Basically, in many news intros across local channels/affiliates and (i think?) the national news, theres often this booming deep male voice saying something like “This is (callsign/channel name) news at (time)” or “(callsign/channel name) news at (time) starts now.”. Then during the channel’s legal ID/idents, theres often another voice saying “You are watching (callsign/channel number)”.
Here in the UK, none of our tv channels or news intros make have voices, just music/video. Is there a reason why so many american channels/news intros do this? Is it so people who cant see the tv know the news is starting? Why would the voice be needed on the IDs as well?
(i am aware that not all news intros do this)
15 comments
It’s an FCC requirement.
I believe there’s a legal obligation for these channels to identify themselves within specific time intervals.
The rule is from the FCC and rooted in the radio days, but its also good for vision impaired folks, people in other rooms, etc…
Little reason not to and it adds convenience for some.
It’s a requirement for any FCC licensee. Even ham radio operators have to identify themselves by call sign.
>Station Identification. Stations must air identification announcements when they sign on and off for the day. They also must broadcast these announcements every hour, as close to the start of the hour as possible, at a natural programming break. TV stations make these announcements on-screen or by voice only. Official station identification includes the station’s call letters, followed by the community specified in its license as the station’s location. Between the call letters and its community, the station may insert the name of the licensee, the station’s channel number, and/or its frequency. It may also include any additional community or communities, as long as it first names the community to which it is licensed by the FCC. TV stations also may identify their digital multicast programming streams separately if they want, and, if so, must follow the format described in the FCC’s rules.
-https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting
Federal regulations for over the air network broadcasts.
In the US almost all radio / television transmitters have to be identified at intervals.
[Here is the law that details it](https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/47/73.1201) for broadcast television and radio.
>(i am aware that not all news intros do this)
What’s funny is that for most of the questions we receive, this is an appropriate disclaimer.
But in this case, yes, *all* broadcasters do this because the Federal Communications Commission requires it.
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I’ve noticed with my local Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS channel, there is their logo that shows up at the bottom at the top of every hour. It’s not always a voice but station identification on radio and tv is a FCC requirement.
W as the first letter generally means it’s a east coast station. K as the first letter means a west of the Mississippi river. There are a couple stations that break these rules but it’s how we identify communication.
> booming male voice
That would be [James Earl Jones](https://youtu.be/tgB491zXQxs?si=69X7ULPfEueF7Joh), aka [Darth Vader](https://youtu.be/gc25oAJrKbM?si=BKMGbThB_7zsgOmq).
The first one is a legal ID, required per the FCC to run as close as possible to the top of the hour with call letters and city of license in graphic or audible form.
The second one is the open, which may or may not also contain an ID, but absolutely establishes the branding (even in US journalism, very much a thing) and lets you KNOW you’re watching Eyewitness Action News 8 Working For You On Your Side, the area’s News Authority Leader.
Besides, some news themes here are notning short of iconic. People in Philadelphia have been singing along to this one for [50 years](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFJ2yoTsBds) (and they still use it, albeit in shorter form).
One thing you have to realize is that the broadcasting area for local TV news is typically limited to the region of a major city. So my local news would be broadcast out of Philadelphia, while someone in Northeastern NJ would be seeing local news broadcast out of New York, etc. This is in contrast to the UK where the affiliate news is often broadcast to the whole country.
Since there are 50 states and each are broadcasting a number of local news affiliates, the federal government sets up rules that they must follow in order to broadcast. Those rules include the channel, call sign, and location, as well as how frequently they need to broadcast it.
These rules were set up decades and decades ago, and I’ll let someone else speak to the why of it all, but that’s pretty much the reason.
It’s similar to the BBC continuity announcers, only it’s shifted into a voice over during the opening graphics of the news show.
I watch BBC World News often, and am kind of confused when the graphics come up and there’s no sound. I always wonder if my volume turned down all the way. I don’t know if the UK version is the same, but CNN, MSNBC, and Fox make their presence well known sonically. Radio stations have to make audio station identifications every.hour, so that carried over to broadcast television. Up until the 90s, the audio announcements were usually just simple voice-overs rather than elaborate music and sound effects. James Earl Jones was the voice of CNN for decades.