What is the abc music format?

In 1968, Primo moved to WABC-TV in New York City and took the Eyewitness News concept there with him, choosing music from the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke--the "Tar Sequence" cue (composed by Lalo Schifrin)--as the theme. However, he added a new twist at WABC--chatter among the anchors, which came to be known as "happy talk". WABC has kept the name and format since then, and has been the highest-rated station in New York for much of that time.