Alive (news music)

Alive is a local television station branding, used in different markets across the United States. It is also the name of a television news music package offered by 615 Music.

History

The "Alive" branding was originally developed in 1976 by San Diego-based broadcast imaging firm Peters Productions, for WXIA-TV Atlanta, and was a popular brand among television stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. WXIA continues to identify itself as "11 Alive" to the present day.

Along with WXIA, another of the most famous examples of the "Alive" branding was WPIX-TV New York, who utilized the "11 Alive" branding from 1977 to 1986.

In the late 1970s, WXIA's owner Combined Communications extended its use of the "Alive" branding to three more of its stations: KOCO-TV Oklahoma City ("5 Alive"); WLKY-TV Louisville ("32 Alive"); and WPTA-TV Fort Wayne ("21 Alive"). These stations' use of the "Alive" name continued after Gannett acquired the Combined stations in 1979.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the "Alive" brand was also used by KCST-TV San Diego ("39 Alive"), KHQ-TV Spokane ("Q-6 Alive"), and WKEF-TV Dayton ("22 Alive"), among others.

WLKY and WPTA continued to use the "Alive" name after being sold by Gannett in 1983 - WLKY until 1986, and WPTA to the present day.

KOCO, which remained under Gannett's ownership until its sale to Hearst-Argyle Television in 1997, continued promoting itself as "5 Alive" until 1994.

Briefly, in the mid-1990s, WXIA dropped the "11 Alive" moniker as part of an image makeover. A short time later, WXIA began calling itself "11 Alive" once again, and continues to do so to the present day.

Stations that use or have used the Alive branding

Alive: the news music package

Alive is also the name of a syndicated news music package, composed by 615 Music. As of December 2006, the package is currently/has been used by eight television stations, only two stations no longer use the package for its newscasts.

In 1999, 615 Music was commissioned by WXIA to compose a new music package called Alive after its longtime station branding. This new package has been updated once and now consists of two versions with version 2 being of a somewhat more hard news nature. WXIA currently uses the package only for the Sunday Morning political talk show it produces (Alive has been supplanted by The Tower, also composed by 615 Music, made for NBC affiliates, for its newscasts since 2006). The music signature of the package, if lyrics accompanied it, would translate as "11 Alive."

A station using the Alive music package might not necessarily use the "Alive" branding, and vice versa. For example, Fox affiliate WALA in Mobile, Alabama used the music package for its newscasts for less than a year, but its on-air branding is "FOXten" (as opposed to FOX10) and Lima, Ohio NBC affiliate WLIO uses the Alive package for its newscasts but calls itself NBC Lima. The package consists of 3 CDs containing 164 cuts centered around 19 primary themes. A version with the NBC chimes is also available.

Stations that use or have used the Alive news music package

External links

• 615 Music
• Southern Media News Music Archive: Alive, a list of stations that have used the package