Discovered composers & publishers of music themes

[JimScott 0]

Something tells me that I believe Editel and Century III used the same vocalists from KTXL 1986 on WVIT 1987. 

Am I right or was that a plain rumor?

[Samantha 2857]

On 7/15/2023 at 5:47 PM, JimScott said:

Something tells me that I believe Editel and Century III used the same vocalists from KTXL 1986 on WVIT 1987. 

 

Am I right or was that a plain rumor?

 

I have not come across anything to indicate they did this package. I also doubt it would have been done in Boston, especially back then; CIII's clients, except for things DI was actively syndicating like Window on the World (apparently tied to a 1986 station image package they introduced at the BPME show in Dallas, wondering if this is the KXAS etc. look of that era), generally came from New England. Not unthinkable but not my first guess.

[Weeters 1683]

On 7/16/2016 at 2:02 PM, Weeters said:

 

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.

 

6 years later, we have an answer.

 

In the past 6 years, the promos in question were re-uploaded

 

and, going down a rabbit hole in the Copyright Office search tonight led me to

 

So... There we have it.

[TheOneManHerd 552]

Just gonna leave this here. Discuss away...

 

[10Viewer 315]

36 minutes ago, TheOneManHerd said:

Just gonna leave this here. Discuss away...

Sounds like a bunch of examples of separate packages. Is there anything 'revealed' here?

[cxd7346 191]

1 hour ago, 10Viewer said:

Sounds like a bunch of examples of separate packages. Is there anything 'revealed' here?

Yes. 

[TheOneManHerd 552]

22 hours ago, 10Viewer said:

Sounds like a bunch of examples of separate packages. Is there anything 'revealed' here?

Towards the middle is an unaired, and until now unknown, package presumably composed for KTVI.

[10Viewer 315]

2 hours ago, TheOneManHerd said:

Towards the middle is an unaired, and until now unknown, package presumably composed for KTVI.

Yeah, that was about the only thing 'new' on the tape. But there are apparently other demo tapes that will be posted. 

[compubit 644]

On 8/8/2023 at 9:52 PM, TheOneManHerd said:

Towards the middle is an unaired, and until now unknown, package presumably composed for KTVI.

Since we don’t have specific dates, I wonder if the reason it was unaired is:

- Just as they were going to use it, CBS rolled out their “We’ve Got the Touch” series of promos

- There was a management change who didn’t like the jingle/theme

- Something else…

 

(not going to take it any further into Speculatron areas on my part…)

[Samantha 2857]

The KTVI piece is fascinating. Let me shed some light on what KTVI was like at the time, and you might understand how this one never saw the light of day.

 

KTVI had adopted Hello in 1984 alongside the other "major" Times-Mirror stations (KDFW and KTBC). They all had similar open animations. All three of those stations (KDFW, KTBC, KTVI) plus WVTM Birmingham then adopted the same look in mid-late 1987: JAM's Yours Truly and the diagonal stripe bar graphics. I believe this comes from that time period. The ND of KTVI from 1986 to 1989 was Sue Kawalerski.

 

Times-Mirror tended to make a lot of decisions at the level of corporate. (A corporate graphics package of the kind the Times-Mirror stations rolled out in late 1987 was not common then!) And they made some disastrous ones at KTVI, the market's third-rated news station (with KMOV and KSDK, two goliaths, in front of them). In November 1986, Lloyd Immel was hired to be one of the lead anchors. Then, just months after the Yours Truly look debuted at KTVI, it was gone. And so too were all the news presenters.

 

 

In February 1988, KTVI debuted a new anchor team (see the very laughable promo above), which gained the nickname "Gang of Four" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They all came from elsewhere: Kevin Cokely was working for Storer in Washington, Iola Johnson was in radio in Dallas (previously of WFAA), Stu Klitenic came from WXYZ, and Miles Muzio had been a journeyman weatherman already by this point (I believe his last posting was KOIN prior to this). The existing look was blown up (this is when they switched to the Great Prospect track from Bruton, then to Palmer, then to News Central, all in about two years). Apparently their installation had been in the works since August 1987 when a new promotions director came to KTVI. (There's a sign of something.)

 

St. Louis viewers—famous for their resistance to change, as KDNL would later learn—never took to the Gang of Four, all of whom left the market within two years. Kawalerski was evidently forced out, not long after Times-Mirror broadcasting president John McCrory was replaced. In the KTVI newsroom, the news she was out was met with "jubilation" and "euphoria". (She landed at WCIX.) But the hiring of the Gang of Four was a corporate decision, beyond Kawalerski. McCrory was known for his intense involvement in KTVI's affairs. It took Bud Carey, the new T-M broadcasting head; Wayne Thomas, the new GM; and a salvage operation to return them to respectability. Losing ABC for Fox helped; ABC was never much watched in St. Louis, something else for KDNL to learn.

 

Clearly In Touch was far along. It was finished work from Gari, the same company that had already done resings of Hello for them. But the change in promotions director and possibly other factors (the Times Mirror stations graphics package of 1987), and likely the forthcoming revamp of news anchors, likely left this to sit on a shelf.

 

Forgot to post this originally, but some words from Kim Hindrew, who left for WMC in August 1988 when they took away her anchor duties:

 

"They're still wondering what they did wrong. The fact that they would think the people of St. Louis had to accept what they were giving them ... it's an arrogance I don't understand. Then viewers did the only thing they could do: They stopped watching."

Edited August 10 by Samantha

[nycnewsjunkie 1257]

11 hours ago, Samantha said:

The KTVI piece is fascinating. Let me shed some light on what KTVI was like at the time, and you might understand how this one never saw the light of day.

 

KTVI had adopted Hello in 1984 alongside the other "major" Times-Mirror stations (KDFW and KTBC). They all had similar open animations. All three of those stations (KDFW, KTBC, KTVI) plus WVTM Birmingham then adopted the same look in mid-late 1987: JAM's Yours Truly and the diagonal stripe bar graphics. I believe this comes from that time period. The ND of KTVI from 1986 to 1989 was Sue Kawalerski.

 

Times-Mirror tended to make a lot of decisions at the level of corporate. (A corporate graphics package of the kind the Times-Mirror stations rolled out in late 1987 was not common then!) And they made some disastrous ones at KTVI, the market's third-rated news station (with KMOV and KSDK, two goliaths, in front of them). In November 1986, Lloyd Immel was hired to be one of the lead anchors. Then, just months after the Yours Truly look debuted at KTVI, it was gone. And so too were all the news presenters.

 

 

In February 1988, KTVI debuted a new anchor team (see the very laughable promo above), which gained the nickname "Gang of Four" in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. They all came from elsewhere: Kevin Cokely was working for Storer in Washington, Iola Johnson was in radio in Dallas (previously of WFAA), Stu Klitenic came from WXYZ, and Miles Muzio had been a journeyman weatherman already by this point (I believe his last posting was KOIN prior to this). The existing look was blown up (this is when they switched to the Great Prospect track from Bruton, then to Palmer, then to News Central, all in about two years). Apparently their installation had been in the works since August 1987 when a new promotions director came to KTVI. (There's a sign of something.)

 

St. Louis viewers—famous for their resistance to change, as KDNL would later learn—never took to the Gang of Four, all of whom left the market within two years. Kawalerski was evidently forced out, not long after Times-Mirror broadcasting president John McCrory was replaced. In the KTVI newsroom, the news she was out was met with "jubilation" and "euphoria". (She landed at WCIX.) But the hiring of the Gang of Four was a corporate decision, beyond Kawalerski. McCrory was known for his intense involvement in KTVI's affairs. It took Bud Carey, the new T-M broadcasting head; Wayne Thomas, the new GM; and a salvage operation to return them to respectability. Losing ABC for Fox helped; ABC was never much watched in St. Louis, something else for KDNL to learn.

 

Clearly In Touch was far along. It was finished work from Gari, the same company that had already done resings of Hello for them. But the change in promotions director and possibly other factors (the Times Mirror stations graphics package of 1987), and likely the forthcoming revamp of news anchors, likely left this to sit on a shelf.

That must’ve been a hell of a lot of research on your part to track this stuff down. I get the feeling that promoting your anchor team as a bunch of people from out of town probably got a very different reaction from the one the geniuses (/s) in management had in mind. It sounds like the station was a mess before Fox entered the picture.

[Samantha 2857]

34 minutes ago, nycnewsjunkie said:

That must’ve been a hell of a lot of research on your part to track this stuff down. I get the feeling that promoting your anchor team as a bunch of people from out of town probably got a very different reaction from the one the geniuses (/s) in management had in mind. It sounds like the station was a mess before Fox entered the picture.

 

Very much so. The next management was able to put the station back on sound news footing (they also hired Dave Murray at about the time Stu Klitenic left for WSB).

[sfomspphl 435]

Glad to see the promo dept basement box find.

 

Is it me or did Gari have kind of a dry spell of new hit news packages in the late 80s? 

 

After Great News Package and until they went full on cheap synth for Advantage / WFSB, updates to One and Only, etc that created a sound for 10-20 years I have a hard time pinpointing new Gari packages that really took off in that shoulder period.

 

The packages kind of lost their hook and energy -  "We'll Take You There" is the kind of thing I'm talking about, "Making a Difference" (listen to the early orchestral cuts). Just doesn't feel distinctively Gari like the full sounding early 80s stuff and then the for better or worse synth horn treatment of the 90s stuff that's unmistakably their sound. 

 

And BTW, kind of Wild that KQWC took until the early 90s to start using Hello and did it with  vintage 70s cuts that lasted well into the 2000s. 

 

Edited August 10 by sfomspphl

[cxd7346 191]

So I made another discovery tonight. Hello News II. 

[TheRolyPoly 1829]

4 hours ago, cxd7346 said:

So I made another discovery tonight. Hello News II. 

 

Its The Great News Package with the Hello News Melody. WDTN Dayton used this before and so has WOKR (WHAM) Rochester and a few others, according to NMSA.

[CircleSeven 1914]

12 hours ago, cxd7346 said:

So I made another discovery tonight. Hello News II. 

 

8 hours ago, TheRolyPoly said:

Its The Great News Package with the Hello News Melody. WDTN Dayton used this before and so has WOKR (WHAM) Rochester and a few others, according to NMSA.

This deserves some backtracking......

 

From this thread in 2014:

On 2/27/2014 at 8:36 PM, promoguy98 said:

According to link below, here is the original writer/composer and singer info of the original "We're with You on 11Alive" promo campaign for Atlanta.

 

Atlanta 11 Alive

(Jayne Critelli/David Lucas)

WXIA- Michael Bolton/Vivian Cherry, vocals

 

http://www.jaynecritelli.com/music/jingles.html - - the full length song is featured on the page.

 

Begs the question if Gari bought out this entire work, along with what became known now as the Great News Package, which was known as Hello News II and originally as News 88.

And there's some more discussion regarding Hello/Great News in this archived thread from that time.

 

 

 

Edited August 14 by CircleSeven

[SoFloTVClassics 871]

Frank Gari station images collection.

 

 

[SoFloTVClassics 871]

I now present you Hello News 2 (or The Great News with Hello News signature)

 

 

[SoFloTVClassics 871]

I now present to you. Tuesday Productions promo reel from 1978-1980

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SoFloTVClassics 871]

Another new find from Tuesday Productions.

 

 

[sfomspphl 435]

On the Tuesday topic...this is a 1985 demo, not many surprises in here other than high quality sound on the Lets All Be There news promo music at the beginning, KXTV mid 80s theme around 2:00, and the News 88 full theme at the end.

 

 

Edited November 19 by sfomspphl

[SoFloTVClassics 871]

I present to you, TM Productions "You Can Count on us" Demo reel. Composed For WFAA- Dallas-Ft.Worth.

 

 

[CircleSeven 1914]

On 11/19/2023 at 5:01 PM, sfomspphl said:

On the Tuesday topic...this is a 1985 demo, not many surprises in here other than high quality sound on the Lets All Be There news promo music at the beginning, KXTV mid 80s theme around 2:00, and the News 88 full theme at the end.

That image campaign (on the 3:00 mark on the reel) came from the launch of WPDS-TV 59 (now WXIN) in 1984.

 

 

Edited November 25 by CircleSeven