agency". They resigned from the WITI account by the time the 1982 article about bringing back the Gari "Winners" campaign was published, but that means one thing: Gari was in the Frankenberry Laughlin and Constable Rolodex. The article also mentions two campaigns I haven't seen, "It's Always TV6" and "It's a Milwaukee" (???).

 

I vaguely remember hearing part of a "You sure look like a Winner" jingle in WITI's 50th anniversary special, but it looks like that's been scrubbed from the internet. Might have to dig through the VHS archives at One TVNT later.

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So, I have watched part of HLN's new Michaela show pretty much every day since it debuted. I love it! And I also love their music. Is it a custom theme or production music? Who made it? And who composed HLN's Morning Express with Robin Meade theme? They have used it for quite a while. Thanks!

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