Classic ABC News theme song returns to the airwaves

ABC NEWS (Australia)

From tomorrow, things will be looking and sounding a little different on ABC News. We're launching our new-look news website, and our television news bulletins are getting a re-vamp as well, with a new colour scheme, graphics, and return of a classic theme song.

Transcript

00:00Okay, here we go.

00:05If you were born in Australia before the year 2000, this song will likely be baked into

00:10your televisual memories.

00:13For nearly 20 years, it heralded the start of news bulletins on the ABC.

00:20And now, after a rest of almost as long, it's back with a fresh lick of paint.

00:26Oh, that just takes me right back.

00:29I've got a full nostalgia response.

00:31That's what we want.

00:32The ABC TV news theme was composed by Peter Wall and Tony Ansell in 1986.

00:38They churned out hundreds of theme songs during their long creative partnership,

00:42until Tony's death from cancer 20 years ago.

00:45Peter Wall still thinks this one is their best.

00:48It's basically just luck, you know.

00:51You put the elements together and sometimes it just works out that you think

00:55that's the best thing we're going to write for a long time.

00:58This is the last remaining multi-track tape the song was recorded onto in 1986,

01:04with a full orchestra in a studio.

01:07Digitising it involved finding a machine that could still actually play it,

01:11and then preparing the ancient tape.

01:14And that was quite the process.

01:17Because the tapes were so old, we had to bake them in an oven for four hours

01:25to make sure the oxide on the tape wouldn't come off

01:28when we put them on the machine to play it.

01:30And then you get one go to get all the information off that tape.

01:34It worked, and gave sound designer David McDonald separate tracks to play with

01:39when modernising the song.

01:42He's beefed up the bass to reflect what modern day TVs with soundbars are capable of,

01:48and there's an easter egg for the keen listeners.

01:51The beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, is a Morse code for ABC.

01:58Peter loves that the news theme has been resurrected for today's news audience,

02:03and thinks his dear friend Tony Ansell would have loved it too.

02:06I think he'd be absolutely delighted about it, yeah.

02:10As well as a fresh look for our news bulletins,

02:13we'll have a New Look website from tomorrow too

02:15that'll bring together the ABC's best digital journalism

02:19and allow you to personalise your feed to get the stories you're most interested in reading.

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