No. I didn’t know of a better topic for the info than “OTH”
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Here’s a full edition from RTL Actueel, a short-lived late news block which aired on RTL4 in 1997. The show was a composite of four separate news and current affairs programmes which were independent each one of other, but under the coordination of RTL Nieuws, including sharing a then-new news studio, which was much derided by RTL news presenters, which thought was “too shiny”, and had a venetian panels background which could be switched by flipping them automatically, but didn’t always work correctly, so the breakfast news still had the late night background, for example.
As said, RTL Actueel, named after the German RTL Aktuell, was made of five parts: the Endemol-produced true crime show Peter R. de Vries, misdaadverslaggever (Crime Reporter), featuring the popular crime journalist (murdered in 2021) who mixed straightforward true crime storytelling with traditional journalism, including working with sources in both the worlds of law enforcement and organized crime; his work won many TV awards (including an International Emmy for his controversial special report on the Natalee Holloway case) and generated threats by organised crime groups. The programme had started in 1995 as a weekly, hour long programme; the switch to RTL Actueel led to the show expanding to five nights a week, but was cut to 15 minutes.
The other parts were an entertainment news bulletin, Shownieuws, with alternating presentation by Lucille Werner and Marion Keller, and the late news, with Rick Nieman and Sander Simons. Ending the show was a sports news roundup by Mari Carmen Oudendijk and Jeroen Latijnhouwers, and the weather forecast. The news block was also a part of a major plan to rejuvenate RTL4’s audiences and ratings. After a very successful period at the start of the decade, by the mid-1990s, the concept of the “family-friendly channel” with lots of American imports and strong light entertainment offerings helmed by local stars, which was seen as more attractive than the then-stuffy NPO channels, had started to decline.
As a result, quick intervention was needed, and, by the summer of 1997, a major brand and programming refresh was launched. As part of the changes, most of the station’s key programs were given a new look, whilst some underperforming shows were axed. Additionally, the network’s branding was completely redone, including a tweaked logo in a more stylized way and in the form of a sun; RTL Nieuws’ branding was also redone, with a much more cyberpunk-style look. The rebrand, by in-house creative director Willem van den Berg, also included more contemporary music by its longtime music director Hans van Eijck, with the assistance of a figure who would become a stalwart in TV music branding going forward: Martijn Schimmer.
The desperate rebranding did not work: viewer figures plummented even more. This was the reason that led the RTL Holland Media Groep board to set up a task force in the spring of 1998. A new CEO, Pieter Porsius, and program director, Bert van der Veer, were appointed to lead the reorganization within the company. Many of the network’s longstanding shows, including a local version of Wheel of Fortune and the lifestyle-oriented talk show, De Vijf Uur Show, were promptly axed, and massive budget cuts were made; Van den Berg was also sacked, as was the network’s entire creative department.
By that summer, a total rebrand of the network was carried out by Pittard Sullivan, which meant that many things, including the logo, had to change. Although the 1997 RTL Nieuws music was carried out, it was reorchestrated by Bernhard Joosten (who had made the music for the new Pittard Sullivan graphics), who gave it more urgency and gravitas to the tune, and was recorded by the Metropole Orkest; the initial version was quickly dropped after Joosten was dissatisfied with how the first version sounded, leading to the concert orchestra being called back to record the second and final version of the tune.
As for De Vries’ show, his show resurfaced later in 1998 on SBS6, having also being booted due to its very expensive budget; the show aired for 11 more seasons, before being axed in 2012 at his behest. De Vries returned to RTL, where he became the resident crime pundit on its daily tabloid newsmagazine RTL Boulevard until his eventual murder.
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A variety of local idents from ITV Granada in the late 1990s, before adopting the “hearts” network look in November 1999. The Christmas idents seen at the end of the video were shared with corporate siblings Yorkshire and Tyne Tees.
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Is there any local idents/UTV-branded out of vision continuity for Ulster Television/UTV these days post-pandemic?
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Local continuity at UTV was discontinued during the pandemic, but I’m not sure if was reinstated later.
Several years before that, UTV was known for providing in-vision announcements until 2016. Here’s a snippet from December 2002 featuring Julian Simmons.
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You’d think ITV would have been smarter than to “John Bull” the local ITV franchise area given the still visible sectarian issues in Ulster?
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As the report @south_97 shared says, what was a pandemic-related issue, became permanent with the departure of Simmons and Porter; since then, UTV has been behaving as a “normal” ITV1 station, taking full branding and presentation from London, including network announcements, idents, promos and end credit sequences. However, there is still quite a number of variations on UTV’s schedule and content.
First of all, the UTV brand is still used for local programming (still UTV Live for news, not ITV News Northern Ireland), and the UTV (ITV1 NI) schedule operates in a similar disposition to ITV Cymru Wales, where ITV1’s national schedule there is often preempted during some late prime time periods and many daytime hours to broadcast more current affairs, documentary and features programming targeted to each nation. Channel Television still provides additional features content in a semi-regular basis, though these were reduced after ITV took over the ownership of the franchise.
The same case with STV: they also air ITV network programming, but have long provided extra news and current affairs programming which emphasise Scottish issues; for many years, particularly after the Scottish-Grampian merger, these have been shared, jointly produced and presented between the Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen studios. Their news bulletins are separately produced, however, due to licensing reasons. Additionally, given STV is still independent from ITV plc, local continuity (now shared between both regions) and a distinct branding (different from that of ITV) is still provided.
A similar situation happens with ITV Border: given most of its designated broadcast area is in Southern Scotland, they are required to provide an opt-out service for southern Scotland, so they can broadcast extra current affairs programming during non-peak slots, plus select STV programming. Ceased in 2009 due to the merger of Border’s operations with Tyne Tees in Gateshead (something that still exists, though the Border newscasts are again produced separately), Ofcom ordered ITV to reinstate the opt-out in 2013, and had complied by 2014.
In other English regions, ITV local programming is now limited to regional news and token monthly political programmes; otherwise, they take the full national schedule. National productions previously handled by regional broadcasters (e.g. Granada and Yorkshire) are now handled out of London by ITV Studios, though soap operas like Corrie and Emmerdale are still produced out of Manchester (since 2014 at MediaCityUK in Salford) and Leeds; the Kirstall Road studios also handle playout for the northern ITV1 channels (for the rest of the country, it is operated from Red Bee Media’s Chiswick centre), and currently houses the ITV Studios film archive, which includes the Rank, Korda and ITC Film libraries.
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A full edition of NOS Journaal in June 2006, six months after the Dutch broadcaster’s identity was fully revamped by Lambie-Nairn. Iwris Kelly was the newsreader.
Stephen Emmer made the upbeat theme music, showing a skillful versatility as a composer: in 1995 he produced a very somber fanfare for Journaal.
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Dutch music channel TMF’s digital channels were launched on May 1, 2005 with TMF NL, Pure & Dance and sadly, it got closed on 31 December 2011
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The first 8 minutes of CBC News, 1989 (March 24 judging from the news items).
The opener was a weird adaptation of The National one, because it was The National. That day was just over a week into the walkout of CBC employees under Canadian Union of Public Employees, which included the flagship newscast’s lead anchor, Peter Mansbridge. The bulletin was renamed to stress the difference during strike time.
(Quoted from The Kingston-Whig Standard)
Your news anchor for the night: Don Goodwin, originally a sport announcer-turned-regional director in the public broadcaster. His last-minute substitution on the news, which delayed his own retirement plans, was well-received by the viewers.
(From McCord Stewart Museum Montreal)
I’m definitely not that well-versed on Canadian TV… maybe @edcanada can help me out a bit?
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Not a Canadian, but I’m guessing the graphics were supposed to be used for shorter bulletins.
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Two idents of the regional TV network Red Uruguaya de Televisión (commonly known as La Red or RTC): one from 1994 and another from 2011.
This service was set up in August 1981 to serve rural viewers from across the country who didn’t have access to the capital’s commercial channels (4, 10, 12) in the years prior to the introduction of cable in Uruguay. RTC cherry-picked shows from these stations (shareholders of the company) and delivered them through a dozen over-the-air affiliates. Many of them were the only channels in their area (a de facto monopoly). If your market didn’t have a SODRE (public TV network) relay station or if you were unable to receive other channels coming in from the Argentine-Brazilian borders, La Red was the only thing you could watch! 
La Red also produced a composite news bulletin, made of reports filed by the Montevideo channels and some from its own affiliates. RTC’s cable feed became available in the 1990s. In the early evenings (7pm), its stations opt out from the network to air their own local news programming. IIRC, several of them also opted out at noontime for the same purposes. Here’s an example of La Red’s schedule on Monday 4 December 2000 (taken from the newspaper El País)
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Canal de Noticias NBC, the Peacock’s short-lived rolling news network aimed at Latin American viewers. It was based out of Charlotte (North Carolina) at the NBC News Channel headquarters, where the overnight service NBC Nightside was produced. Here are two snippets from March 1997 and September 1998 respectively, featuring anchormen Carlos Montero (later known as one of the faces of CNN en Español) and Jorge Rudko.
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Canal de Noticias NBC was reportedly set to be rebranded and relaunched as NBC Supercanal, with plans to operate similarly to NBC Super Channel. However, NBC ultimately decided to abandon the project.
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You’ve probably heard about the News at When debacle in the UK, but did you know that Hong Kong had its own News at When 25 years ago?
Back in September 1998, ATV News invested 10 million HKD in a virtual studio - formed by an SGI Onyx2 system, Larus software, a blue screen setup and digital camcorders.
Using the much wider CGI space, they repackaged their News at 6 on Cantonese channel, Home, into Newshour - an hour-long news programme that contained the 30-minute bulletin, followed by a phone-in commentary programme and a dedicated sports report. This was the first half of the show in 1999:
By April 1999, it was reverted back to solely 6pm news, with the programme title slightly updated without the Newshour brand.
This September '99 capture was special, in that a preceding promo hinted a new hour-long newscast coming October, at 6.25pm (with a brief Headlines at 6) - it would become ATV Focus News (no footage available anywhere except for this old compilation).
Focus News didn’t last long, as the management thought the two 6pm bulletins served no-one in the local audience.
Two weeks later, it was pushed to 7.30, renamed to ATV 7.30 News, and controversially hired celebrity hosts Ivan Ho and Jacqueline Chu as anchors (think BBC, in their infinite wisdom, went with Graham Norton to replace Huw Edwards).
Despite initial interest, ratings for ATV didn’t go up (as local viewers were accustomed to watching ATV at 6, then switch to TVB at 6.30), plus hiring the duo and adding entertainment scoops to the bulletin attracted criticism on sacrificing their credibility.
At the end of the year, the news reverted to the usual 6pm spot, but the duo remained until early 2000s.
(Captured from Bilibili)
The virtual set underwent several more changes, until it was replaced for good by a physical one, when ATV moved their headquarters in 2007.
(The titles would be the short-lived one here BTW, as ATV relaunched soon after, but that’s another story!)
TL;DR News on Hong Kong’s underdog station in '98-99 was just that Ten Eyewitness News sketch, but compressed into months and, later, weeks.
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When the 1979 ITV Strike finally came to an end
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This is a big goldmine of archive from the private collection of the Di Chiara family (Archivo DiFilm, the largest privately-owned film and TV archive and content bank in the world, and the largest audiovisual bank in Latin America, founded by Roberto Di Chiara, and after his death, controlled by his sons Luis Mariano and Daniel, and his grandson Maximiliano), it features a collection of Argentinian (Buenos Aires) TV newscasts during the height of the 2001-2002 Argentinian financial and political crisis, beginning from mid-December, when the protests exploded. This montage features numerous instances of violence and crime, including some graphic footage of police brutality, so you’re warned. Here’s how the five-hour highlight montage is made of:
- 00:00:00 - América Informa (América TV, from December 30, 2001. With Enrique Llamas de Madariaga and Denisse Pessana, with reports of protests after a purpoted police brutality incident at a convenience store in Floresta)
- 00:05:55 - Telenoche (Artear/Canal 13, from December 30, 2001. With Mónica and César already on their year-end scheduled holidays, Débora Pérez Volpin (RIP) and Luis Otero stand in. After the resignation of first Acting President Adolfo Rodríguez Saá on December 27, the Government entered a period of transition with Congress president Eduardo Camaño, who was sworn in that same day after Rodríguez Saá presented his resignation; later that day, Eduardo Duhalde, who had been vicepresident under Carlos Menem and Buenos Aires Governor, was proposed as Acting President, and, if the proposal was approved by Congress, the peronist politician would be sworn in after the New Year holiday period, on January 2nd, 2002, and governing until the completion of what was De la Rúa’s legal period as president. It also includes reports on the Floresta shooting protests and violent riots, plus lengthy columns on Duhalde’s financial plans)
- 00:51:25 - 24 Horas (TVN Chile, from December 30, 2001. A report on Rodríguez Saá’s resignation, with footage from Artear and Telefe, and Bernardo de la Maza throwing out a live report to Valparaíso for a look at preparations for their New Year celebrations)
- 00:53:17 - Promos and IDs from Artear’s news channel Todo Noticias.
- 00:55:19 - América Informa (América TV, from January 1, 2002. Llamas de Madariaga and Pessana bring reports on Duhalde’s sworning-in and more riots, this time around the Congress building, plus live reports and a live feed from the Congress. Further reports include the New Year street party in Times Square, the formal rollout of the Euro, and an human-interest story on the first baby of that year in the country)
- 01:07:59 - Telenoche (Artear/Canal 13, from January 1, 2002. Pérez Volpin and Otero also report on the Congress discussion of Duhalde’s sworn-in and the riots happening around the building)
- 01:46 - América Informa (América TV, from January 1, 2002. Taken from the CVN repeat, with the tail start and end of the programme)
- 01:49:51 - América Informa (América TV, from January 1, 2002. A special late edition which aired at 11pm that day, as the Congress question period dragged down. Llamas de Madariaga interviews José Manuel de la Sota, Córdoba governor at the time and who proposed Duhalde’s nomination as Acting President. There is also a pundit discussion with journalist Martín Viñasky, economist Martín Redrado, lawyer Martín Sabsay and consultant Graciela Romer. From 2:02:19, the exact moment where Duhalde is sworn in)
- 02:09:16 - Teleflash (Artear/Canal 13, from January 1, 2002. Luis Otero is presenting live coverage of the sworning in ceremony)
- 02:12:38 - América TV (from January 1, 2002. By then, all networks, including Canal 7, are taking the live feed from Congress)
- 02:19:07 - Telefe (from January 1, 2002. Even if the network had a watered-down news service, the network sets aside a presentation of The Simpsons to air the live feed from Congress, but cuts it away before the national anthem plays to rejoin the episode in progress)
- 02:32:45 - Another excerpt of América TV’s interview with José Manuel de la Sota
- 02:32:47 - Artear/Canal 13 is still airing the sworning in ceremony, playing the National Anthem in full (muted in this video). Luis Otero gives some commentary before interviewing the new Acting President and following his exit from the Congress building.
- 02:43:11 - En Síntesis (Artear/Canal 13, from January 2, 2002, with Mercedes Martí. Already past midnight, the network’s late newscasts summarises the events from the past few hours)
- 02:50:43 - World News (CNN International, from January 2, 2002. A short report on the election of Duhalde using footage from Canal 7)
- 02:50:55 - América Informa (América TV, from January 2, 2002. Llamas de Madariaga and Pessana with a full summary of Duhalde formal sworning in ceremony at the Casa Rosada)
- 02:58:08 - En Síntesis (Artear/Canal 13, from January 2, 2002, with Mercedes Martí. A more throughout summary of Duhalde’s sworning in, plus a look at his cabinet)
- 03:03:44 - El Noticiero de Santo (Artear/Canal 13, from January 19, 2002. Santo Biasatti and Débora Pérez Volpin present. As a federal judge triggered a massive investigation on possible capital flight, this excerpt features reports how various banks, airport and secure transporation were searched by Police, as well as the reinforcement of the infamous “corralito” measure, triggering more protests. Also includes reports on a pub murder in La Plata, an human-interest story on an abandoned baby found alive in Córdoba who was adopted, blind disease, and colour reports on summer lifestyles in San Nicolás and Carlos Paz)
- 03:13:36 - América TV’s “presenta” ident (from the first era of its long-running Pensando en vos campaign)
- 03:13:42 - Telenoche (Artear/Canal 13, from January 25, 2002. With the Police investigations already in progress, Otero and Pérez Volpin are reporting on even more protests, this time, triggered all across the nation. Other reports include how banks and stores had to protect their buildings from any instance of violence, a protest outside a Carrefour hypermarket on the lack of food supply, and an appearance by a very young Federico Wiemeyer on how social groups organised their protests using various Internet groups)
- 03:55:15 - Teleflash (Artear/Canal 13, from January 25, 2002. As protests mount through the night, Otero and Pérez Volpin are back on the air with updates on the situation, along with Nelson Castro)
- 03:56:50 - Flash Telefe Noticias (Telefe, from January 25, 2002. With Milva Castellini. A summary of how the protests have been going so far, including an instance of vandalism in Rosario. The update, which aired before the start of a football match between Independiente and Racing, commentated by Sebastián “Pollo” Vignolo and Martín Líberman, uses the not-so-known 2000 graphics, conceived when Horacio Larrosa tried to bring a watered-down tabloid style to Telefe Noticias, with colourful, edgy graphics and Eurodance music)
- 03:58:00 - Teleflash (Artear/Canal 13, from January 25, 2002. Pérez Volpin summarises the protests so far)
- 03:59:44 - Azul Noticias (Azul TV, now Canal 9, from January 25, 2002. After a promo for Chiche Geblung’s opinion/history show Memoria, we join Cristina Pérez, joined by Néstor Machiavelli and Andrea Duplá, for a two-hour long special with more breaking news on the Rosario vandalism situation, and how protests are going in many parts of the country, plus a phone conversation with José Ignacio López. Includes more of Azul’s news branding during the Blue Man Group era by Pablo Ratto)
- 04:16:14 - Flash Telefe Noticias (Telefe, from January 25, 2002. Aired during the halftime of the Independiente-Racing match. Milva Castellini presents again, featuring a live report with Rodolfo Barili in the main protest at Plaza de Mayo, just beside Casa Rosada)
- 04:18:52 - A quick excerpt from América’s gossip show Intrusos en el espectáculo, which was following the protests
- 04:19:58 - Teleflash (Artear/Canal 13, from January 25, 2002. As protests continue and rain pours, police repression starts, throwing away protesters. Artear reporters are documenting the grave situation live)
- 04:34:52 - Flash Telefe Noticias (Telefe, from January 25, 2002. The network has decided to delay regular programming and continue informing on the situation. Milva Castellini is back, and throws a phone call with Juan José Álvarez. Rodolfo Barili and Omar Fajardo report live from the scene)
- 04:50:24 - Teleflash (Artear/Canal 13, from January 25, 2002. The network is also about to give up, with police brutality having been paused for a while)
- 05:06:24 - América Informa (América TV, from ca. February 3, 2002). By then, Llamas de Madariaga is joined by Mónica Gutiérrez, as Duhalde implements an unpopular law that restricted the free circulation of international currencies in favour of the Argentine peso, at the equivalent of 1.40 US dollars, and the controversial plan to force the implementation of a more strict fiscal recollection system, including the emergency emission of a billion pesos to solve these issues. Other news reported include the increasing rivalry between Lula and the daughter of José Sarney in the Brazilian presidential race, and a tabloid scandal involving controversial vedette Silvia Süller.
- 05:11:44 - Telefe Noticias (Telefe, from March 11, 2002. Includes a short commercial break aired during Alf, and a promo for the new look which debuted that day, the influence of Spanish executive Francisco Mármol. The Antena 3-influenced graphics, music and set were designed by Guillermo Stein in collaboration with Telefe’s in-house design team, with music from Daniel Goldberg, and was part of a gradual relaunch of the news service, which included more collaborations with Radio Continental, digital production facilities, and the relaunch of its second evening edition later that year. Longtime anchor Jorge Jacobson (RIP) and Paula Trápani present. Includes a live report from Rodolfo Barili and participation from Osvaldo Granados, Laura Kalerguz, Marcelo Real on sports, and Alejandro Isturiz with a look at the Mar del Plata Film Festival. Additionally, the reporter and videographer were name-checked at the start of each report, similar to how Antena 3 did at the time; this didn’t last very long)
- 06:21:32 - América Informa (América TV, from Good Friday, March 29, 2002. Includes a rare presence of reporter Mariano Yezze co-anchoring with Mónica Gutiérrez, with Llamas de Madariaga being on holiday. The tail end of that day’s show, with upsetting footage of the crucifixion ritual on the Philippines, and a meeting of peronist governors, led by Daniel Scioli. Includes a weather forecast from the short-lived Latin American outpost of The Weather Channel at the end)
- 06:24:05 - En Síntesis (Artear/Canal 13, from April 23, 2002. With Santo Biasatti. That day, Duhalde’s Finance Minister Jorge Remes Lenicov resigned due to differences with the Acting President, even if the economy was starting to stabilise after the unpopular “corralón” law, the controversial devaluation of the Argentine peso, and decreasing social protests. Remes Lenicov’s resignation triggered even more protests, and the risk of a new collapse of the financial system. These issues were rendered moot when a new Minister, Roberto Lavagna, took over four days later)
- 06:39:57 - Telefe Noticias (Telefe, from ca. April 26, 2002. Omar Fajardo and Paula Trápani are presenting a special evening report on the crisis caused by the resignation of Remes Lenicov and an emergency meeting by Duhalde with members of the Radical Civic Union and the Justicialist Party to trigger extra help by the IMF, and the mounting deadline to select a new Finance Minister. Osvaldo Granados is speculating Aldo Alieto Guadagni would become the next Minister. There is also a live report with Rodolfo Barili from outside the meeting, and with Fernando Eiriz from the Finance Ministry’s building. There are interviews with political expert Ricardo Rouvier and via phone with MP Juan Baylac)
- 06:54:36 - Azul Noticias (Azul TV, from May Day 2002. The late edition with Néstor Machiavelli and Andrea Duplá. Alongside reporting on the crisis triggered by the resignation of Jorge Capitanich, and including the possibility of emergency help from the IMF, and a clash from the Spanish Santander bank with the Duhalde government, there is an explosive investigative report on illegal public transportation activities in Buenos Aires city)
- 07:04:20 - Telefe Noticias (Telefe, from May Day 2002. Jorge Jacobson and Paula Trápani present. Includes a pre-show tease; the pre-opener report highlighting an alarming increase on the number of unemployed people in Argentina. Most of the show includes reports on the current financial situation in the country, plus the history of workforce in Argentina. It also includes special reports in the run-up to the 2002 World Cup, including one on the high-tech Sapporo Dome, including how the retractable grass field works, and an electrical limousine prototype made at the Keio University. Alongside the participations of Osvaldo Granados, Laura Kalerguz, and Marcelo Real on sports, features live reports from Guillermo Panizza and Omar Fajardo, plus Chinese-Argentinian weather presenter Jin Yi)
- 07:22:00 - Azul Noticias (Azul TV, from May Day 2002. The evening edition with Juan Carlos Pérez Loizeau and Cristina Pérez, one of her final appearances before joining Telefe. The show leads with the son of Eduardo Menem, brother of former President Carlos Menem, held hostage, and with inflation still increasing, but now in a more paused cadence in respect to previous years. The tabloid Inside Edition-style format and presentation was still there, though there was more real news than during the first few months of the format introduced by Ricardo Cámara in late 1999)
The DiFilm makes available a large part of its public catalog on its website and YouTube page, where also many historical archives, footage and events of Argentinian TV history are preserved. Here it is.
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Excellent footage @Medianext.MX ! Thanks for posting it here! 
Overview: Professionalism, seriousness and elegance (in graphics, vocabulary, and clothing) are three words that come to mind to describe that good old style of Argentine newscasts that, sadly, disappeared from the TV screens. I miss it so much!
Comments on some of the stations:
Telefe really needed that 2002 news rebrand, even if the result was too calm for a station with a vibrant, populist programming. It was discreetly preparing viewers for the launch of the 7pm edition on August 12th that year, when Rodolfo Barili and Cristina Pérez joined forces at the newsdesk: their on-air partnership lasted more than 21 years. Coinciding with this premiere, the theme music was changed again for one that certainly made history 
.
América Informa and its quirky sound package (introduced in early 2001; IIRC, Sergio Vainikoff made it) were on their last legs. This is an update from November 2001, introduced by Mariano Yezze, where a portion of it could be heard.
On the second half of 2002, it reverted to its usual name of América Noticias during the brief tenure of Eduardo Cura as news director. Veteran broadcaster Fernando Bravo was hired to lead the lunchtime edition for a short while, joining Denise Pessana. As you’ve mentioned, Mónica Gutiérrez and Enrique Llamas de Madariaga fronted the evening news.
The reason: Néstor Ibarra (the previous anchor) defected to Canal 13 to host a game show called Recursos Humanos, where the winners won job positions and not money prizes (due to the high unemployment rate of the country). Around that time, PBS’ series Wide Angle (in an episode called “The Empty ATM”) went behind-the-scenes of Recursos Humanos to look at that innovative format.
https://www.pbs.org/wnet/wideangle/video/the-empty-atm-video-full-episode/670/
By the way, here are many idents and bumpers from different TV channels (América, Canal 7, Canal 9, Telefe, etc.) whose amazing music was created by the aforementioned Vainikoff.
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Two reels containing high-quality idents from Germany’s ARD in 1994. The first video features the logos of the channels that make up the network, while the second one focuses on the numeral “1” in different situations and landscapes.
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With the nervous and tense US election cycle practically over, it’s time to go down to memory lane and take a look at how US broadcasters had branded their coverage over the years:
Let’s start with NBC News, which IMHO has had some great election music themes and graphics through history. Let’s start with the historical theme music they used for a longtime, during five election cycles. Composed by Henry Mancini, known for recognizable soundtracks to movies like The Pink Panther and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, it has a distinctive, patriotic, marching band sound appropriate enough for such important ocassion, down to its name (“Salute to the President”). The theme has been never commercially released, though Mancini often played it with symphony orchestras in his tours, and music sheets for school bands were also released in various songbooks for orchestras. At the same time the theme was introduced, NBC had started to use coloured maps to better illustrate results, though NBC’s colouring was different (blue for a Republican, red for a Democratic candidate); ABC copied this four years later, and later other nets followed suit, but with what is now the standard colouring for election maps (red for Republican and blue for Democratic); NBC would wait a few years to reverse the colour keys.
In 1984, though this theme was used, it played second fiddle to a synthesized theme music arranged and produced by Joseph Paul Sicurella, Tony Smythe and Bob Christianson; it mixed the motif of Mancini’s election theme with the “ticker” sounder Sicurella, Symthe and Christianson had produced for the Nightly News back in the early 80s (and had been universally used for most NBC News shows at the time, before The Mission came in). The open was produced by Pacific Data Images in Hollywood, one of the first CGI production companies in the world (which later evolved into DreamWorks Animation).
The final time Mancini’s music was used was in the 1992 election; for 1996, NBC went into a new direction, with a more orchestral opener which was all energetic, solemn and with lots of grandeur. This theme was composed by Vince Fratelli and produced and recorded by Salt Lake City-based Non-Stop Music, and was also used in the 2000 election race (plus the 98 and 2002 midterms). This quite enjoyable theme is still in use in sporadic ocassions along with the Michael Karp theme, particularly by affiliates.
Karp’s theme, now associated with NBC’s coverage, is beloved by many in the industry; the theme has three well-known arrangements: the first one, composed for the 2004 election (and used in 2008 too), is short and a bit longer than a minute; the second one, the current arrangement, retains the fundamental parts of the original, but includes new vamp sections and was recorded with improved orchestra elements, including updated strings, to make it sound even greater in grandeur; the third one, composed for the 2018 midterms, is used mostly as a secondary bed for explainers and to go in/out of ad breaks, and has a more understated arrangement whilst retaining the instrumentation of the main theme.
The theme was briefly replaced in 2010 by a more understated and too serious theme music with a more cinematic arrangement; it was composed by NBC News’ music director Gordon Miller. This didn’t last long: used for the 2012 and 2016 elections and 2010 and 2014 midterms, Karp’s theme had returned as the main theme by popular demand in 2018 (though was used by MSNBC during this interim). This theme is still used for Telemundo’s coverage.
CBS has had also its share of good theme music: between 1976 and 2004, various synthesized themes for election coverage were composed and produced by Michael Colina specifically for this event; the Grammy-winning composer rooted in Jazz and Latin music produced themes which were stylistically very rythmic and authoritative at the same time.
In 2016, CBS commissioned a theme from Joel Beckerman’s Made Music Studio; the “hybrid orchestra” composition, based around three orchestral stabs and a cinematic sound, was designed in mind for any election outcome; it was recorded with a live orchestra, adding a sense of authority and energy to this particular theme; it was well liked, that CBS commissioned additional cuts to use the theme as the main opener for the Evening News, adopting it in May 2016, and surviving a rocky anchor transition.
ABC has been more hit or miss with election themes: the most well-known was this production music theme used by the network for the 2006 and 2008 elections. Known as “Presidential Persuasion” and part of the library of VideoHelper, ABC commissioned a custom version which has updated strings and more organic percussion, making it sound less aggressive than the library version; another difference is the custom track being backended by the ABC News signature.
Another notable theme tune, used for the 2000 and 2004 elections (the latter in a secondary basis) is not original: it was rather a Disney composition from its music library. It is one of the tracks from the soundtrack for the former Epcot fireworks show IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, produced for the Walt Disney World district as part of the Millennium celebrations (it would be showcased for nearly 10 years, become Epcot’s longest running fireworks spectacular), composed by Gavin Greenaway. ABC had already used this theme for their coverage of 2000 Today, and their 2000 election coverage was stylistically similar to the Peabody-winning special, with a “command centre” studio inside Times Square Studios.
Now to CNN. This theme, which features the motif easily identifiable with their coverage, was originally composed for the 1992 election by Score Productions; for the 1992 and 1996 election coverage, the various arrangements of the theme were accompained by the unmistakable voice of Don Harrison. By 1996, the popular pairing of Bernie Shaw and Judy Woodruff had become the face of election coverage, and in the middle of the 2000 election chaos, Shaw announced his retirement which happened one year later. During this time, their coverage really showed the might and complexity of CNN’s operation in CNN Center, both from the newsroom and from various parts inside the building.
In 2004, CNN made a major departure to cover the election by moving to New York and making their night programme more reliant on interviews and analysis; alongside Woodruff, who was at the election desk at the Time Warner Center in central Manhattan, an ensemble team of anchors led by Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper and Larry King at the Nasdaq MarketSide, and Paula Zahn joined by the Crossfire team at CNN studios in NY, were in charge of the energetic, event-like style of coverage which relied on videowalls, very visible and detailed graphics and visual gimmicks to make viewers interested.
This style, with some tweaks over here and there, has since remained for CNN’s coverage: in 2008, the aggressive and energetic arrangement of the theme and long cold opens had been implemented. Entirely broadcast from the Time Warner Center, the high-energy style was enhanced by the implementation of two gimmicks which would became consistent in other election coverages on competing networks: the touch-screen Magic Wall, and AR elements (including live keyed holograms to interview live personalities which were on location). Additionally, it was the first CNN coverage of an election to be done in HD (most news organizations also provided some degree of coverage in HD). Coverage moved to Washington in 2012, using their then-new modular studio facility.
And so it goes. Time for a much needed break…
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