Q15

Is there a version of this instrumental song that contains lyrics?

This was (still is?) big in Philadelphia, but from what I was able to dig up, the same theme was used by many news stations in cities across the country, so I figured everyone here has probably heard it. If you haven't heard it before, then score yourself a point for being left out.

Action News Theme, composed by Al Ham (1972)

"Move closer to your world, my friend. Take a little bit of time..."

The "Action News" format was conceived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, at WFIL-TV (now WPVI-TV) by news director Mel Kampmann in 1970, as a response to the "Eyewitness News" format that was used on rival station KYW-TV. At the time, WFIL-TV was said to be "#4 in a three-station market." An earlier theme was written by Temple University student Tom Sellers, who had briefly been in Daryl Hall's band Gulliver and later formed The Assembled Multitude, and was arranged as a brass-driven rock song. The entire theme was offered through The Philadelphia Inquirer, as a single sided 45 RPM record for about 25ยข. It was replaced by this theme in 1972.