The Newsroom

Greatest News Themes of All Time

(August 2016)

This site closed in March 2021 and is now a read-only archive
LS
Lou Scannon
IndigoTucker posted:
There was a rare remix of the Carlton era Westcountry Lve theme, used for the full length lunchtime bulletin, which is a full-on piece to dance and party to, rather than the sedate evening theme.


Cheers for the info, IndigoTucker.

I genuinely never knew about that before now (and therefore haven't knowingly ever heard it).
IT
itsrobert Founding member
Austin Tatious posted:
Londoner posted:


Good grief. Shocked The first bit of that melody sounds like something that the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz might sing a song to! Not "newsy" at all.

Altogether now: "The house began to pitch, the kitchen took a slitch. It landed on the Wicked Witch, in the middle of a ditch..." (!)

I actually think that theme music worked best in conjunction with a voiceover for the ITN Early Evening News, as seen here: https://youtu.be/M3_naMzyUP0?t=1m42s. By the time it was introduced on the Morning News it had suffered quite a butchering and didn't have quite the same impact without a voiceover. But on the EEN I think it's actually quite dramatic and suitable for a news programme in my opinion.
AN
Andrew Founding member
Regarding Spotlight and Westcountry Live, I think I preferred the earlier 'lighthouse' theme music but the later opening titles. Westcountry, I didn't like the Carlton era titles with the wavy lines, but I did like the earlier 1993 onwards theme. I thought the 'middle 8' was a bit over the top though.
WH
Whataday Founding member
IndigoTucker posted:
There was a rare remix of the Carlton era Westcountry Lve theme, used for the full length lunchtime bulletin, which is a full-on piece to dance and party to, rather than the sedate evening theme.


Yes, and it is library music, not a remix of the previous theme.


Austin Tatious posted:
Londoner posted:


Good grief. Shocked The first bit of that melody sounds like something that the Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz might sing a song to! Not "newsy" at all.


Goodness knows what you'd make of the ITN News theme that preceded it ten years earlier.

BR
Brekkie
Andrew posted:
Austin Tatious posted:


Speaking of Westcountry (wandering a bit OT, sorry)...

I always found it rather OTT that in Westcountry Television's earliest weeks/months on air, how they had various specific "names" for the different short bulletins (e.g. "Westcountry Latest" (weekdays) and "Westcountry Weekend Latest" and such like). Particularly as, during the course of one very short title sequence, you'd see the main "Westcountry News" name at the start, then seguing into whatever the uber-specific bulletin "name" was. Branding overkill, much?!

Similarly, there were also things like "Meridian Late" in that era.

Surely just two titles at the most (e.g. "...News" (for all short bulletins) and "...Tonight/...at Six" etc (for the main programme only), or merely the "...Today/Tonight" variable) is quite sufficient?

It was very typical of the 1993 franchise round where the companies went big on regional news to win the franchises. You also had hour long bulletins as well. In west country's case you also had the 4 sub opts that were so small and sparsely populated they must have had to resort to reading out the parish newsletter.

Those were the days. It would be interesting to see what ITV would propose now if they were at threat of losing the channel 3 licence.
QN
Quatorzine Neko
It is so difficult for me to choose just one favourite news theme. I love so many, from Radio-Canada's formal Téléjournal in 2003, to Russia-1's impressive Vesti v Subbotu in 2014, from TVE2's classy La Dos Noticias in 2008 to Pink's weird-sounding and visually-plagiaristic Nacionalni Dnevnik in 2013…

I am mostly fond of recent news themes… But there is one news theme from the nineties I am particularly fond of: France 3's news theme from 1993 to 1995.


Right above is the full version of the theme which was aired before the switches between the regional outputs and the national programme.

And below you will find: the intro of a regional newscast, and a full national newscast.



It was great in 1993 and, in my opinion, it still is today!

And I really am in love with FranceInfo:'s new theme… ♥
AD
ADmanamDA
I assume most of you may have not heard of this piece before, but this is my all time favorite. It has been the news theme for six news programs of SMG (Shanghai Media Group)'s most-watched local channel - STV (Shanghai Television in Shanghai, China) News and General Channel from 1998 to 2006.


615 Music, which belongs to Warner/Chappell Production Music, created this piece. Here is a link to the official page of this piece: http://www.warnerchappellpm.com/sw/stv-news-music-package/
CH
Charles
Le Neko posted:
I am mostly fond of recent news themes… But there is one news theme from the nineties I am particularly fond of: France 3's news theme from 1993 to 1995.

(snip)

And I really am in love with FranceInfo:'s new theme… ♥


Nice to see someone else with interest in French media on here! I'm mostly only familiar with French news in the last 5-10 years, so it's cool to see some of the older stuff. I think the current France 3 look is nice – mostly the studio, but also the music and graphics.

I'm also a huge fan of France 24's current look. The original music they started with at launch was a little corny, but the new stuff is great – especially the sting at the begging of the Paris Direct/Live from Paris open:





I also love the closely-related RFI identity. I jump everytime I get an RFI alert on my phone!
AD
ADmanamDA
Charles posted:
Le Neko posted:
I am mostly fond of recent news themes… But there is one news theme from the nineties I am particularly fond of: France 3's news theme from 1993 to 1995.

(snip)

And I really am in love with FranceInfo:'s new theme… ♥


Nice to see someone else with interest in French media on here! I'm mostly only familiar with French news in the last 5-10 years, so it's cool to see some of the older stuff. I think the current France 3 look is nice – mostly the studio, but also the music and graphics.

I'm also a huge fan of France 24's current look. The original music they started with at launch was a little corny, but the new stuff is great – especially the sting at the begging of the Paris Direct/Live from Paris open:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7LzjbNoxWU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0N9pv53PtM

I also love the closely-related RFI identity. I jump everytime I get an RFI alert on my phone!

Please also count me as another France 24 fan! I love the news themes of Paris Direct/Live from Paris and Édition Spéciale/Special Report.
Here are some more France 24 news themes.
1. Édition Spéciale/Special Report


2. Le Journal/News Bulletin


3. Météo/Weather
CH
Charles
^^

Thanks for sharing! It's great to hear a clean version of those themes.

I also really liked this weather theme they used starting around 2009/2010.



The current weather music doesn't have as much personality, but it's still pretty good too.
CH
channelsurfer


I really enjoy the Ten Eyewitness News theme from Australia, it's nice and punchy.
PI
pip2
Old school echoes of teleprinters and telegraphy in a couple of classic tunes from the seventies... was at a loose end so mocked up some visuals to go with.



London Lite and dazza1976 gave kudos

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