Reed Hays

Panelist: Music Composition for Film & Television

For the past 28 years, Reed Hays has been a prolific composer for television and other idioms. After studying cello and electronic music at Oberlin College, he wrote and produced music and sound designed for AT&T, L’Oreal, Coca-Cola, and other national TV advertisements. His first collaboration with composer Phil Garrod on the iconic NFL on FOX theme led to a partnership that lasts to this day. Together he and Phil have provided the sonic identity for sports broadcasts by NBC, Showtime, HBO, CBS, ABC, and FOX. In fact, after NASCAR on FOX replaced its theme with a Keith Urban song in 2007, a letter-writing campaign from fans ultimately restored Reed and Phil’s original music as the NASCAR theme. In the world of television news, music by Reed and Phil is heard on numerous local stations across the United States. In the cable world, from 1996 to 2012 the Fox News Channel used Reed and Phil’s music to introduce most of its programming. The two have also composed music for situation comedies, soap operas, syndicated judge shows, and even the music you hear when you’re shopping at CVS. Championed by synth-pop legend Vince Clarke, Reed’s duo, Reed & Caroline, completed a 37-stop North American tour as the sole support for Erasure this past summer. In December, Reed and Vince celebrated the one-year anniversary of their biweekly Synthesizer Show, broadcast on makerparkradio.nyc.