Opinions - North American News Themes

Hey Everyone, because of the wide variety news themes used in local tv in USA. Yes, news themes in the UK are different in tempo and instrumentation from US. Even within the US depending on the market, some of these work and some dont. US news themes typically uses a very strong signature to brand the station. The signature will be remixed (or reused) to tie the station branding together from a previous theme. The use of horns to announce the news and grab the viewers attention, is a typical American news theme tactic. Whats your opinion? Please stay on topic and discuss the merits of the theme presented. Hopefully this can be a fun lively thread. (NOTE: When you click the link and the page opens click the Music note next to the theme name, or previous theme will play again)

Todays Theme: KCAL 9 - LOS ANGELES . KCAL was an completely indie station with a strong news department until it was bought into a duopoly with KCBS. Check out their theme starting in the 90s and still going strong until their buyout by CBS. (Typically these themes will have several versions of the main theme and then several additional cuts for other uses) Whats your rating and opinion?

Decade 90 http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,4
Faren-hite http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,5
The Hammer http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,7 Main theme Starts .18 secs
NewsForce http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/#3,1,36

KCAL do certainly seem to be fond of trumpets, although they were not so obvious in the later remixes. The 3rd mix did make me think, for some reason, of the UK trend of the late 90s/early 00s to try to turn their local news programmes into something more . . . with music which seemed less bombastic.

Not a bad theme/remixes. I'd give it 6/10, mainly for the brashness.

I've always loved this version of The Enforcer....

http://www.newsmusicnow.com/player.php?id=2/enforcerng1/enforcerng1primaryopen.mp3&t=The%20Enforcer%20NG1%20-%20Primary%20Open

Kindly, Please give your rating of the theme posted. Just trying keep the thread clean and orderly. I will post Enforcer and other themes soon. Thanks for your help

What the hell is going on with this forum these days?

If it's not folk wetting themselves at excitement about Good Morning Britain, its newer members telling established members to mind their P's and Q's...

I would like to speak my mind at times but it would probably end in me getting barred...

With all due respect, that's not how threads work. You can't just start a thread and then tell people exactly how they should respond.

When someone starts a thread, he/she merely opens up a certain topic for discussion, If others consider that topic interesting (and this is, on the face of it, a perfectly interesting topic), they will add their own posts to the thread -- in a spontaneous and organic way. Of course, those responses should be on topic, but they will invariably reflect what their authors are interested in and what they would like to share with other members.

If someone like Gary McEwan wants to discuss a certain news theme, why should he have to wait for you to post it instead?

Aside from Gary's rather OTT comment about Good Morning Britain, he has a point that you shouldn't tell people what to post and when. It's a discussion forum - not just a vote.

My favorite local news theme, used by WNBC in New York from 2003-2008, and KNTV in California for a few years is this:

2008 WNBC Open:



Full theme:

BTW, this is the original 1970s theme on which The Enforcer is based:

http://southernmedia-nmsa.com/#4,0,41

WDIV 4 Detroit uses this powerful theme created by Chris Crane. Mr Crane is the in-house composer for Sunbeam Television which owns WSVN -7 Miami and WHDH- 7 Boston, the former being the creator of modern tabloid local news. Mr Crane's distinctive dancy-techno tabloid themes often incorporate the news ticker-tape sound of decades past with attention grabbing "horn" section was initially heard on first on WSVN and was soon emulated to varying degrees across North America as news directors took note of the rising ratings for WSVN.

WDIV 4 the NBC affiliate in Detroit commissioned Mr Crane to compose the theme they have been using on air since 2007. This NBC affiliate had Mr Crane include the NBC chimes to intro the theme. Detroit is home of Techno, so I wouldnt surprised if that wasnt taken into account.

NOTE: When you click the link and the page opens click the Music note next to the theme name, or previous theme will play again

The Mission or nothing for me.

Both the old version and the recent version are good in their own way.

Though I realise this is an old thread, I think KTSP NewsCenter 10PM got it right here: