New CBS News Theme

[nomiyah]

CBS, Katie Couric Have Already Made Sweet Music Together; 'Titanic' Composer Gets Call For the New News Theme: Regal, Urgent -- yet 'Light' Brooks Barnes. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: Sep 5, 2006. pg. A.1 James Horner is an Academy Award-winning composer who has written scores and songs for more than 100 movies, including "Titanic" -- one of the best-selling soundtracks in history. But for the past three months, Mr. Horner has been working on what he says is one of the biggest challenges of his career: Writing a 10- second clip of music that will introduce Katie Couric each weeknight on the "CBS Evening News." The process has been strenuous, in large part because Ms. Couric and CBS brass wanted him to pour an ocean of imagery into a musical teacup. "It must be urgent and serious, yet light," says the program's executive producer, Rome Hartman. "Flexible, yet memorable. Regal and encompassing the grand history of CBS News, yet moving forward." The music couldn't sound too similar to the "Roman fanfares" of NBC and ABC, Mr. Horner says, adding, "Katie told me she wanted something that reminded her of wheat fields blowing rather than Manhattan skyline." Even CBS Corp. President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves weighed in on the tune, which will hit the airwaves for the first time tonight with Ms. Couric's debut in the anchor chair. Another hurdle: Mr. Horner, 53 years old, doesn't watch much TV. He says he was barely familiar with Ms. Couric when he got a cold call from CBS in June asking him to consider the commission. "I'd seen her a few times, but I didn't know her persona on television at all," he says. "When I've watched one of the news things over the years, it was usually Peter Jennings." To help Mr. Horner, CBS hired a sonic-branding firm called Man Made Music, which specializes in TV. "The news people kept using all these weird terms for everything and I needed a translator," says Mr. Horner. "What's a 'six-second open' supposed to mean? I'd never even heard of that." In total, CBS asked Mr. Horner and Man Made owner Joel Beckerman, who helped NBC freshen up its "Nightly News" theme last year, to supply over 100 different snippets of music, including a dozen versions of the 10-second intro theme. "One night the show might begin with the Iranians obtaining a nuclear device and another it might be something about a flower show," Mr. Horner says. "The tone needs to match the news." Most nights the theme will be the same, but perhaps once a month sensitive viewers may notice a variation -- a version slightly more anxious (more drums) or more reflective (closing with a trumpet solo). Obsessive management of things viewers may barely notice isn't new in television, but CBS's agony over perfecting the theme song shows just how important the Couric move is to the company. The broadcast networks' iconic news shows are fragile: They make money and confer prestige, but their audience is shrinking and aging rapidly. CBS is paying Ms. Couric $15 million a year to put that trend into reverse. So while the network is focusing most intently on the news content of the program, executives have also labored on everything from how to make the studio appear "warmer" on camera (more ruby-colored carpeting and hard wood) to whether the famous CBS Eye should be more spherical or oblong (spherical). The music is one of the most important details: Oddly, TV consultants say that many people listen to television rather than watch it. CBS News, the home of Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite, hasn't changed its music since 1991, and even then it wasn't a radical shift. News programs rarely throw out the old and start over from scratch in these matters -- largely because the music comes to embody the network. The theme is also played when the news anchors break into entertainment programming at times of national crisis, and viewers become surprisingly attached to it. The idea to tap Mr. Horner came from Bob Peterson, creative director for CBS News, whom Ms. Couric brought with her from NBC. Mr. Peterson says he was racking his brain over whom to hire when he came across a CD for the 2001 movie "A Beautiful Mind." Mr. Horner had written the score. "I knew he had never done TV but I wondered if I might be able to convince him to take this on," Mr. Peterson says. Mr. Horner was game, but wanted to talk to Ms. Couric first. He says it was important to get a sense of her personality -- but not just so he could incorporate it into the music. He wanted to determine whether she was a "good" person. ("So many times in my career the project has been exciting and the people have been horrible," he explains.) The two hit it off, and Mr. Horner says he started "noodling around" in his Los Angeles studio and improvising on the piano. Mr. Peterson flew to California from New York to help convey all of the different touches CBS wanted from Mr. Horner, who was then also working with Mel Gibson on his forthcoming movie "Apocalypto." Mr. Horner also phoned John Williams, the famed movie-music composer ("Star Wars") who wrote the music for NBC's "Nightly News" in 1985. "I joked that his theme was so good that he didn't leave me any notes to use," Mr. Horner says. Ms. Couric first heard what Mr. Horner had in mind on a sticky afternoon in July while on a business trip in Pasadena, Calif. After chatting with Ms. Couric and Mr. Peterson over tea at their hotel, the composer gave Mr. Peterson a CD containing a rough synthesizer version of the song. "Then I disappeared," Mr. Horner says. "I didn't want them to feel like they had to fake-smile even if they hated it so much they wanted to throw up." His parting advice to them: "Just be blunt. I'm used to great abuse." Five CBS News executives stood in a silent huddle around a cheap CD player on the desk in Ms. Couric's suite. As the music rang through the room, Ms. Couric squinted with concentration. Then she called Mr. Horner on his cellphone, says Mr. Peterson. She had three words for the maestro: "We love it." That's when the real fiddling started. Mr. Horner says "the news guys" -- his way of referring to the CBS News executives -- "wanted it manipulated this way and that way. More urgent here, less strident there." Mr. Horner tweaked the music accordingly in a marathon seven- hour recording session -- adding more strings to certain sections while changing pacing and extending notes in others. The music wasn't ready for air until Man Made Music's Mr. Beckerman added a few small but important touches. One of them: a half-second "sounder" -- three fast notes that function as a subliminal come-to- attention signal to viewers -- at the beginning of Mr. Horner's theme. "It's the ham-sandwich rule," says Mr. Beckerman, who has also handled music for such networks as ESPN and the Discovery Channel. "When somebody leaves the room to get a snack, you need to remind them to come back to the TV." CBS liked the finished product so much that it asked Mr. Beckerman to weave it into news programming across the network. "I'm just thankful that CBS really meant it when they said they wanted me to break the mold," Mr. Horner says. "Most often when people say that, they hear it and then say, 'Um, we didn't mean that broken.'"

[nomiyah]

I thought some of you writing for TV would be interested in reading this article.Nomi

[ernstinen]

Quote:I thought some of you writing for TV would be interested in reading this article.NomiI was out of town, Nomi --- just read this. Fascinating!I've got a few T.V. news themes signed to a music library, and hope one day some station will choose one. That would mean some nice income! So far, I get a check now and then for about $4.00, so they're still sitting on the shelf. I can't believe Horner never heard of Katie Couric, though --- Ern

[matto]

This may well prove to be the most lucrative ten seconds of music Horner has ever written (and considering his career, that's saying something...) On the other hand, I don't think in the entire history of music have there ever been this many "suits" breathing down one composer's neck over TEN SECONDS of music Crazy!

[ernstinen]

A friend of mine thinks the hardest thing to do compositionally is write the perfect 2:30 pop song, while I argue it's a great 4-movement symphony.Guess we're both wrong. It's a 10-second news theme!Ern

[roughly]

Quote:CBS is paying Ms. Couric $15 million a yearYeah, they tried to get me on there but my fee was just too high. Amazing story, thanks for posting it Nomi! Just when we thought we had it tough with people telling us how to create art. I'm sure Horner will never have to work again though. Does seem like it could be fun to do all the different moods of the same theme. Really stretch your creativity.Theresa

[nomiyah]

My favorite part was "the ham-sandwich rule". Instantly a new term in my musical vocabulary!!!!