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July 24, 2008
As you've guessed from the... well, eclectic nature of the sounds collected here, I've got some unique ringtones on my iPhone. I found them all here and there on the internet, most of them are from the actual owners who've posted them in one form or another on the web. So, I'll share.
(These files are iPhone Ringtones, in .m4r format. They're AAC files, so you should be able to play and convert them in any app that supports AAC like Quicktime Player.)
BBC RINGTONES [ 6.2MB ZIP archive]
- BBC Six O'Clock News
- BBC One: Bikes
- BBC One: Bollywood
- BBC One: Football
- BBC One: Hippos
- BBC One: Kites
- BBC One: Music Video
- BBC One: Ringaroses
- BBC One: Surfers
- BBC One: Tango
- BBC One: Windows
- BBC Radio 1: Across the UK
- BBC Radio 1: One Million Watts
- BBC Radio 1: Weather
- BBC Radio 1 bed
NBC RINGTONES [ 3.9MB ZIP archive]
- All Things Considered 1983
- All Things Considered 1995
- Morning Edition Open, Interlude and Close
- Stump the Chumps
- Wait, Wait - Don't Tell Me!
- Weekend Edition Saturday
- Marketplace
WMAL RINGTONES [ 3MB ZIP archive]
Ten WMAL jingles from the 1990s
WRC RINGTONES [ 3MB ZIP archive]
WRC Washington news themes from 1980 to today
GENE'S RINGTONES [ 564KB ZIP archive]
- Fog Horn
- Hitchhiker's Guide
- Jetsons Doorbell
- Jetsons Phone
- Metro Doors Opening Announcement
- Really Old Phone
NPR RINGTONES [ 1.5MB ZIP archive]
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February 17, 2008
The President, First Lady, and Chief of Staff (Martin Sheen, Stockard Channing, John Spencer) from NBC's "The West Wing" do a little bit of damage to their credibility on this ill-advised selection from a 2001 NBC Christmas CD.
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April 24, 2007
Back when America Online first debuted in the UK -- yes, that's what they called it then -- a few patches were made to the software. These five files are the "You've Got Mail" voice for the UK AOL, the dulcet tones of the posh Joanna Lumley.
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Although I was serving as the interim publicist at WETA -- the public broadcaster in Washington, DC -- when this ditty debuted, I disavow any knowledge of it and take no responsibility whatsoever.
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This one is both interminably annoying and yet useful. It's a whopping fifteen minutes of looping, spangly stock music for the background of public television pledge breaks. Used for years on end by Maryland Public Television among others, it is likely to induce a bit of stupor and flashbacks of tote bags and mugs. You have been warned.
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Bet you don't remember either of these sitcoms on NBC -- especially "The Nutt House," a hotel-based comedy (barely) which was produced by Mel Brooks and starred his usual cast of characters including Harvey Korman and Cloris Leachman...
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One went on to television success, the other faded into obscurity. Here are the themes from the debut of two CBS sitcoms.
It's worth noting -- especially on the "Designing Women" theme -- how the first years of stereo television broadcasts were marked by hyper-exaggerated stereo separation; much as the first color broadcasts feature hyper-real primary colors. Listen to these with headphones.
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Yet another of NBC's attempts in the 1980s to create a viable news magazine format, this one was tagged with the unfortunate and lengthy name "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow." The opening titles led the viewer on a path through history and into the waiting arms of Stone Phillips and Maria Schriver.
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March 08, 2007
In honor of the late, lamented, hilarious John Inman, a short sample of his wonderful character Mr. Humphries, courtesy of an obscure novelty record. This single actually debuted at #40 on the UK charts on November 1, 1975! It later peaked at 39.
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February 03, 2007
Last year I posted a series of ident music from BBC One [ click here] only months before the Beeb changed their on-air look. The new look of BBC "one" eschews dancers, instead featuring disparate activities that culminate in a circle. Here are the soundtracks for the first batch of eight idents.
And finally, the last ever appearance of the BBC One dancers: careful, it's a 28mb file.
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A self-fulfilling title if ever there was one, "Three's A Crowd" was one of three sitcoms in the "Three's Company" universe. It was the short-lived "sequel" to the original series, which posited the question: "What happens when womanizing bachelor Jack Tripper decides to settle down?"
Unfortunately, audiences weren't interested in the answer to that one.
Here's the best thing about that series, the catchy theme tune.
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February 20, 2006
The BBC has what I consider to be the most beautiful idents in the world. BBC 1, the main channel, features dance and movement in all its forms on their network IDs, from tango to tap to tai chi. Each ident features dancers wearing BBC 1's signature red color, and all the idents use the same signature tune, arranged in the style appropriate to each dance. Here are five different arrangements of the BBC 1 tune used in their idents.
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A selection of NBC network promotional songs, from the late 80s and early 90s when networks still had annual slogans and big splashy graphics. Today it seems like every moment on broadcast television is too important to waste trying to build a brand or encourage viewer loyalty by promoting the network as a whole, and I miss these promotional exercises.
I've done my best to clean up these files from decrepit, scratchy, low-sampled mono to decently sampled stereo; but there is still plenty of noise and clipped audio to deal with and quality will vary from file to file. Sorry!
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April 27, 2005
January 19, 2005
Remember all those years ago, when local news programs actually had opening titles? Cheesy footage of camera men out in the streets, fuzzy film animation of the station logo chroma-keyed in, perhaps using state of the art Scanimate animation? Still photos of the news team? Those days are over. Now a news opening is only a few seconds, cut down to the bare minimum to squeeze in more "fork in the eye" stories and commercials.
For some bizarre reason, I have TV news themes littering my hard disk, so let's take a look at one particular station and how its theme has changed over a decade.
In what may be a standing record, Washington's WRC-TV 11pm news theme was a whopping 35 seconds long (inclusive of the station ID) in 1982.
The cheesy disco-era themes gave way to more orchestrated versions in the late 80s and early 90s, then made a swift turn toward, well, stock music crap in the mid 90s.
By 1994, the theme music for WRC news broadcasts was down to a pointless five seconds. It's been there ever since.
WRC News Themes Retrospective 1981-1994 [3:50]
More WRC-TV News Themes
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December 29, 2004
"Doctor in Distress" is a charity single that was produced back in 1985 when the series "Doctor Who" was taken off the air for 18 months in the UK. I remembered the song from back then when I was in the whole Dr. Who fandom culture.
Finally, today I found an MP3 version, evidently the only one extant. It's not nearly as good as I remembered it -- in fact, it's cringe-inducing. What's most astonishing about it is that Basia sings on it! The name of the "group" says it all: Who Cares?
Read more about "Doctor in Distress" and listen to the madness.
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August 08, 2004
July 19, 2004
A little Peacock action today.
NBC Artist Peacocks (video -- got Quicktime?)
And from way back: the beginning of Thursday's "Must See TV" lineup.
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July 15, 2004
July 13, 2004
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