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Discovered composers & publishers of music themes


promoguy98

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46 minutes ago, Samantha said:

Very nice snag @promoguy98!

 

I actually nailed a trio of interesting finds lately that are somewhat in the NMSA, but I wanted to put them here too:

 

Shreveport

 

The Shreveport Journal in 1984 did an article on news music and it included IDs for three different pieces of news music!

 

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/59728001/

 

KSLA's theme is a custom by Jake Pittman of Dallas. (He died at 50 in 2004.)

 

KTBS is also a custom done by Skeetz Music Co. of Indianapolis. The NMSA has yet to add this one because it actually represents a date change for KTBS '82. The mention of not having a final beat is a glove fit for this.

 

KTAL used a theme by Al LeGrand (LeGrand and Associates, a local ad agency) and Dan Newman. We've never heard it, either!

 

KOVR/Dan Milner

 

Years ago, I ran on ASCAP into an entry for a KOVR News Theme by Dan Milner (Wintermoon Music) but had nothing to go on.

 

Until @Spectrum27 turned up its use as a background bed on American Gladiators:

 

 

Milner composed the theme to the show, too, and one of his demos has a few cuts from the KOVR '95 package in it. That's one way to ID a theme!

 

KCST - Working to Be Your 1st Choice

 

KCST 1985 (now correctly dated 1984) was not a package I expected to have an image associated. Well, I was very wrong!

 

 

Wanted to bring this to the attention of the music hounds. Tuesday? Silvertree (which was formed at the start of '84)?

The KCST tune sounds similar to this from WOI:

 

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I came up with the composer of the KUTV 1979 news theme. It was Peters Productions and you can go to https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ10FpXZvpW4utLhTHSO1S34fpMSJpuznd6y&fbclid=IwAR0t088Cf65HT_H4t0uzeB6iXGP99fC-dUJp01IZJHgv5x6XW-LxVq87PJg to listen to the entire package. And I identified the composer, because of the news theme they play at 3:50.

And that's not all, if you go to https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ72JpXZ2LzrBscemU4NL9plQHE9gSKfQcxV&fbclid=IwAR1a1fUAvrtkSMT6_lJeA0NDpjJi8lwjp6Tkw2troPtRlfbkE4VZx3pkgv8, at the beginning, you'll hear WNGE's 1979 news theme that was composed by, you guessed it, Peters Productions.

Edited by KnoxvilleTVFan
I found out who composed WNGE's 1979 news theme using the link, https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ72JpXZ2LzrBscemU4NL9plQHE9gSKfQcxV&fbclid=IwAR1a1fUAvrtkSMT6_lJeA0NDpjJi8lwjp6Tkw2troPtRlfbkE4VZx3pkgv8
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11 hours ago, KnoxvilleTVFan said:

I came up with the composer of the KUTV 1979 news theme. It was Peters Productions and you can go to https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ10FpXZvpW4utLhTHSO1S34fpMSJpuznd6y&fbclid=IwAR0t088Cf65HT_H4t0uzeB6iXGP99fC-dUJp01IZJHgv5x6XW-LxVq87PJg to listen to the entire package. And I identified the composer, because of the news theme they play at 3:50.

And that's not all, if you go to https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ72JpXZ2LzrBscemU4NL9plQHE9gSKfQcxV&fbclid=IwAR1a1fUAvrtkSMT6_lJeA0NDpjJi8lwjp6Tkw2troPtRlfbkE4VZx3pkgv8, at the beginning, you'll hear WNGE's 1979 news theme that was composed by, you guessed it, Peters Productions.

In addition, at 4:34 in that second clip (Peters Productions Video Sound Track) is the primary Image theme/promo for WJKW/Cleveland "TV8-The Winners"

 

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On 6/7/2017 at 4:50 AM, bixpchiphead said:

 

In the case of 'JBK, at least from the late '70's til the early 80's, the station collaborated w/ Peters on their image campaigns, ie, JBK's promo/ CS came up with the overarching theme of the campaign, Peters did the heavy lifting (writing the music) not unlike getting a custom made suit versus one off the rack. Sometimes it worked (2 Together), other times (the steaming pile of "TV2 is Yours" or the ineffective "Two is the One"), not so much... As for other Storer stations and Peters, I suspect 'The Winners' was specially made for 'JKW, then tweaked for 'TVG.

 

And I think that WNGE Nashville's "A new Beat" may well be Peters as well, based on the "hump 2' that 'JBK used during the 'is yours' campaign

 

Gosh darn, @bixpchiphead you nailed it in 2017.

 

The soundtrack is a treat: KCST "39 Alive", KNTV "A New Vision", KTWO "2, The Free Spirit", KUTV "2 Together", KLAS "This is 8", and radio for WVON Chicago and jingles for Central Bank...

Edited by Samantha
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On 10/17/2020 at 10:31 AM, KnoxvilleTVFan said:

I came up with the composer of the KUTV 1979 news theme. It was Peters Productions and you can go to https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ10FpXZvpW4utLhTHSO1S34fpMSJpuznd6y&fbclid=IwAR0t088Cf65HT_H4t0uzeB6iXGP99fC-dUJp01IZJHgv5x6XW-LxVq87PJg to listen to the entire package. And I identified the composer, because of the news theme they play at 3:50.

And that's not all, if you go to https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZ72JpXZ2LzrBscemU4NL9plQHE9gSKfQcxV&fbclid=IwAR1a1fUAvrtkSMT6_lJeA0NDpjJi8lwjp6Tkw2troPtRlfbkE4VZx3pkgv8, at the beginning, you'll hear WNGE's 1979 news theme that was composed by, you guessed it, Peters Productions.

 

16 hours ago, Samantha said:

The soundtrack is a treat: KCST "39 Alive", KNTV "A New Vision", KTWO "2, The Free Spirit", KUTV "2 Together", KLAS "This is 8", and radio for WVON Chicago and jingles for Central Bank...

 

This soundtrack really IS a treat. Thank you for posting. The same people that did news theme music/promo packages for Gannett/Combined Communications stations like WXIA Atlanta, WLKY Louisville (now with Hearst), KOCO Oklahoma City (also with Hearst) and even here in Denver at KUSA (then KBTV). As far as that WJKW song TV8 The Winners is concerned, I got to hear the VOCAL version of the NewsCenter8 close (at 4:34 in the clip Peters Productions Video Sound Track). 

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The synth vamp in the long instrumental (close?) starting at 6:31 of the Video Sound Track sounds very familiar as well. I'm pretty sure there's a snippet of just the vamp at NMSA, though I my memory tells me it was a different pitch (perhaps the station ran it at a different speed?). When I find it, I will edit this post. If anyone can recall what station used it before I do, feel free to leave a reply.

Edited by TServo2049
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1 minute ago, Samantha said:

It's Beyond by Herb Alpert (KTVL ran it at another pitch).

 

Oh yeah, you're right. I forgot that it got ID'ed. I wonder what an extended chunk of it is doing on a Peters demo reel...

Edited by TServo2049
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1 hour ago, TServo2049 said:

 

Oh yeah, you're right. I forgot that it got ID'ed. I wonder what an extended chunk of it is doing on a Peters demo reel...

I suspect that it was used by Peters to show off several full service image packages that they had created,* not unlike what TvBD did in several packages, ie "Love on A real Train by Tangerine Dream..

 

*Remember this was the audio track of a video cassette tape...

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I also wonder that too. Anyway, this leads me to a question: Do you think that Peters Productions may have composed WTVD's 1979 news theme? I ask this question, because I am going to share a video that contains the entire WTVD newscast where they broadcasted from another room due to a fire on their news set.
 


You can listen to the closing theme at 28:36.

Edited by KnoxvilleTVFan
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7 hours ago, KnoxvilleTVFan said:

I also wonder that too. Anyway, this leads me to a question: Do you think that Peters Productions may have composed WTVD's 1979 news theme? I ask this question, because I am going to share a video that contains the entire WTVD newscast where they broadcasted from another room due to a fire on their news set.
[...]
You can listen to the closing theme at 28:36.

Darn, if you don't know, I guess that means you don't have the video. Are you at liberty to say how you obtained these? (If you aren't comfortable saying publicly, but you are in PM, I did ask you there already.) I wonder if the source has the video copy, or just this audio.

 

As to WTVD 1979, I've been convinced that it's Peters for years. It has the "Together" slogan (which I believe Peters still had the trademark on at that time), it uses lettering very similar to the Combined-era "Alive" imaging on WXIA/KOCO/WLKY, and I thought Ed Peters told me over the phone years ago that he remembered WTVD being a client (but my memory could be wrong). And it sure sounds like Peters, especially the more we learn about what Peters sounded like.

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6 minutes ago, TServo2049 said:

Darn, if you don't know, I guess that means you don't have the video. Are you at liberty to say how you obtained these? (If you aren't comfortable saying publicly, but you are in PM, I did ask you there already.) I wonder if the source has the video copy, or just this audio.

 

As to WTVD 1979, I've been convinced that it's Peters for years. It has the "Together" slogan (which I believe Peters still had the trademark on at that time), it uses lettering very similar to the Combined-era "Alive" imaging on WXIA/KOCO/WLKY, and I thought Ed Peters told me over the phone years ago that he remembered WTVD being a client (but my memory could be wrong). And it sure sounds like Peters, especially the more we learn about what Peters sounded like.


TServo2049, I came across these links on a Facebook group called Radio Jingles and Airchecks which you can check out at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1571170363164821/.

In fact, The link to the original post concerning the Peters Productions VIdeo Sound Track audio can be seen at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1571170363164821/permalink/2793500540931791/ while the original post for the KUTV 2 Together Peters package can also be seen at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1571170363164821/permalink/2793618074253371/

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Ah, I should have known it was a jingle collector (and one from the UK at that). I'm making an educated guess that he dubbed the audio to another tape back in the 80s, and that we won't get to see that video any time in the near future. Oh well.

 

Maybe someday I'll digitize the Calico demo containing animation for several Peters imaging IDs, but both my VCR and DVD recorder died. I should ask eyeontv from YT, my multi-gen dub traces back to him.

 

I've said this before either in this thread or another, but it included (among other, non-Peters campaigns) “K2, The Free Spirit”, “2 Belongs” for KHON, “13 Belongs” for what was then KSHO - and I still believe that KTNV 1981 was part of that image package - as well as the ID animation for “XETV, See the Difference“, which I am now starting to suspect *might* have been Peters too, based on the sound of the music/vocals in the off-air clips on YT (the demo set the montage of IDs to a piece of classical music, so I didn’t hear the actual accompanying jingle for years after). I am also wondering if Calico might have done the animations for “2, A New Beat” and WJBK’s “2 Together”, since they look very similar - even if a lot of backlit animation-stand photography looked similar regardless of who produced it (the only real way to know is to have a demo reel, or find a print ad in an old trade magazine like Millimeter).

Edited by TServo2049
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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/14/2016 at 1:48 PM, TServo2049 said:

On KWES 2002: I'm actually starting to wonder whether KAKE 1988/KAKE 1989 are even Tuesday. I swear I sent samples to Tom DiNoto and he said they were Tuesday's work (or that they sounded familiar), but he also said that he did not recognize the KWES 2002 close.

 

The reason I am pondering whether it is actually Tuesday, is that after deducing WROC 1992 as being an Otis Conner package (through instrumentation/drum machine sample similarities with the 1989 KCBS AM 740 package I used to hear when I was young), I took another listen to those KAKE packages and also seemed to hear similarities in the sound, and that made me wonder if they were actually Conner rather than Tuesday.

 

I can still definitely hear why I had originally assumed it was Tuesday to begin with, so I'm not confident enough to say I absolutely DON'T believe it was their work. Unfortunately, I have had no luck getting responses from Mr. Conner; he responded to the RNYN curator about WROC 1992 confirming he did it, and responded to me asking about a different package and saying it wasn't his work. Other than that, I haven't gotten any answers about anything from Mr. Conner (I think I even messaged him about these KAKE packages, never heard back...)

 

I'm not someone who likes to necessarily go deep for no reason - but I was wondering if there was ever an answer or insight given into who did the work for KAKE or if they were all one package. The reason I ask is because I've found a tape with a complete 10 PM newscast from KAKE circa May 1989 that actually uses the '89 theme for the intro, but some of the bumpers sound like the '88 or KWES '02 theme. The close for that show actually IS the one listed as KWES 2002...

 

 

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I've found the theme used by Telefe Noticias between 1990 and 1992. Surprisingly, it's production music and it was composed by John Tesh! It's called "Destination Paris". Hope you'll like it!

Edited by onthesea
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  • 2 weeks later...

I think I figured out who did the epic KCRA 1993 Theme. Take a listen to this bumper, if you may..

Sounds a lot like Non-Stop, doesn't it? It wouldn't surprise me if Non-Stop did some themes we may have never suspected, they were known to switch up their instrumentations a lot more than other firms. Their WGHP Theme is an excellent example, it sounds completely different from the likes of First News and News Central.

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I am seriously wondering (and probably not for the first time) if Non-Stop had any contributions to the nearly 10-year black hole of unidentified KUTV themes between Hello News and Primetime News. The three ones that are in NMSA all sound vaguely SLC-ish to me. (And there's also the one used in the mid-late 80s which isn't in NMSA, and which we only have snippets of via the tail end of an open from an incomplete recording, and some news-tease IDs - depending on if the mystery Mike Youngren-commissioned, SLC-produced package recalled by a long-ago Tulsa TV Memories guestbook poster was for KUTV or KMGH, it may be that late-80s package, and being locally produced would make it a candidate for being Non-Stop as well. I just wish we could hear more of it...)

 

I used to think KTRE 1993 (also used by WAFF about 4-5 years earlier) could have been Non-Stop simply based on the "orchestral" sound, but that was when we just had that short opening snippet on NMSA (and possibly even before the sound quality upgrades across the entire site). Listening to it again, with more excerpts available on NMSA and a couple 1988-89 WAFF news clips and promos on YT using other cuts, I now don’t think it sounds like them.

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26 minutes ago, TServo2049 said:

 

...I just posted something about KTRE 1993 on another thread yesterday. That's crazy.

 

I first thought this next clip was related to the aforementioned package, but upon a listen, it's actually tied the theme WAFF was using immediately prior. Did you know that Tuesday's KSL 1989 package had an image song? Sadly, this copy is not complete.

 

 

KSL didn't use the slogan "People Who Care", but I am seriously wondering who was the original client for the package. There is video on YT of KSL using it in November 1988...but I can find several clips of WAFF using it in 1987. Early 1987, at that. (In fact, I'm actually wondering if it, and the "squares" look, could have debuted on WAFF together on New Year's Day 1987. I know there's a 1986 Year in Review video that still uses "We're Your Kind of People".)

 

 

Hey, that sound awfully familiar. That's the same promo music used by KUSA in Denver during its ABC affiliate years (left for NBC in 1995). It's slogan is Colorado USA...KUSA

 

 

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4 minutes ago, newsteam13 said:

 

 

Hey, that sound awfully familiar. That's the same promo music used by KUSA in Denver during its ABC affiliate years (left for NBC in 1995). It's slogan is Colorado USA...KUSA

 

 

 

1985? Hmm, I wonder how old the news package actually is. Was it done at the same time as the promo, or was it done later as a spin-off? (We know that News 88 was copyrighted in 1984, two years before the earliest documented use of it...)

Edited by TServo2049
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1 minute ago, TServo2049 said:

 

1985? Hmm, I wonder how old the news package actually is. Was it done at the same time, or later? (We know that News 88 was copyrighted in 1984, two years before the earliest documented use of it...)

 

When the KUSA promo (Colorado USA...KUSA) came out, Channel 9 was still using 9 Country/11 Country, as was sister station Channel 11 in Twin Cities (WTCN/WUSA/KARE). I don't think that promo song went with the 9 Country/11 Country news theme music package. Furthermore, who composed 9 Country/11 Country remains a mystery.

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22 hours ago, newsteam13 said:

 

When the KUSA promo (Colorado USA...KUSA) came out, Channel 9 was still using 9 Country/11 Country, as was sister station Channel 11 in Twin Cities (WTCN/WUSA/KARE). I don't think that promo song went with the 9 Country/11 Country news theme music package. Furthermore, who composed 9 Country/11 Country remains a mystery.

 

I don't think so either. But it being on WAFF at the same time as KSL 1989 and seeming to share bits of melody suggests that it's connected to that package in some way, even though KUSA obviously never used it. I can definitely hear the 4-note "COL-or-a-DO"/"AL-a-ba-MA" motif in the news theme. And that song sounds like Tuesday, too.

Edited by TServo2049
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On 12/1/2020 at 7:15 PM, TServo2049 said:

 

I don't think so either. But it being on WAFF at the same time as KSL 1989 and seeming to share bits of melody suggests that it's connected to that package in some way, even though KUSA obviously never used it. I can definitely hear the 4-note "COL-or-a-DO"/"AL-a-ba-MA" motif in the news theme. And that song sounds like Tuesday, too.

@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.

Edited by promoguy98
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1 hour ago, 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.

 

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.

 

1199028992_ScreenShot2020-12-04at13_26_33.thumb.png.69e5a578f9f7e3a78f3a011e2f33a297.png

 

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.

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