It started as a piece of sound-library music and through reworks, remixes and generations of Australians growing up hearing it, the Majestic Fanfare has wedged itself into the Australian consciousness.
Written in 1943 by British composer Charles Williams, the Majestic Fanfare wasn't really intended to be a stand-out piece, despite the fancy-sounding name.
The name of the music was about the mood it is meant to conjure, rather than a reflection of the actual instrumentation, as Australian composer and conductor Richard Mills told Libby Gore on ABC Radio Melbourne.
"It was a typical piece of British film library music," he said.
"They had vast banks of LPs that had what we call library music on them. It was music that could be used for any occasion, and it was classified by mood."
The ABC started using the Majestic Fanfare as the intro to the radio news bulletins in the early 1950s, replacing the shortened version of Advance Australia Fair that had been used prior.
The same music was used before the TV news when the ABC expanded to television broadcasting in 1952, until it was replaced in 1985.
Mr Mills was asked by the ABC to revive the old-fashioned orchestral fanfare in 1988 for Australia's bicentennial.
"I spent two days on it, because I had to take it down from a cassette and then rewrite it," Mr Mills told Libby Gore.
A theme of nostalgia
While the Majestic Fanfare might not be anything special in musical terms, it has become special to many Australians, who shared their stories as the ABC marks 90 years of broadcasting.
"The news theme was stuck in my head for years and now the nostalgia it brings is immense," Amanda Brick wrote.
"When I was little, my mum tells me I called it the 'Daddy coming home' music, as my dad usually got home from work around then," Lynelle Urquhart wrote.
"We'd moved to Canada and were feeling rather homesick when we finally managed to connect to ABC Radio," David wrote.
"Hearing that music [the Majestic Fanfare] was a real thrill and made a big difference to our life away from Australia.
"I think it was the music rather than the news itself that made the difference."
Majestic Fanfare remixed with a sample of the times
In the early 1990s, ABC's youth radio station, triple j, gave the Majestic Fanfare a very 90s remix.
The triple j news theme was written and produced by Paul McKercher and John Jacobs in 1991.
"I was an in-house producer at the time and I was asked to come up with a new news theme," Mr McKercher said.
"It needed to be something that was immediately identifiable as being of the ABC, but also needed to be contemporised."
Mr McKercher said John Jacobs found a 1978 record of the Majestic Fanfare in a dumpster out the back of the ABC in Ultimo and they decided to use that as the base for the theme.
"I played guitar over the top of it, the beat track came from a Prince record … there were other beats that came off DJ records," Mr McKercher said.
"Also the scratch that comes just before the final phrase is off NWA's Straight Outta Compton."
Triple j had been the only radio station, possibly in the world at the time, to play NWA's controversial song F**k Tha Police on air.
After some complaints from state politicians, ABC management banned the song from being broadcast.
This triggered staff at triple j to go on strike, playing NWA's Express Yourself on a loop for 24 hours.
"I thought it'd be fun to get the scratch out of F**k Tha Police and slip it into the triple j news theme," Mr McKercher said.
Not all fans of the fanfare
Australian composer and former ABC employee Peter Wall said he didn't believe the Majestic Fanfare was right for the ABC.
"I have a very strong view on Majestic Fanfare and that is that it's written by an Englishman and I think that's wrong," he said.
"Having said that, like a lot of people, when I go overseas and if I hear that music, I love hearing it because of what it means."
While the Majestic Fanfare is still used on ABC Radio, the TV news theme has had a number of versions over the years, including a tune composed by Mr Wall and Tony Ansell.
"I was managing the ABC in Newcastle at the time and I got a call, [saying] 'We'd like you to write a new news theme for the ABC,' Mr Wall said.
"I thought it was a crank call."
Mr Wall and Mr Ansell had worked together on a number of TV program themes.
They put together the news theme for ABC TV over a weekend in the Hunter Valley.
It was used for 19 years before being replaced in the early 2000s.
But Mr Wall and Mr Ansell's theme was revived with a remix by WA electronic act Pendulum in 2010, with Rob from the group telling triple j that they still love to play it for Australian audiences.
"It's our favourite one. We never get to hear it unless we're in Australia. Other countries didn't grow up with the ABC," he said.
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