Favorite Television Logos

[RETROJR79]

I can't remember Detroit's channel 7 (WXYZ, great call letters) using anything other than the circle 7 logo.

I know what's you mean I feel the same way about the KABC 7 logo in LA.

[RETROJR79]

Ever since they changed their name from KHJ to KCAL in 1989 KCAL had the same 9 logo since day 1.

[MadmanLA]

The "Circle Seven" logo that the ABC stations (including O&Os WABC, KABC, WLS, KGO and former O&O WXYZ) use, has been in use since 1962, the same year the present-day ABC debuted. That, by far, has to be the oldest local TV station logo in use in the nation today.

[footballfiji]

Legal IDs are still a legal requirement by the FCC for Broadcast stations in America. It doesn't matter what the imagery/graphic/etc used in them as long as the list the official name (Call Letters) and city of brodcast origin, the "numbers" aren't needed. However most stations (as stated before) have built their brand into the numbers.

For example, my station is WSFA 12 News. However all of our legal IDs are WSFA-DT/Montgomery. That's all the legal idea needs to have on it. Fonted legibly somewhere.

It has to be listed at the top of the hour. Every hour. If we don't have a newscast at the top of the hour (which has the WSFA-DT/Montgomery on it) then we put up a stamp from Master Control.

[illwauk]

Channel 30 is the best thing ever because it's seriously just a guy popping in videotapes from 1993. Last time I saw it, a fat guy in child-molester glasses was giving a seminar on Power Rangers: How Satan Infiltrates Our Youth, and "last time I saw it" was only like a year ago.

That guy is COMEDY! Assuming it's the same guy I'm thinking of... "fat guy in child molester glasses" describes about half the people you see on channel 30.

[mjrbaseball]

I guess you're only talking about local stations. But the CBS network has been using its "eye" since 1951.

[illwauk]

I came across some old Bucks highlights on youtube and realized how much I missed WTMJ's "sailboat 4."

They'd been using it in some form or another since 1980, but got rid of it when they switched to HD during the 2004 Olympics. Granted, it looked slightly dated, but no so much so that a switch was absolutely necessary (especially when their biggest rival is still using a logo from 1974... see page 1) and not when they switched to something so generic and forgettable. Can anyone honestly say this was an upgrade?

[Buster]

Always been a big fan of this classic:

[BadSeed84]

Wpvi here in philly just updated its logo, and it looks great imo. (6 is now in a circle and the abc logo went from red to black)

Best about WPVI 6 abc is the intro, the theme and concept has been the same since 1972.

Heres the intro from 1981 (earliest intro found on youtube)

And heres the intro that they just changed yesterday apparently.

Also I love that rob jennings is in both vids as the anchor.

[DMadSport]

The "dot-6" logo that WITI in Milwaukee used from 1973 to 1995 remains my all-time favorite TV logo on a local level. They have used other logos before and since, but my mind always links that logo with WITI as if they had never used any other insignia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvJ_gzQUsyo&feature=related

(Side note: WITI will resurrect the logo, or at least a reformatted version of it, on a digital subchannel in 2011.)

[kwhey]

But to answer the first part of your question, stations are legally required to identify themselves by channel number once per hour (at least I think it's once an hour). There's a low power independent station here in Milwaukee (WMLW) that never mentions a their channel (41 analog, 58.2 digital) except for the legal ID's.

Nope. It's just like radio. Call letters and city of license (with optional communities served) with nothing between.

[loogodude90]

But to answer the first part of your question, stations are legally required to identify themselves by channel number once per hour (at least I think it's once an hour). There's a low power independent station here in Milwaukee (WMLW) that never mentions a their channel (41 analog, 58.2 digital) except for the legal ID's.

Nope. It's just like radio. Call letters and city of license (with optional communities served) with nothing between.

Yeah, I don't think they are required to mention the channel number. WNUV in Baltimore hasn't mentioned their channel number (54) at all since they became CW years ago. It's nowhere, not in the logo, not on commercials, not during legal ID's.

[RETROJR79]

But to answer the first part of Iyour question, stations are legally required to identify themselves by channel number once per hour (at least I think it's once an hour). There's a low power independent station here in Milwaukee (WMLW) that never mentions a their channel (41 analog, 58.2 digital) except for the legal ID's.

Nope. It's just like radio. Call letters and city of license (with optional communities served) with nothing between.

Yeah, I don't think they are required to mention the channel number. WNUV in Baltimore hasn't mentioned their channel number (54) at all since they became CW years ago. It's nowhere, not in the logo, not on commercials, not during legal ID's.

I know what you mean KTLA did that in 05 when they changed their logo and ch 5 wasn't on id, commercials, and during Kings & Clippers broadcast and when WB became CW the ch 5 was back on the logo.

[The_Admiral]

Pretty sure channel number has to be in a legal ID. I know when we had analog and digital signals running at the same time, they'd have channel numbers up.

Frequency doesn't have to be in radio, though, I know that much.

[kwhey]

Pretty sure channel number has to be in a legal ID. I know when we had analog and digital signals running at the same time, they'd have channel numbers up.

Frequency doesn't have to be in radio, though, I know that much.

Trust me on this one. I work at a TV station and you do not have to have the channel number in the legal. Most stations do use the channel number (as we do) to further ID themselves. The only thing you need in legal is call letters and city of license.

[RAIDERNATION]

and

[TxRangersFan]

Never mind.

[illwauk]

The "dot-6" logo that WITI in Milwaukee used from 1973 to 1995 remains my all-time favorite TV logo on a local level. They have used other logos before and since, but my mind always links that logo with WITI as if they had never used any other insignia.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvJ_gzQUsyo&feature=related

(Side note: WITI will resurrect the logo, or at least a reformatted version of it, on a digital subchannel in 2011.)

For some reason, the dot-6 doesn't conjure up the same nostalgic reactions that I get when I look at the sailboat-4 or the striped-12. Maybe because when they used the dot-6, the only time it was on in our house was during Packer games and xmas specials. Still love the 6.2 logo though!

[rhymefish]

WAVY in Portsmouth / Norfolk / Newport News / Virginia Beach, Virginia

[MadmanLA]

I lived in Milwaukee back in the '80s as a toddler, and they've always had the interesting TV station logos that I can remember...the "sailboat 4", "TV6", the striped "12", WVTV's "18" with the slanted 1, WCGV's futuristic-type "24", even the PBS combo of WMVS 10/WMVT 36 had decent logos.

I've lived in the Los Angeles area since '88, and the network-owned stations have pretty generic logos, although KCBS and KNBC at times had somewhat more-creative logos once upon a time.