Dennis Daily reaches into the archives for some of the former Mutual Broadcasting System's incredible, splashy news, sports and special events sounders from the late 1970s and early '80.
5:44 was when you knew you stayed out too late when the sunrise was creeping up and this sounder came on and Larry king was done for the night. The good old days of my youth
To add a bit of behind the microphone detail about the 60 sec cut of "The Feeling is Mutual." The cut was originally produced for what was known as the Mutual Road Show. Mutual produced a visual multi-screen presentation aimed at advertising agencies, potential advertisers and affiliate stations. This presentation went on the road and traveled to a number of major markets, and included a stop at the annual NAB Convention. "The Feeling is Mutual" made its debut at the 1978 NAB Convention Mutual affiliates meeting in Las Vegas, and was really never intended for use on the air on the network. I was the Director of Network Technical and Engineering Operations at Mutual at that time. In those days network Master Control fed four legs of the Network (West, Central, East, Greater Northeast (GNE)) via a computer based sermi-automated switching system. When the network cut to a commercial, the feed broke into four audio chains and different commercials went to each chain (network leg). Once in a while, there would be a problem and a commercial cart would not start, so we had an automated commercial fill system, which would detect silence and then start a fill cart and fed it to the affected audio chain. When I designed the system, we needed something to use as the emergency fill audio. I decided to use The Feeling is Mutual song as the filler. As it turned out, one day we had a commercial cart start failure on the East leg of the network, and the emergency fill dropped in the Feeling is Mutual. The network President (Ed Little) happened to hear the promo on a local affiliate while he was driving. He asked why the road show promo ran on the network instead of the scheduled commercial and I explained it to him At that point he decided to use the promo on the network on an occasional basis when a PSA might normally run. So as Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story.
I don't care what anyone says, the radio jock voice always makes me smile. The Dennis Daily way is great. Oh, and Mutual Radio will live on in our memories!! I, too, worked there for several years and it was one of the most fun times ever. MBS RIP!! Dennis Daily....kepp up the good work; radio is in my blood too.
I remember much of this I worked at Mutual the summer of 1967 with guys like Martin Edwards, Kevin Kennedy, Sandy Marshall and many others and vaguely remember talking to you on the phone.
Does anyone remember the short trumpet fanfare as the announcer transitioned to a break? Would love these on our internet station if they were ever available...(sigh).
I've searched for the original Larry King Show opening theme for years. I discovered Larry in 1979 and after a couple of years of listening I decided to try to become the board operator at our local affiliate. Thus began 20 years in broadcasting. I'd love to have that theme as a ring tone (NBC Monitor makes a good ringer too!) Anybody have a mp3?
Re.: The Larry Ling Alternate Close at 5:45 -- Actually, from childhood recollection (circa 1982-83 or thereabouts)-- I remember this theme being used as the show's hourly open, except that it did not have the "Star Wars" style sound effects. Thanks so much for sharing this!
I worked for several radio stations in the 80s...my first job was doing overnights at KOH in Reno, NV where I switched the King and Bohannan shows. I absolutely loved the Mutual network. I would hear Larry King talking about Dallas Riggins in Mutual Master Control in Arlington. I tried to copy the Mutual newscasters in my delivery...people like Wric Smallwood, Kurt Henshen,
Great stuff, Dennis. Fun fact: The Mutual News sounder at 2:41 was still in use at WSNJ-AM in Bridgeton, NJ into the late 2000s, when I first got into radio. We used it as our sounder for a midday 15 minute newscast.
Worked in Dallas for MBS Southwest when they had Dallas Cowboys and Southwest Conference. They were owned by Amway and I was proud to be heard on 750 stations weekday mornings and Saturday.
NBC had an all-news network in the 1980s. Had a great theme that featured a cello! Can't find that any more. I do recall the announcer tag that went something like, "This is your news and information network." Dennis Daily sounds like a former radio DJ. :)
This is one network I would not mind being relaunched. I love the Mutual Black Network newscast. Please put them on CZcams if you can find more of them.
@newscaster13 Mutual was originally a cooperative of WXYZ Detroit (home of "Lone Ranger", WOR New York, WGN Chicago, and WLW Cincinatti (I believe the latter also had affiliations with both NBC networks and CBS as well), and until the late 1950's, was cooperatively owned by it's major affiliates, including the Yankee Network in New England and Don Lee Broadcasting in California.
Was that "Feeling is Mutual" campaign from TM Productions? It sounds like their style, plus former affiliate WCFL had custom jingles utilizing the Mutual melody.
I appreciate the 'left-handed' compliment. I am cursed with a type of artificial voice that prevented me from working for NPR for decades. Unfortunately, I went through radio journalism school taught by professors who were alive BEFORE radio. After all, radio is not that old. Its coming had an impact on society only rivaled by the coming of the Internet. I wish I could speak like a human being. I am full aware of the barbs flung at me for "sounding like a robot." Thanks for reminding me, though.
Where in Hell have I been that I'm only now finding you!!! Who are you, BE-doop?! Chris Crosswhite? Who? Tnks, Dennis, Great website! I LOVE IT. Mutual was fun, after all; up and down, but FUN work. Max
Important historical document signifying “urgency” & the beginnings of infotainment naively though, little did know that how “happy news” would evolve .
Some of those news sounders from the Late 70's almost sound like they were orchestrated by "Bruto and Network" the same musicians that perform the music score for the Santa Fe Odyssey series.
I recall that commercial-heralding tune fondly. Also: When I was a kindergartner in Minnesota, I recall two 5-second themes that opened their news briefs... One was this brassy intro: C(beat and a half)-F-G(16ths)-higher C(8th), G(held to the end){First few notes C9, ending with the sustained Fmaj9 final note}. The other was a country-sounding guitar intro: C-B flat-C, E flat-C-F, C(held to the end). Do either of those sequences exist here in CZcams? Now, I'll listen, and reflect...
Hi Dennis: I love these sounders and was wondering if you had a copy of Larry King's opening music. I have been trying to locate it as well as other themes that were used on his show over the years.
I'd like to hear that too. I had Mutual on my radio in the background while I was reading when I heard the news that Elvis had died. The first time I wasn't paying much attention, but the repeat woke me up. A minute or so later came the words, "Again, repeating the hour's top story: Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, is dead at the age of 42." Anyone know who the announcer was?
Dennis, I recall hearing a Mutual sounder the time in August 1977 when Elvis Presley died, that had a sound of immediacy, of breaking news. It was on the recording of the "We Interrupt This Broadcast" that was produced about 10 years ago just after 9-11. Did you have that in your archives?
My younger brother believes, if he's not mistaken, in the early going that it was ABC that was the fourth network and Mutual was third behind NBC & CBS. There are several pictures of Pres. Roosevelt speaking in front of microphones that show only Mutual, NBC & CBS.
PAMS or JAM? I was hanging around Mutual Southwest about that time. I sang along :> Mutual SW was in the old PAMS building in Dallas. I must have had a dub of the package as all the cuts sound familiar.
They don't make them like that any more! The "Feeling is Mutual" reminds me of the Metro Radio ("No. 1 in the North East") package, which I think was Alphasound. Who produced the Mutual package?
Does Dennis Daily's Mutual Radio archive include the sounders for the Mutual Black Network? WBLS-FM in New York was MBN's flagship affiliate in the '70s.
Just imagine how horrible it would be to have supper with me. I've talked this way for 50 years and can't fix it. If you have any ideas, let me know. Oh, by the way, what about the sounders?
+hourlynewscaster Are those news sounders and jingles of the Mutual Broadcasting System (even it is defunct) really subject to a copyright, because I have a plan to use it in our practice broadcast? If yes, whom a person should I contact to use it with permission? Thanks a lot for uploading the MBS Sounders and Jingles, because I really love it. :) ...by the way, do you have the lyrics of the MBS Jingle "The Feeling Is Mutual"? If you have, just post it or repost if you can, because I like it in reality.:)
My dad's company, Catching Sound Media, will revive the MBS name for its television network. To avoid trademark infringement, it will register the trademark for MBS. The news and sports themes will be based on the jingles for those divisions.
When I was DJ and later a board operator, Mutual had a LOT better news sounder in the early 60s through the early 70s. This stuff sound like a video gamer on drugs with the synth spikes. EXCEPT FOR THE WORLD TODAY THEME MUSIC. Whatever happened to Dorees Bell, Pye Chamberlayne, Martin Edwards and all those other great radio voices?
Dennis Daily "elucidates" just a little too much (i.e. this guy's over the top!)...Imagine if he used this voice if he were a Customer Service agent on the telephone.
5:44 was when you knew you stayed out too late when the sunrise was creeping up and this sounder came on and Larry king was done for the night. The good old days of my youth
I got the 1979 feel toward the end. Never heard them but i remember the dee doop sound.
Aaron Ladner, MUTUAL NEWS, Washington
Brings back great memories.
I was at my first N/T in January 1999, but we were a CBS affiliate. The station across town had MBS, I think.
To add a bit of behind the microphone detail about the 60 sec cut of "The Feeling is Mutual." The cut was originally produced for what was known as the Mutual Road Show. Mutual produced a visual multi-screen presentation aimed at advertising agencies, potential advertisers and affiliate stations. This presentation went on the road and traveled to a number of major markets, and included a stop at the annual NAB Convention. "The Feeling is Mutual" made its debut at the 1978 NAB Convention Mutual affiliates meeting in Las Vegas, and was really never intended for use on the air on the network.
I was the Director of Network Technical and Engineering Operations at Mutual at that time.
In those days network Master Control fed four legs of the Network (West, Central, East, Greater Northeast (GNE)) via a computer based sermi-automated switching system. When the network cut to a commercial, the feed broke into four audio chains and different commercials went to each chain (network leg). Once in a while, there would be a problem and a commercial cart would not start, so we had an automated commercial fill system, which would detect silence and then start a fill cart and fed it to the affected audio chain. When I designed the system, we needed something to use as the emergency fill audio. I decided to use The Feeling is Mutual song as the filler. As it turned out, one day we had a commercial cart start failure on the East leg of the network, and the emergency fill dropped in the Feeling is Mutual. The network President (Ed Little) happened to hear the promo on a local affiliate while he was driving. He asked why the road show promo ran on the network instead of the scheduled commercial and I explained it to him At that point he decided to use the promo on the network on an occasional basis when a PSA might normally run.
So as Paul Harvey used to say, now you know the rest of the story.
Wow, what a great reply with a lot of information. Would I recognize your name?
I still have the record album titled "The Feeling Is Mutual", and it is full of great news sounders, sweepers, etc.
I wasn't even looking at the screen when the sports sounder came on, and yet I knew it was a sports sounder.
The second one reminds me of “Move Closer to Your World” still being used as the Action News Theme for Channel 6 in Philly.
TV5 Syracuse NY used "Move Closer" with their celebratory PSA commemorating 25 years on the air (1948 to 1973 WHEN, now WTVH).
I don't care what anyone says, the radio jock voice always makes me smile. The Dennis Daily way is great. Oh, and Mutual Radio will live on in our memories!! I, too, worked there for several years and it was one of the most fun times ever. MBS RIP!!
Dennis Daily....kepp up the good work; radio is in my blood too.
I remember much of this I worked at Mutual the summer of 1967 with guys like Martin Edwards,
Kevin Kennedy, Sandy Marshall and many others and vaguely remember talking to you on the phone.
Some of the greatest themes in network radio.
Does anyone remember the short trumpet fanfare as the announcer transitioned to a break? Would love these on our internet station if they were ever available...(sigh).
I've searched for the original Larry King Show opening theme for years. I discovered Larry in 1979 and after a couple of years of listening I decided to try to become the board operator at our local affiliate. Thus began 20 years in broadcasting. I'd love to have that theme as a ring tone (NBC Monitor makes a good ringer too!) Anybody have a mp3?
Dick Rosse, Mike McCluskey and so many others. Loved Mutual. Sorry network radio is gone. Thanks Dennis.
THIS is the mutual Broadcasting System. Be doop, be doop.
Yeah baby. That's hilarious. Wanna hear that again!
czcams.com/video/_FDqr7ruPxM/video.html
Re.: The Larry Ling Alternate Close at 5:45 -- Actually, from childhood recollection (circa 1982-83 or thereabouts)-- I remember this theme being used as the show's hourly open, except that it did not have the "Star Wars" style sound effects. Thanks so much for sharing this!
I worked for several radio stations in the 80s...my first job was doing overnights at KOH in Reno, NV where I switched the King and Bohannan shows. I absolutely loved the Mutual network. I would hear Larry King talking about Dallas Riggins in Mutual Master Control in Arlington. I tried to copy the Mutual newscasters in my delivery...people like Wric Smallwood, Kurt Henshen,
Great stuff, Dennis. Fun fact: The Mutual News sounder at 2:41 was still in use at WSNJ-AM in Bridgeton, NJ into the late 2000s, when I first got into radio. We used it as our sounder for a midday 15 minute newscast.
One question, Do you th>nk that Mutual would work in radio today.
Worked in Dallas for MBS Southwest when they had Dallas Cowboys and Southwest Conference. They were owned by Amway and I was proud to be heard on 750 stations weekday mornings and Saturday.
Wow! Thanks for the memories!
NBC had an all-news network in the 1980s. Had a great theme that featured a cello! Can't find that any more. I do recall the announcer tag that went something like, "This is your news and information network."
Dennis Daily sounds like a former radio DJ. :)
This is one network I would not mind being relaunched. I love the Mutual Black Network newscast. Please put them on CZcams if you can find more of them.
@newscaster13 Mutual was originally a cooperative of WXYZ Detroit (home of "Lone Ranger", WOR New York, WGN Chicago, and WLW Cincinatti (I believe the latter also had affiliations with both NBC networks and CBS as well), and until the late 1950's, was cooperatively owned by it's major affiliates, including the Yankee Network in New England and Don Lee Broadcasting in California.
I like the Today The Feeling Is Mutual sounder!
i miss this stuff
Wow, I remember listening to a lot of these. I heard quotes in the last sounder from "Star Wars Cantina Band" as a counterpoint melody, love it!
Mutual had such good radio news.
WLEC Sandusky was the Mutual station in my area; favorite program was The Dick Clark National Music Survey :-)
By the way, I love the sounders. This was network radio at it's best.
...and none better....
Was that "Feeling is Mutual" campaign from TM Productions? It sounds like their style, plus former affiliate WCFL had custom jingles utilizing the Mutual melody.
such futuristic sound
one station i heard using that first logo theme via jingle montages, was WRR in Dallas, TX.
Love and miss Mutual Broadcasting. Can it ever be revived?
I worked at our college radio station, we had mutual radio network via phone lines into out channel 6 pot board. I liked Mutual News
I remember some of these pieces on WHN 1050 in NY back in the 1960s (I think...)
I appreciate the 'left-handed' compliment. I am cursed with a type of artificial voice that prevented me from working for NPR for decades. Unfortunately, I went through radio journalism school taught by professors who were alive BEFORE radio. After all, radio is not that old. Its coming had an impact on society only rivaled by the coming of the Internet. I wish I could speak like a human being. I am full aware of the barbs flung at me for "sounding like a robot." Thanks for reminding me, though.
From Washington, This is MUTUAL NEWS
Bedoop.
These were done by Toby Arnold of Dallas. They did versions of this package for both K and W call letter stations.
Can u get the full jim bohannon show theme. Without anyone over it and the full 1989 larry king show theme without anyone over it
Where in Hell have I been that I'm only now finding you!!!
Who are you, BE-doop?! Chris Crosswhite? Who?
Tnks, Dennis, Great website! I LOVE IT.
Mutual was fun, after all; up and down, but FUN work. Max
Important historical document signifying “urgency” & the beginnings of infotainment
naively though, little did know that how “happy news” would evolve .
Some of those news sounders from the Late 70's almost sound like they were orchestrated by "Bruto and Network" the same musicians that perform the music score for the Santa Fe Odyssey series.
I recall that commercial-heralding tune fondly.
Also: When I was a kindergartner in Minnesota, I recall two 5-second themes that opened their news briefs...
One was this brassy intro: C(beat and a half)-F-G(16ths)-higher C(8th), G(held to the end){First few notes C9, ending with the sustained Fmaj9 final note}.
The other was a country-sounding guitar intro: C-B flat-C, E flat-C-F, C(held to the end).
Do either of those sequences exist here in CZcams?
Now, I'll listen, and reflect...
Hi Dennis: I love these sounders and was wondering if you had a copy of Larry King's opening music. I have been trying to locate it as well as other themes that were used on his show over the years.
Me too!!
I'd like to hear that too. I had Mutual on my radio in the background while I was reading when I heard the news that Elvis had died. The first time I wasn't paying much attention, but the repeat woke me up. A minute or so later came the words, "Again, repeating the hour's top story: Elvis Presley, the King of Rock 'n' Roll, is dead at the age of 42." Anyone know who the announcer was?
BE-doop!!
The Mutual Orchestra was the most.
Dennis, I recall hearing a Mutual sounder the time in August 1977 when Elvis Presley died, that had a sound of immediacy, of breaking news. It was on the recording of the "We Interrupt This Broadcast" that was produced about 10 years ago just after 9-11. Did you have that in your archives?
Mutual felt like being a forth network, like FOX television, only for radio. It was due to competing with the radio networks of ABC, CBS and NBC.
It WAS a fourth network and the best!
My younger brother believes, if he's not mistaken, in the early going that it was ABC that was the fourth network and Mutual was third behind NBC & CBS. There are several pictures of Pres. Roosevelt speaking in front of microphones that show only Mutual, NBC & CBS.
Can you find the last Mutual news sounder from the 1990's? Thanks for all these great tracks!
PAMS or JAM? I was hanging around Mutual Southwest about that time. I sang along :> Mutual SW was in the old PAMS building in Dallas. I must have had a dub of the package as all the cuts sound familiar.
+David Coursey Neither. Mutual's late 70s stuff was done by Toby Arnold and Associates.
Mutual Broadcasting System Newscast theme music.
Autistic restatement of what has already been expressed.
What orchestra did these? Where recorded. I liked the Mutual short newscasts where the music bombed out the announcer at the end.
+Easy Aspi Toby Arnold of Dallas.
They don't make them like that any more! The "Feeling is Mutual" reminds me of the Metro Radio ("No. 1 in the North East") package, which I think was Alphasound. Who produced the Mutual package?
+hourlynewscaster I'm reviving the Mutual Broadcasting System.
Does Dennis Daily's Mutual Radio archive include the sounders for the Mutual Black Network? WBLS-FM in New York was MBN's flagship affiliate in the '70s.
Do anyone have the sounder for the Mutual Black Network?
Just imagine how horrible it would be to have supper with me. I've talked this way for 50 years and can't fix it. If you have any ideas, let me know. Oh, by the way, what about the sounders?
+hourlynewscaster Are those news sounders and jingles of the Mutual Broadcasting System (even it is defunct) really subject to a copyright, because I have a plan to use it in our practice broadcast? If yes, whom a person should I contact to use it with permission? Thanks a lot for uploading the MBS Sounders and Jingles, because I really love it. :)
...by the way, do you have the lyrics of the MBS Jingle "The Feeling Is Mutual"? If you have, just post it or repost if you can, because I like it in reality.:)
My dad's company, Catching Sound Media, will revive the MBS name for its television network. To avoid trademark infringement, it will register the trademark for MBS. The news and sports themes will be based on the jingles for those divisions.
When I was DJ and later a board operator, Mutual had a LOT better news sounder in the early 60s through the early 70s. This stuff sound like a video gamer on drugs with the synth spikes. EXCEPT FOR THE WORLD TODAY THEME MUSIC. Whatever happened to Dorees Bell, Pye Chamberlayne, Martin Edwards and all those other great radio voices?
Dennis Daily "elucidates" just a little too much (i.e. this guy's over the top!)...Imagine if he used this voice if he were a Customer Service agent on the telephone.
Who talks like that? Radio announcer affect.