Catch 5

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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.

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[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Stations that used Catch 5

DMA# DMA Name Station Affiliation Years Used Other Notes
5. Boston, Massachusetts WBZ-TV CBS, formerly NBC 1983-1986
16. Cleveland, Ohio WEWS-TV ABC 1974-1986 First station to use package
28. Hartford, Connecticut WVIT-TV, formerly WHNB NBC 1983-1987
31. Kansas City, Missouri WDAF-TV FOX, formerly NBC 1974-1978
96. Davenport (Quad Cities), IA WHBF-TV (Rock Island, IL) CBS Dates unknown

[edit] External links