Wow, what a journey we have all been on!
Eight years since speculation on the now-current graphics package back in 2016. And now, we have come full circle regarding the fanfare!
2016 “Me” would be absolutely thrilled this consideration has eventually come to fruition!
Questions sent to the ABC’s YourSpace community last week (December 2023) and seen by The Australian, asked whether they watched or listened to its news services and if they were supportive of a new-look opening to the 7pm TV news.
They were asked what they thought of it, why they either liked or didn’t like it and whether it fitted in with what they “know of the ABC news”.
They were asked how they would feel if the new theme replaced the current one.
Thank you, ABC YourSpace focus group. 
According to the 2016 Fairfax/SMH article, Peter Wall was approached in the previous year of 2015. It just goes to show how invaluable his efforts to preserve the original recording has benefited almost 10 years later!
Wall confirmed the ABC approached him last year about bringing back his theme and commissioned an updated version.
“I went down to the music room, searched high and low and found an old half-inch tape with the original recordings,” said Wall, a former ABC radio manager who also co-wrote themes for The 7.30 Report, Lateline and Channel 10 News.
The tape format, known as Dash 8, is now all but extinct but Wall eventually found a studio in Neutral Bay with a machine capable of lifting the tracks.
The tape was so old it needed to be baked first in an oven for four hours to ensure the oxide on the tape didn’t come off.
“It was quite hairy,” he said. “You only have one shot.”
But, is it the remix by The Bag Raiders? 
It worked. The track was then sent to Los Angeles to be remixed by Australian electronic group Bag Raiders.
“I was blown away by the results,” Wall said. “I don’t think it’s possible to do a better remix than they have done.”
Even if it may not be, and is instead a different composition, the fact that Wall himself and David McDonald are happy, should instil confidence that they’ve done the new arrangement justice. Curious to hear the live performance on News Breakfast too.
Yes, there were between Wall, though it seems the way it was settled was when it was eventually omitted from the 2010-2017 revision:
“The first three notes are the same, played by the same instrument - the trumpet - and they’re even played in the same key, it jumps straight out at you,” Mr Wall said.
“I was just on the phone to a lawyer who said they’re exactly the same. You have to wonder if Mr Armitage was told to keep some link to ours to keep conservative viewers onside. As far as I’m concerned, though, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.”
Mr Wall has not ruled out suing for breach of copyright, but has said he would write to the ABC first to seek clarification: “No one at the ABC ever approached me to use this work, and it’s clearly copying, so I’ll be writing to them to seek an explanation.”
Either way, onwards to Monday! 
