The Spirit (news music)

'''''The Spirit''''' is a [[television news music]] package composed by [[Stephen Arnold]]. The package consists of 3 CDs containing 100 cuts centered around at least 3 primary themes. It is also a station slogan used by many television stations, mostly found in the Central and Mountain Time Zones.

==The Spirit: The News Music Package==
The package was composed for [[WFAA-TV]] in [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas-Fort Worth]] and was based on the ''Spirit'' signature that station has used with all of its news themes since the station's ''Spirit of Texas'' slogan was implemented in 1984. The original ''Spirit'' package was composed by [[James R. Kirk]] of TM Productions for the Texas Sesquicentennial (which actually occurred two years later in 1986), and was used by WFAA from 1984 until 1991.

All of WFAA's news music packages since dropping TM Productions' package in 1991 (along with Stephen Arnold's ''Spirit'' package, used from 1996-2000) have carried the "Spirit" motif, including the "WFAA 1992 News Theme" from 1992-1996, a package customized by the station and composed by Arnold from 2000-2004, a customized version of Arnold's "News Matrix" package from 2004-2005, the "Evolution" package from 2004-2007 (which all carry the same signature that TM Productions' package used) and "Propulsion" by 615 Music since 2006 (which is also based on the Spirit signature) and is also being used by other [[Belo]]-owned stations.

Although ''The Spirit'' music package is associated with the ''Spirit'' slogan, some stations that have used the ''Spirit'' branding actually chose to use other news packages for their newscasts. Conversely, stations that use ''The Spirit'' may not necessarily use the ''Spirit'' branding either.

==''The Spirit'' Station Branding==
''The Spirit'' slogan was made popular by WFAA-TV and [[Houston, Texas|Houston]]'s CBS affiliate [[KHOU-TV]]. Both stations, owned by [[Belo Corporation]], use ''The Spirit of Texas'' as their main slogan and have continued to do so since 1984 and 1986, respectively. Although a few stations used the slogan as early as the early 1980s. During a period from the mid-1980s into the early 1990s, many television stations began to adopt ''The Spirit'' as their station slogan.

However, a few stations such as [[KWTV]] in [[Oklahoma City]] and [[KSAZ-TV]] in [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] have actually dropped the use of the slogan.
==Stations that used or have used ''The Spirit'' news package==

{|

|valign="top"|
{| class="toccolours" border="2" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaa solid; border-collapse: collapse"
| '''[[Designated market area|DMA]]#'''
| '''DMA Name'''
| '''Station'''
| '''Affiliation'''
| '''Years Used'''
| '''Notes'''
|-
| 5.
| [[Dallas-Fort Worth]], [[Texas]]
| [[WFAA]]
| [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]]
| 1996-2000
| First station to commission package
|-
| 10.
| [[Houston]], [[Texas]]
| [[KHOU-TV]]
| [[CBS]]
| 1998-2003
|
|-
|
|
| [[KPXB]]
| [[ION]]
| 2000-2003
| Aired rebroadcasts of [[KHOU-TV]]'s 10pm newscasts
|-
| 61.
| [[Tulsa]], [[Oklahoma]]
| [[KOTV]]
| [[CBS]]
| 2001-2007
|
|-
|
|
| [[KQCW]], formerly KWBT
| [[The CW]], formerly [[The WB]]
| 2006-2007
|
|-
|
|
| [[News Now 53]] (cable channel)
| No affiliation
| 2001-present
| Airing newscasts from [[KOTV]] and [[KWTV]]
|}

==External links==
*[http://www.stephenarnoldmusic.com/ Stephen Arnold Music website]
*[http://www.southernmedia-nmsa.com/index.php?page=3,1,128 "The Spirit" at Southern Media's NMSA]-listing of American stations that used or have used the package
[[Category:Television news music packages]]