Generalities and Questions

[Songbird]

Let this be used as a resource for questions we have or things we want to talk about that don't have a specific thread. Or something.

Anyway, can someone help me find who came up with the "This is CNN" slogan?

 

[SpeedTchr]

I feel so dirty having actually looked at a Huffingtongue Post page, but here's what it said:

"The distinctive sound of James Earl Jones saying "This is CNN" is back on-air.

Jones recorded the soundbite for CNN's tenth anniversary in 1990. In the intervening years, the line became what some have called "the cable news channel's calling card.""

 

[Songbird]

I found that stuff too but I want to know who wrote the actual words and who hired Jones, with citation.

 

[trifectarich]

I would have guessed they stole it from NPR.

 

[SpeedTchr]

Wait, you're telling me I sullied my soul to find something you already knew?

 

[Songbird]

A little Borax will scrub your soul clean again.

No, I knew J.E.J. spoke the words. I want to know who wrote them, who hired Jones, etc. There's got to be a record. I've sent a few emails. Hoping a few folks here in TV know people who know people who ... can expedite the process. One of the good things about SJ.com.

 

[Songbird]

May have tracked the answer down but need confirmation. Anyone heard of Randy Tatum who worked at CNN in promotion?

 

[SpeedTchr]

Send him a Facebook message

 

[Songbird]

I did. Awaiting.

 

[Songbird]

Got the answer today: Rick Salcedo wrote the words and got James Earl Jones to voice them, and he was only to happy to because he loved CNN.

Paid him $60,000 -- or 20 grand a word. (Longer story is he spent 6 hours in a studio and said This is CNN! at least 1,000 times.)

 

[Songbird]

I ****ing hate this song.

 

[cjericho]

I ****ing hate this song.

Agree, never got the allure of it. This Land is Your Land is great and he is a legend, but Alice's Restaurant is just hard to listen to, even if it were only 3 minutes.

Always forget This Land is Woody not Arlo, but anyway that is a great song.

 

[TyWebb]

Wait ... someone got paid to write "This is CNN"? That's amazing.

 

[Songbird]

1, Jones was paid $60K to say it.

2, I just wanted to know who wrote the words.

 

[swingline]

Woody Guthrie

This machine kills Fascists | My Brilliant Mistakes

 

[Songbird]

All their trackers are belong to us.

 

[Songbird]

 

[da man]

Agree, never got the allure of it. This Land is Your Land is great and he is a legend, but Alice's Restaurant is just hard to listen to, even if it were only 3 minutes.

Always forget This Land is Woody not Arlo, but anyway that is a great song.

Arlo did City of New Orleans, which is also a great song.

And I love Alice's Restaurant, as well as the similarly rambling Ballad of Reuben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A.

 

[Songbird]

 

[cjericho]

Arlo did City of New Orleans, which is also a great song.

And I love Alice's Restaurant, as well as the similarly rambling Ballad of Reuben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A.

Yes City of New Orleans is a good song, but I like Jimmy Buffett's version better.