Inside The Art Of Commercial Break Music For FOX’s Broadcast Of The World Series

If you’ve watched the World Series, you know there is music going into commercial break for each half inning. Here’s how that “jump” music is selected. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

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How music is selected to go with graphics or to a commercial break as part of FOX Sports’ broadcast of the World Series is one part art, one part personal preference, and one part planned. Here’s how it all comes together.

The signature low-end Oberheim synthesizer at the beginning of Tom Sawyer by Rush plays in the background as the FOX broadcast of the World Series goes to commercial break. The Toronto Blue Jays are getting ready to come up in the next inning, and the tie-in of the music is unmistakable: Rush is Canada’s most well-known music artist with Tom Sawyer being a classic rock anthem. Toronto… Canada… Rush… it all ties together.

But how the song was selected comes down to one man: FOX Sports Lead Audio Engineer and Sports Emmy winner, Joe Carpenter.

How Carpenter got involved with FOX Sports doing audio is one of those serendipitous career moments. Long a jam band fan, he started recording concerts, with the likes of the Grateful Dead, which he says he saw around 200 times, and Widespread Panic. In the ‘90s, Carpenter was attending Syracuse University, where a friend of his knew a production manager at the Indianapolis 500 and said he needed some help being a runner. That would turn out to be his first job in television. From there, he met the ABC audio team for the US Open golf tournament in Chatham, Minnesota. And as he put it, “It was one of those things where somebody got sick, or somebody couldn’t make it, so I was pulled in as a shotgun mic operator, meaning I was just out on the golf course, following golfers around with the microphone. And so once I got into doing audio, with being a taper of live music, I just kind of fell into it. I didn’t really know my job existed. So I just kind of went from there, working my way up the ladder through the years.”

For the MLB postseason, and specifically, the World Series, Joe will select certain music for graphics that frame the broadcast. Joe Davis does the play-by-play, and Carpenter will work with him ahead of the broadcast to lay particular music for the background. All broadcasters have a particular cadence – some more wordy than others – so that becomes a factor in whether sections of songs can include singers or rappers, or whether it’s more instrumental. “Davis is pretty straightforward,” said Carpenter, which allows flexibility.

But it is the “jump music” – the music heading into commercial breaks, where it becomes art.

Carpenter works from an interface of several dozen song snippets, all of which are licensed through ASCAP or BMI for use. And depending on the action, he will make the call on what music makes the jump. Some clips are obvious, such as Tom Sawyer. Some, like Carpenter playing “Alive” by Pearl Jam when the Mariners were down to their last half inning of the ALCS, may not be as clear. Pearl Jam and Seattle are obvious. But to Carpenter, “Alive” was about the Mariners’ last chance to stay alive.

Other selections are more personal. Being a jam band fan, you’ll hear a snippet of Jerry Joseph with his first band Little Women playing Chainsaw City, or Widespread Panic, or maybe Electric Man by Rival Sons, which allows Carpenter to give audiences a personal taste in music. Sometimes it’s art. Night game? Are the Dodgers coming up to bat? How about Bark At The Moon by Ozzy Osbourne? Maybe it will be Feel It by Portugal The Man. How about Sweet Emotion by Aerosmith

With the Dodgers coming into the Fall Classic for the second year in a row, expect to hear a lot of music with Los Angeles ties. Maybe it’s Tinashe who came out of Pasadena, or Jurassic 5 doing Quality Control or Give It Away Now by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Certainly, you’ll hear Shakedown Street by the Grateful Dead.

So, listen closely to the music going into the commercial breaks during the World Series games. It’s a fantastic bit of art and great insight into how music ties into sports.