Catch 5

Catch 5 is a popular news music package and image campaign developed for Cleveland, Ohio television station WEWS-TV in 1970. Written and composed by then jingle-writer Frank Gari, the package was subsequently used on a few other American TV stations. The package is no longer used on any stations (WEWS dropped it in 1986), but it is still notable as Gari's very first TV news theme and promo package.

History

During the early 1970s, executives at WEWS-TV began to formulate the idea of promoting its newscasts with a jingle, much in the same way of what other types of products were doing. As such, in 1973, they approached Frank Gari, a singer during the 1950s and 60s and composer of numerous jingles, to write a promotional campaign for the station. To complement the jingle, Gari also agreed to produce a related news musical theme that was already in use and written by Dick Wooley in 1968. WEWS and Gari had Wooley play the moog signature logo on the Catch 5 news theme. WEWS sent locally produced pictures to a California animation company that produced and completed the "Catch 5" video campaign.

Later that year, Catch 5 debuted on the station with huge success. Catch 5 caught on in Cleveland, and WEWS became the market's number-one news station. As a result of Catch 5's success, other Cleveland TV stations also hired Gari to write campaign songs for them. This in turn prompted other stations across the country to request campaign songs. It launched Gari's career in the television news music business, and ushered in an era of the widespread use of custom news music on American local television which continues today. The phrase "Reach Out and Catch 5" has since been used in other promos for WEWS, including a variation of the Gari image campaign "Good Times, Good News".

Lyrics

The following are lyrics to the "Catch 5" image campaign, as heard on WEWS:

:"It makes no difference who you are:"If you've been looking near and far:"To get the feel of life:"You'll find the world's at hand:"You've got to Catch 5

:"Each day's a new world to explore:"You're gonna find what you're looking for:"And there's a friendly face:"To brighten up your day

:"You'll see it all when you Catch 5:"The world is yours when you Catch 5:"When you reach out and you Catch 5:"You've caught it all
"

The original version consisted only of the first and last verses; plain instrumental music was played in between. The second verse was added to the song in the 1980s, along with an update of the instrumentals.

tations that used Catch 5

External links

* [http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/search.php?search=3,1,42 "Catch 5" News Package at SouthernMedia's NMSA] - List of American stations that have used the "Catch 5" news package
* [http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/search.php?search=3,3,3 "Catch 5" Image Campaign at SouthernMedia's NMSA] - Audio sample of the "Catch 5" image campaign