Maybe the wrong place to ask--but WHERE did the stations get their 'promo music" from

[Chip Chester]

Perhaps "needle drop" music... in the old sense, where stylistically-familiar but not-quite-copied tunes were written, arranged, and performed for use in commercial productions, like TV and radio spots, station IDs, promos, etc. Larger markets had custom music packages made (like the scene in Broadcast News), but smaller markets had to make do with standard music library selections. These records were also used for poor-man's post-scoring. Envision twenty different five-second music snippets, all titled "Dramatic Stab" (as in a quick orchestrated accent tune.)
After awhile, it got to where you could pick them out... "album 12, cut 3"

The thing that made it work was that it was all "cleared" -- the composition, arrangement, and performance was able to be licensed for a given time. No geographic exclusivity, or anything like that. But they wouldn't hunt you down for using it.

I think the name was Capital Music Library. Then years later, along came the Network music library, followed by many others. Much better production values, more modern-sounding tunes, and pre-edited into full length (6-8 min or so), 2-minute, 1-minute, :30, :15, :10, and tag length versions. Still no exclusivity, but licensing was all covered, and you could do a buy-out of one theme, or the whole library.

Again, if you heard some cuts of the Network music library today, you'd remember them from spots, shows, or news bumpers.

The use of specific "mainstream" orchestral recordings was supposed to be licensed. You would have to license the original composition, if there was still a valid copyright for the composer, his heirs, or some foundation. The arrangement, and the performers would also need to be licensed. Stations would often try to say "hey, we have an ASCAP license, so we can use anything we want for free. They failed to understand synchronization rights, which state that their ASCAP license only covers them for when they're reading live copy on-air, over the recorded music.

And now, my fingers are tired.

Chip