This year ABC launched a new promotional campaign with the tag line “see the whole picture”. This image, which stresses relevance, is in response to the whirlwind of information coming at us these days. ABC News defines its mission to help us make sense of it all. The promos were shot with more a commercial-like feel using dramatic images of the ABC News team in stride. DreamArtists Studios – who did an incredibly successful branding campaign for ABC in 2008 that later turned into the 20/20 theme – was commissioned to compose the accompanying music. The music reflects the more contemporary feel of the promo.

This new election theme package (the “Rally” package) was composed by the CCO and Founder of DreamArtists Studios, Matthew Kajcienski. The package was launched on the evening of November 2nd, 2010 for the election special hosted by ABC anchors Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. ABC wanted something “big, bold, fresh, urgent, and exciting” for the new election season leading up to 2012.

Focus Earth is a weekly newscast focussing on environmental and energy issues. It is produced by ABC News but not many people are aware of it. That’s because it airs on Discovery’s “Planet Green” channel, which is not available in all parts of the country. The theme is composed by DreamArtists Studios.

Although there was also a more traditional sounding election theme, this piece of music is most closely associated with ABC’s coverage of the 2008 election. ABC still uses this music today as a secondary theme for its election coverage and World News. However, to be completely factual: this theme is part of VideoHelper’s library (it’s on disc 29 and called Presidential Persuasion) but ABC uses a custom version that sounds less threatening and less aggressive. The custom version has newer strings and the percussion is slightly different. The volume of the percussion was reduced and it was played straight through, not looped like in the library version. The current headline bed for World News is derived from the custom version of this theme.

This is the variation of the ABC News Special Report theme that was occasionally used for ABC’s coverage of the war with Iraq. ABC made a couple of major blunders. On March 19th, the day President Bush’s deadline for Saddam expired, Peter Jennings was AWOL when the war began. He was reportedly at a dinner party. ABC News broke into regular programming later than the competition (some ABC affiliates broke in before the network), first with Chris Wallace anchoring and then a few embarrassing minutes later, Peter Jennings. But the network had told affiliates that their coverage would continue through the 11 pm hour; thus, the late local news would be scrapped. Many stations sent their crews home. A few minutes before 11 pm, however, ABC News decided to wrap up their coverage. They, however, failed to tell affiliates. So when Peter Jennings signed off for the night, affiliates were caught completely off guard. Many were left were with minutes of dead air only to put together a badly produced newscast. That does not happen often!

In 1998 both Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw came out with books that reflected on the century that was about to end. Dan Rather published his book a year later. The books were a success and were followed up. Peter Jennings, in 2002, co-authored In Search of America. That book was adapted to a five part TV series. To accompany the TV program Stephen Arnold, composed this piece of theme music.

This is the piece of music that is currently used after each ABC News program to remind us that more and more people are watching ABC News. A fifteen-second version of this wonderful piece of music is used in alternation with this one to promote the “50 States, One Nation, One Year” campaign. What’s that? Essentially that is World News Tonight and Good Morning America going on the road to broadcast from a particular state and do a feature report about that state. The music is composed by VideoHelper.

To celebrate the start of the year 2000, ABC News sent reporters to notable places in every time zone to cover New Years celebrations. It was a huge operation, with Peter Jennings anchoring for 25 straight hours, that won critical acclaim. They did not attempt to do this again a year later, but created a smaller and more budget-friendly version of this program on New Year’s Eve 2002. This theme was used for these programs. However, it perhaps became most famous as the theme for most of ABC’s election coverage in 2000. Since then, it has been brought back occasionally, such as for the inauguration of President Barack Obama in 2009.

This theme was originally not composed for ABC but for Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The Epcot attraction uses it for their presentation called “IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth”. Of course Epcot and ABC-TV are owned by the same company, Walt Disney, so it is not unusual that they share resources. This theme is composed by Gavin Greenaway, who won an Emmy for it.

“More and more Americans get their news from ABC News, than from any other source,” according to the slogan of ABC News. NBC News, interestingly enough, claims more Americans watch NBC News than any other news organization “in the world”. Two very similar slogans that seemingly can’t be both correct. So who’s right? Perhaps both. NBC has the top rated network broadcasts and a cable news outlet which ABC does not have. This means a lot of people on a daily basis will see an NBC News broadcast. However, ABC claims more people get their news from ABC. And you can get your news by other means than television. As it so happens, ABC owns a lot of radio stations and has an extensive network of affiliated stations all airing the ABC Radio News. Add those numbers to the TV ratings and website visits and that number will likely be higher than the amount of people getting their news from NBC on TV, radio and the web combined.

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“This is an ABC News Special Report.” Whenever breaking news warrants an interruption of regularly scheduled programming, this theme is used. While it is solemn and conveys both importance and urgency, it does not scream hype and sensationalism. It thereby sets the right tone for the coverage that was lead by anchors such as Peter Jennings, Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer.

Day One did not do too well in the ratings. Before they cancelled the program, ABC made one last attempt to save the program. They brought on board star anchor Diane Sawyer. When she debuted on the program, this theme, an update of the first theme, started being used. These slight changes could, however, not increase the ratings. Day One was soon afterward cancelled.

Turning Point was an ABC news magazine that would feature one topic, such as a historical event of significance. It was anchored by alternating stars: Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer or Forrest Sawyer. The program ran from 1994 to 1997. After 1997 it would continue on in the form of irregular specials, but for all intents and purposes, it pretty much disappeared. This theme is composed by Bill Conti, who also composed the Prime Time Live theme.

News magazines are like fashion accessories: one day they are hot; the next they aren’t. And when they are hot, there is no escaping them. They are all over the network schedules. Each network will stretch its news staff to the limits to create more news magazines. Life expectancy is short for most of them. Day One, which is such a failed news magazine, was created to fill a whole in the ABC schedule. True to tradition, the news magazine promised to be different. In this case, it was to feature softer content compared to the investigations and hard news on 20/20 and Prime Time Live. ABC News President Roone Arledge reveals in his book, Roone, that he thought Connie Chung would be a perfect fit as anchor. But that did not work out. Instead the low key but capable Forrest Sawyer served as sole anchor of the program.

ABC News (like the ABC Sports division in its heyday) has become known for consistency with regard to its themes. When a new theme is commissioned, it is usually a newly recorded and slightly modernized version of the old theme. In those cases where they really start from scratch, the new theme contains many elements from the old theme. It is a subtle message that conveys to the audience that ABC News is with the times, yet builds on an impressive legacy. As you can hear, this version of the Viewpoint theme is mostly a re-recording of the classic Viewpoint theme.

“When we remember a time, we remember moments. A kaleidoscope of the sights, sounds and emotions of the way we were. Our World. It’s about time.” That’s how every episode of Our World started. It was a critically acclaimed series that in each episode examined a period of American history. The ratings unfortunately were not good. Our World only lasted for 26 episodes shown during the 1986-87 season. The show focussed mostly on events after World War II because of the availability of archival footage and eyewitnesses. Linda Ellerbee and Ray Gandolf hosted. The theme is composed by Bill Conti.