Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) Creates New Orleans Style Sonic Branding for Gray Media’s Pelicans Broadcasts
DALLAS—October 29, 2025— Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) has created sonic branding and custom music for Gray Media’s slate of New Orleans Pelicans NBA basketball broadcasts. The music package builds upon SAM’s previous collaboration with Gray Media for its sports programming, including Atlanta Braves Major League Baseball coverage, extending Gray Media’s cohesive sports identity while capturing the unmistakable spirit and sound of New Orleans.
The three-minute theme was recorded live in New Orleans with local session musicians. While it shares thematic and melodic DNA with the Braves package, the Pelicans’ sonic branding embraces the city’s musical heritage, incorporating New Orleans funk-style drums, bass, and guitar, along with a classic Hammond B3 organ with Leslie speaker, upright piano and tight horn arrangements. The result is a bold, soulful and regional sound that gives Gray Media’s Pelicans broadcasts a strong and distinctive sonic signature.
The score’s modular structure allows for easy adaptation across a range of programming and marketing applications, and it is designed to complement the network’s custom broadcast graphics.
“It was a unique opportunity to do something special and regional with the music treatment,” says Chad Cook, SAM president and creative director. “New Orleans musicians bring unique technique and musicality that’s instantly recognizable and impossible to fake. It starts with the drums, and the way the guitar, bass, B3 organ, and piano feed off it. That interplay gives the music its irresistible groove and energy.”
Gray Media holds the local broadcast rights to all non-nationally televised Pelicans games, available free over-the-air and reaching more than 4.1 million households (nearly 10 million viewers) across Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The games are also distributed through Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network (GCSEN), covering Louisiana (Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, New Orleans, and Shreveport); Mississippi (Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Jackson, and Meridian); and Alabama (Mobile, Montgomery, and Birmingham).
The project continues SAM’s long-standing creative relationship with Gray Media and deep connection to the New Orleans music scene. Over the years, SAM has produced more than a dozen projects in the Crescent City, including collaborations with The Neville Brothers, Trombone Shorty, Tab Benoit, and Big Sam’s Funky Nation.
“Working in New Orleans always inspires us,” adds Cook. “There’s no substitute for that feel, that swing, that deep pocket the city’s musicians bring to a session. It gave the Pelicans theme an authenticity and vitality that perfectly reflects the team and the region.”
About Stephen Arnold Music:
Often referred to as the most-heard, least-known composers in the world, Stephen Arnold Music’s creativity is experienced every day in more than 500 million homes worldwide. Based in Dallas, Texas, The World Leader In Sonic Branding® has 30 years of success delivering impactful, brand-defining music that makes a difference for today’s top content creators, networks, cable channels, television stations, digital media outlets, experiential, film, production companies, corporations and advertising agencies. With multiple Emmys, Promax Gold, ADDY and MUSE awards to their credit, Stephen Arnold Music’s specialized approach and commitment to the power of sonic branding, research, state-of-the-art production and unparalleled customer service is at the core of its promise. Stephen Arnold Music continues to set the creative bar in a highly competitive content landscape.