Station Logos That Remain The Same

[wbhist]

There is a church near my house that currently uses the Westinghouse font on its signage, and I find it very weird - because I associate it entirely with broadcasting.

Maybe they were using the knockoff font, "Anklepants" (don't dare use that name in reference to the real Group W font).

The irony is that 1010 WINS today sometimes uses this "Anklepants" knockoff in lieu of the actual 'Group W' typeface used for decades.

 

[charlestondxman]

WCSC in Charleston used the same basic square (TV-like) 5 from the late 1960s until like five years ago. WTOC has used the same red 11 since at least 1986, and probably longer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RGWBNCkNRA

 

[mjlarochelle]

I think the current circle-7 variant at WWNY dates to the late 1980s. It was certainly in use by the early 90s. There was a blockier solid 7 that they used before that.

M.J., do you have any idea how old the TVA logo is? It dates at least to the 1980s, doesn't it?

TVA's current logo has been around since the late 80s, or 1991 at the very latest. It very well might have come out when Pathonic merged with Tele-Metropole in 1989 to form the modern TVA.

 

[searadiofreak]

I grew up in LA, and remember the Circle 7 logo showing up when I was no more than 10 or 11 years old = on KABC-TV. So that would have been about 1962 or 63. Before that, they used a very plain blocky number 7.

The Westinghouse logos were also used at their radio stations, like KFWB and WINS - and were developed into an entire font set. There is a church near my house that currently uses the Westinghouse font on its signage, and I find it very weird - because I associate it entirely with broadcasting.

I can confirm the circle 7 logo on KABC in 1965, as I have a recording of a newscast of the Watts riots. Indeed, this was the same same circle 7 logo used today, but without the "Eyewitness News" imaging. Pretty sure that came along around 1968. This recording also shows a primitive set that later sets were based on...three different desks, one in the middle for the anchor, and two on each side for other reports/sports/weather, etc. I wonder if the other ABC O&O stations used KABC as the model for their stations into the late 60's.

As for KING-TV in Seattle, the crown has been a part of the logo since the beginning. Someone said they dropped it for awhile, but I don't remember that. They may have minimized it, but has always been there in some form. It ain't fancy, but it does the job and immediately identifies who they are to the Seattle audience. This is one case where the logo actually does effect ratings in a direct way.

 

[Tim L]

Cleveland's WEWS-TV 5 began using the "Circle 5", really a copy of "Circle 7" in fall 1968..The same time they started using the "Eyewitness News" Branding for their newscasts..The circle 5 was used tull 1998 when they dropped it for awhile, picking it up again in 2007...I have heard they recently (In the last week) changed their newscast imaging agin, though I've yet to see it..

 

[mleach]

Just remembered a station whose logo has been around for ages...Roanoke's WDBJ and their "star 7". I have seen ads for WDBJ dating back to the early and mid 70s using that logo..and WDBJ still uses it today.

 

[azumanga]

Cleveland's WEWS-TV 5 began using the "Circle 5", really a copy of "Circle 7" in fall 1968... I have heard they recently (In the last week) changed their newscast imaging agin, though I've yet to see it..

This week, just about all Scripps-owned stations, including WEWS, changed their imaging -- all produced in Tampa at WFTS.

 

[daryll]

13WMAZ Macon has been "Straight from the Heart" since 1983. The logo with the heart inside the 13 and associated jingle package launched when the station was owned by Multimedia. Sister station WBIR Knoxville kicked off their SFTH imaging simultaneously with 13WMAZ. SFTH still works very well for both stations as they are some of Gannett's best-rated properties.

 

[KML0224]

Did WFTS-DT (ABC) of Tampa ever actually say "Channel 28" in their ABC run? When I visited there in September, all I saw was "ABC Action News". Their studio near Raymond James Stadium didn't say "28" anywhere on it, either.

 

[newsmark]

KXAS Ft. Worth/Dallas has used the "Star 5" since the mid-70s at least.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KXASNBC5News.jpg

I believe that "Star 5" came into use in the last year they were WBAP-TV.

I seem to remember the star came into place when the call letters changed to KXAS, with the "lone" star representing teXAS.

The Star 5 was modified when NBC bought the station. The 5 was italicized and the peacock added.

 

[hintomedia]

Just remembered a station whose logo has been around for ages...Roanoke's WDBJ and their "star 7". I have seen ads for WDBJ dating back to the early and mid 70s using that logo..and WDBJ still uses it today.

I'm not sure exactly when, but WDBJ actually dropped the star within the last couple years. The "7" is still the same though.

Did WFTS-DT (ABC) of Tampa ever actually say "Channel 28" in their ABC run? When I visited there in September, all I saw was "ABC Action News". Their studio near Raymond James Stadium didn't say "28" anywhere on it, either.

WFTS's newscasts were titled "28 Tampa Bay News" from 1994 (when they got ABC) until 2002. For a few months in 2002 they went by "28 News", before rebranding to "ABC Action News".

 

[rwells2265]

I think the current circle-7 variant at WWNY dates to the late 1980s. It was certainly in use by the early 90s. There was a blockier solid 7 that they used before that.

M.J., do you have any idea how old the TVA logo is? It dates at least to the 1980s, doesn't it?

TVA's current logo has been around since the late 80s, or 1991 at the very latest. It very well might have come out when Pathonic merged with Tele-Metropole in 1989 to form the modern TVA.

Speaking of TVA, another station with a long-running logo would be WTVA-9/Tupelo, Miss.  Their distinctive circle-9 icon dates back to 1979, when the station changed to the present call letters (from the original WTWV). 

Another poster referred to WTOC/Savannah.  Their current logo goes back to some point in the early-ish '90s, but the 1986 clips seen on YouTube have an earlier variation of the "red 11."  I think 1978 is when that went into use, but I'm not for certain.

WALB-10/Albany, Ga. .... its "little 1/big 0" is 30 years old at the very least.

--Russell 

 

[Kurt Toy]

Another Pittsburgh TV station, WPXI, has been using the circle-11 symbol since 1987.

 

[james32746]

WFTV's current "9" logo dates back to 1988.

1988-1989 (Black bg/White 9)
1989-1996 (Pink bg/Gold 9) - on mic. flags the 9 was white.
1996-present (Red bg/White 9)

 

[azumanga]

WFTV's current "9" logo dates back to 1988.

Prior to then, WFTV's logo was a "9" shaped like a TV screen, which was used from around 1968 to 1988. A few other TV stations used this style as well, such as WTVM Columbus GA (when they were sisters with WFTV), WKPT Kingsport TN (as part of a "19" logo), and KOIN in Portland OR (though it was a "6").

 

[desertv]

I grew up in LA, and remember the Circle 7 logo showing up when I was no more than 10 or 11 years old = on KABC-TV. So that would have been about 1962 or 63. Before that, they used a very plain blocky number 7.

I believe they used a "7" inside a big lower case "a"...a copy of the late 50s-early 60s abc "a-circle"

 

[wbhist]

I grew up in LA, and remember the Circle 7 logo showing up when I was no more than 10 or 11 years old = on KABC-TV. So that would have been about 1962 or 63. Before that, they used a very plain blocky number 7.

I believe they used a "7" inside a big lower case "a"...a copy of the late 50s-early 60s abc "a-circle"

That "7 inside an 'a'" layout was also used, in the late 1950's and early '60's, by WABC-TV in New York, at the very least. Probably WXYZ-TV Detroit as well. Can't vouch for KGO-TV San Francisco. Didn't see it used by WBKB (now WLS-TV) Chicago, however.

It was late 1962 that the 'circle 7' logo was first designed (by G. Dean Smith), initially used by KGO-TV and then spread to the other ABC stations. Surely WABC-TV had it in place by the end of 1962.

 

[bpatrick]

WTVC Chattanooga used the "9 that looks like a
television screen" logo in the mid and late '70s.

 

[ixnay]

WPVI Philadelphia is [a long-running logo] that comes to mind

I may have been imagining things, but in 1985 while attending grad school at Villanova Univ., one day somewhere on campus I came across a boxful of Philly edition TVGs with 1970 (and maybe 1971 as well) dates. I picked up and examined a 1970 copy (I was tempted to take the whole box home [now THERE was a time capsule!]) and discovered that Ch. 6 was already using the current logo way back in 1970 - when it was still WFIL-TV and still owned (like WFIL-AM and -FM) by Triangle. Ch. 6's calls became WPVI when CapCities bought it in '71.

In the late '90s, WPVI modified its logo to show a small ABC logo overlapping one edge of the "6".

ixnay