Weekend America had an interesting interview with a composer named Peter Fish, who is apparently the go-to guy for TV news themes.

Fish described how the different networks’ news themes express their personality (if you will). For example, CBS is very traditional with lots of strings; FOX’s theme, on the other hand, is full of musical anxiety and conflict (I’m paraphrasing freely here). At the interviewer’s request, Fish demonstrated how he might go about composing a theme for economic meltdown stories (minor keys and a bit of dissonance, if I understood him correctly, not being a musician). It was fascinating and made me newly aware of how even a very short musical piece can express mood and set up expectations.