Music on The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel has featured a variety of music on its local forecast segments and on its programs since its founding in 1982.

History

Before November 12, 2013, the network largely featured vocal pop music or jazz. After November 12, 2013, production music was created for the channel.

On the night of the network's launch on May 2, 1982, during the pre-launch as they were taking questions about how the network would present their Local Forecast segments and what types of music they would present on the air during the Local Forecast segment, original president and network founder of The Weather Channel, John Coleman mentioned:

There will be about 14 minutes of music per hour on The Weather Channel. Every one minute out of every five, when they have the Local Forecast, you'll hear music and were making a strong effort to see that it's very, that its current, that its bright, that its happy, that its upbeat, and I really think that some people will stay tuned to The Weather Channel just to keep up with the music, they may began to think that our meteorologists are as part-disc jockeys.

- John Coleman

Original president and network founder of The Weather Channel, May 2, 1982

Various music, and even some random vocal music was played early on from the night of its launch, up until around 1983 before switching to mostly non-vocalized music later on.

From the night of the network's launch until March 10, 1998, The Weather Channel would only switch playlists on occasion on random months. The earliest known playlist dates back to December 1986.

Occasionally between 1988-1991 during the Local Forecast segment, The Weather Channel once featured theme music from various sponsors that normally wasn't officially part of the regular music playlist, but rather as promotional music that was being used for the Local Forecast segment from some of their sponsors at the time, such as Gatorade in 1988, United Airlines, and Liquid Clorox 2 in 1989, and so on. These themes were normally heard on their commercials at the time.

Beginning around February 22, 1989, and continuing through 1990, The Weather Channel would occasionally play their own theme music from the second version of the "You Need Us, For Everything You Do" image campaign as background music for the Local Forecast segment. There were several different instrumental edits of this theme music.

When the Weather Star 4000 began to be rolled out for the first time around late 1989, The Weather Channel would launch Prime Time Tonight in October 1989. With the launch of Prime Time Tonight, The Weather Channel experimented with by showing clips of upcoming programs airing on many other cable channels (including The Weather Channel's own programing). Because that Prime Time Tonight only aired in areas that had a Weather Star 4000 in its early days, cable systems that still had a Weather Star III (which later became known as the Weather Star 3000 around the time of the 4000's debut), did not support the Prime Time Tonight segment and instead would get its own music playlist, complete with a regular three-minute "J" flavor Local Forecast that would air over the Prime Time Tonight segment. For the Weather Star 4000 units in the West Coast, the Prime Time Tonight playlist would run from 3:56 PM to 7:31 PM Pacific Time (6:56 PM to 10:31 PM Eastern Time) as the East Coast edition of Prime Time Tonight would air to the East Coast 4000 units. Then, the Prime Time Tonight playlist would run again, but this time for the East Coast Weather Star 4000 units from 10:56 PM to 2:31 AM Eastern Time (7:56 PM to 11:31 PM Pacific Time) as the West Coast 4000 units would air the West Coast edition of Prime Time Tonight. In June 1991, an updated Prime Time Tonight playlist began airing. In addition, a one-minute Local Forecast that also was a part of the Prime Time Tonight playlist would air before and after the Prime Time Tonight segment, but only to 4000 units once the segment comes on in its proper time zone. Viewers who didn't get the 1-minute Local Forecast (and thus, no Prime-Time Tonight segment) would instead see either a short studio segment (usually a Radar Update or Recap), then a three-minute "J" flavor Local Forecast, and then another short studio segment (usually the 24-hour forecast). Prime Time Tonight was later dropped around September 1991 as The Weather Channel chose not to renew with its contract, and thus the custom Prime Time Tonight playlist was dropped altogether.

In the first couple of months in 1990, The Weather Channel once used a dual playlist by playing two different tunes at the same time in the early months of the Weather Star 4000 was (along with its own narration audio feed beginning on April 8, 1990), while the Weather Star III (3000) had its own playlist that differed from the 4000's playlist. In the early months of 1990 on the Weather Star 4000, the background music would sometimes abruptly change by the time the Current Radar segment would come up. Beginning with the September 1990 playlist that began airing on September 13, 1990, both Weather Star models would use the same exact playlists.

Between July 1-31, 1993, the music playlist was briefly replaced with production music that came from Network Music (which was later bought out by Killer Tracks and now owned by Universal Music) and not from original artists or other licensed music. The Network Music production tunes later returned briefly between January 15-19, 1995, before when the regular non-production music returned on January 20, 1995. Later on, between March 2, 1995, through November 2, 1995, the Network Music production music tunes would be used again, but this time as regular playlists. Regular non-production music again returned when the November 1995 playlist began airing on November 3, 1995.

Beginning on December 31, 1995, Trammell Starks' own customized music began playing on The Weather Channel for the first time. This custom playlist may have been used due to legal issues between The Weather Channel and BMI since the year before started off with all BMI-licensed music, then to all Network Music production tunes (in two separate playlists that aired throughout 1995), and then to a mix of some BMI-licensed tunes along with Network Music production tunes late in 1995. The Trammell Starks tunes would be used regularly as a full-time playlist up until April 22, 1996, when the April 1996 playlist began airing and would once again play other tunes that featured various artists. Trammell Starks' custom tunes would still be used on occasion as late as the July 1999 playlist, but it would be mixed with other music from other artists. The main domestic broadcast of The Weather Channel would later use Trammell Starks' music only for technical difficulties as a backup playlist if the normal playlist was having technical difficulties. The Trammell Starks backup playlist was later dropped from the main domestic broadcast around 2012, and from that point on, the Trammell Starks tunes were later heard exclusively on Weatherscan until its shutdown on December 12, 2022.

Beginning on March 10, 1998, The Weather Channel began using a quarterly playlist based on the seasons (one for Spring for both the March-June 1998 and April-June 1999 playlists, another one for Summer for both the July-September 1998 and July-September 1999 playlists, another one for Fall for both the October-November 1998 and October-November 1999 playlists, and one for Winter that was used only in the January-March 1999 playlist, plus the annual Christmas playlist for both December 1998 and December 1999). The quarterly playlists would last until January 2000, when The Weather Channel began using a monthly playlist format.

The Weather Channel released its own Smooth Jazz CD in 2007, The Weather Channel Presents: The Best of Smooth Jazz, based on collections of popular music played during the "Local On the 8s" segments. It peaked at #1 on Billboard's Top Contemporary Jazz charts that year. In 2008, a second compilation CD containing the channel's most requested music was released, titled The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II. Stock music, classic rock, film soundtracks, and electronica have also been featured over the years. Other songs containing lyrics from artists (often referred to in the community as "vocal music") have been rotated into the local forecast cycle since then, though the inclusion of lyrical songs poses a problem as the ducking feature of the IntelliStar's Vocal Local function causes both the music and lyrics to be nearly muted (this is not the case with the IntelliStar 2) as the narration track is played in a nearly continuous manner until the end of the 24- to 48-hour forecast segment. This is in addition to the fact that the songs will not be played in their entirety due to the variable and often limited local forecast lengths.

The Weather Channel suspends the music playlist regularly used during the forecast segments at other times (which is rotated on a seasonal basis) when a tropical storm or hurricane approaches coastal areas of the United States, during which time it is substituted with the "Storm Alert" music. The "Storm Alert" theme was first introduced during Hurricane Katrina as it was making landfall in late August 2005. For many years during the holiday season, the normal music would be replaced with appropriately themed music such as instrumental versions of popular Christmas carols and music from various holiday soundtracks. On July 7, 2009, into the early morning of July 8, The Weather Channel played the hit Michael Jackson song "Billie Jean", to commemorate the memorial service held in honor of Jackson that day in Los Angeles, two weeks after his June 25 death. It was also played during the Wake Up with Al playlists in the months that followed among others.

Around August 2009, The Weather Channel launched its own official website dedicated just for their own Local on the 8s music called The Weather Channel Music. This former website was also an online music download store where you could listen to samples that was featured on the Local on the 8s segments and purchase the full unedited tunes to download. Most music tunes typically cost only 99 cents (in U.S. change), while the full albums typically cost up to $7.99 (USD). This website was online from August 2009 until around September 2016.

Since November 12, 2013, a new music package introduced to The Weather Channel which replaced smooth jazz tracks with specially composed production tracks that fit TWC's sonic brand. Three songs from that package were used for the local forecasts, with a fourth being used during the segments when the channel's "Red Alert" mode (which replaced the "Storm Alert" mode in 2012) is in effect, which also suspends all music during very frequent weather situations. TWC also experimented with vocal music again from February to May 2014 along with the music package. In September 2014, a new song was added to the package; with seven more songs added in November 2014. The channel returned Christmas songs in December 2014. Smooth jazz music returned in 2016 on select days, usually four or five days per month. These smooth jazz tracks were music already licensed as part of TWC's smooth jazz albums from the previous decade. In September 2016, four new Storm Alert songs were added during coverage of Hurricane Hermine.

In March 2017, during coverage of Winter Storm Stella, another new storm alert theme was added. On July 4, 2017, and again on August 18, 2017, Weezer's newest song "Feels Like Summer" was played. On the day of the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, music containing the words "sun", "sunshine" or "eclipse" in the songs' title were played, including "Ain't No Sunshine", "Walking on the Sun", "Let the Sunshine In"; "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder, "Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles, and "Eclipse" by Pink Floyd. Three new songs from Extreme Music were added to the package in August 2018. Vocal music was played on New Year's Eve 2018 and again in 2019. Vocal music was played on certain occasions in 2019 notable instances including February 14th Independence Day and more.

Music on Weatherscan

When Weatherscan launched nationally on July 28, 1998, and later on with Weatherscan Local by March 30, 1999, Trammell Starks' music would be featured on Weatherscan, much like what was previously heard on the main domestic broadcast of The Weather Channel. Initially, an edited two-minute version Trammell Starks' tune "Better Than Nothing" (also known as "Fair Weather") would be played on a non-stop loop until around late 2000. By late 2000, more of Trammell Starks' tunes were later added on Weatherscan Local and would now play full-unedited versions of these tunes (including the previously featured "Better Than Nothing" tune). When the WeatherStar XL-based Weatherscan Local was replaced with the IntelliStar-based Weatherscan when it was first deployed around late September 2003, the full unedited Trammell Starks' music would not only be featured once again, but also, 15 new custom production tracks were added and was heard exclusively on Weatherscan until it's shutdown on December 12, 2022.

Trammell Starks

Trammell Starks wrote the music for the 1996 playlist and Weatherscan. His music was played on the emergency feed until 2012.

See also

• Local on the 8s#Music on Local on the 8s
• Music playlists
• The Weather Channel Presents: The Best of Smooth Jazz
• The Weather Channel Presents: Smooth Jazz II