Circle 7 logo

"Circle 7" redirects here. For the former Disney animation studio, see Circle 7 Animation.

The Circle 7 logo is an often-used television station logo in the United States. Designed in the early 1960s for the American Broadcasting Company's five owned-and-operated stations (all of which broadcast on VHF channel 7), the logo, or a version of it, is currently being used not only by ABC stations and affiliates, but also by a number of television broadcasters around the world.

History and information

Members of WLS-TV's Eyewitness News team wearing blazers adorned with a Circle 7 patch, c. 1972.

The Circle 7 logo was created by G. Dean Smith, a San Francisco graphic designer,[1] and first used in 1962 by ABC as the logo for its (then) five owned-and-operated television stations: WABC-TV in New York City; KABC-TV in Los Angeles; WBKB (now WLS-TV) in Chicago; KGO-TV in San Francisco; and WXYZ-TV in Detroit. When ABC applied for television station licenses in the late 1940s, it was thought that the low-band channel frequencies (2 through 6) would be removed from use for television broadcasting, thus making these five stations broadcasting on VHF channel 7 the lowest on the television dial.[2] American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., ABC's corporate parent, registered the Circle 7 logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1962.

When WABC-TV adopted the Eyewitness News format in 1968, all reporters and anchors were required to wear a blazer with a Circle 7 patch (a lapel pin in later years)[3] when they appeared on the air – a marketing practice that spread to the other ABC O&Os, and eventually to other ABC affiliates. Stations commonly used the logo on microphone flags, newscaster clothing and design of sets, as well as on-air graphics for locally originated programming.[4]

The logo's design consists of a circle outline, with the horizontal line and the bottom curve of the stylized numerical "7" placed within it connecting the circle. The Circle 7 logo was designed to be interchangeable with the circular ABC logo (as redesigned in 1962 by legendary graphic designer Paul Rand) in network and station imaging, although since the late 1990s, the ABC logo was incorporated into the logo design in different variations. It also was used as the name of the production company for locally produced programming by ABC owned-and-operated stations, Circle 7 Productions, which existed prior to ABC's 1985 takeover by Capital Cities Communications. Originally a proprietary logo for ABC's owned-and-operated stations, stations affiliated with the network began using the logo as early as the 1970s. WXYZ-TV retained the logo after ABC's sale of the station to the E. W. Scripps Company in 1986, although its version has gradually adopted a heavier font weight (Scripps then copied this version to former Capital Cities station WKBW-TV, which had long used its own versions of the "circle 7" with a straight descender instead of a curve, after WKBW came under Scripps ownership in 2014).

The G. Dean Smith version is still exclusive to ABC owned-and-operated stations and affiliates, though not all ABC-affiliated stations broadcasting on channel 7 use a Circle 7 logo. Some stations affiliated with ABC or other networks use variants that differ from the original, often in the typeface of the 7 or the circle's design (for example, WHDH in Boston and WSVN in Miami, both owned by Sunbeam Television and respectively affiliated with NBC and Fox, use a design very similar to Smith's but with the "7" ridging – rather than connecting to – the circle outline and its bottom curve aligned slightly farther to the right).

Stations that currently use the Circle 7 logo or a variant

Market Name Station Affiliation and ownership
Los Angeles, California KABC-TV ABC owned-and-operated station
Little Rock, Arkansas KATV ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Omaha, Nebraska KETV ABC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
San Francisco, California KGO-TV ABC owned-and-operated station
Seattle, Washington KIRO-TV CBS affiliate owned by Cox Media Group
Tyler, Texas KLTV ABC affiliate owned by Raycom Media
Denver, Colorado KMGH-TV ABC affiliate owned by E. W. Scripps Company
Albuquerque, New Mexico KOAT-TV ABC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
Lake Charles, Louisiana KPLC NBC affiliate owned by Raycom Media
Dickinson, North Dakota KQCD-TV NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television, satellite to Bismarck, North Dakota NBC affiliate KFYR-TV
Redding/Chico, California KRCR-TV ABC affiliate owned by Bonten Media Group
Lawton, Oklahoma/Wichita Falls, Texas KSWO-TV ABC affiliate owned by Drewry Communications Group
Boise, Idaho KTVB NBC affiliate owned by Gannett Company
El Paso, Texas KVIA-TV ABC affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
Amarillo, Texas KVII-TV ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
New York City, New York WABC-TV ABC owned-and-operated station
Jackson, Tennessee WBBJ-TV ABC affiliate owned by Bahakel Communications
Laurel/Hattiesburg, Mississippi WDAM-TV NBC (7.1) & ABC (7.2) affiliate owned by Raycom Media
Boston, Massachusetts WHDH NBC affiliate owned by Sunbeam Television
Dayton, Ohio WHIO-TV CBS affiliate owned by Cox Media Group
Panama City, Florida/Dothan, Alabama WJHG-TV NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television (Formerly an ABC affiliate)
Washington, D.C. WJLA-TV ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
Buffalo, New York WKBW-TV ABC affiliate owned by E. W. Scripps Company
Chicago, Illinois WLS-TV ABC owned-and-operated station
Miami, Florida WSVN Fox affiliate owned by Sunbeam Television
Bangor, Maine WVII-TV ABC affiliate owned by Rockfleet Broadcasting
Carthage/Watertown, New York WWNY-TV CBS affiliate owned by United Communications Corporation
Sarasota/Bradenton, Florida WWSB-TV ABC affiliate owned by Calkins Media
Detroit, Michigan WXYZ-TV ABC affiliate owned by E. W. Scripps Company, formerly an ABC owned-and-operated station
Naples, Florida/Fort Myers, Florida/Port Charlotte, Florida WZVN-TV ABC affiliate owned by Montclair Communications Inc.1

1Indicates the station is operated through an LMA by Waterman Broadcasting Corporation.

Foreign use

See also

References

  1. Fischbeck, George; Roach, Randy (2013). Dr. George: My Life in Weather. Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 9780826353337.
  2. Murray, Michael D.; Godfrey, Donald G., eds. (1997). Television in America: Local Station History from Across the Nation. Ames, IA: Iowa State Press. p. 6. ISBN 0-8138-2969-0.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times:: Search
  4. Grey, Johnathan; Johnson, Derek (2013), A Companion to Media Authorship, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 9781118495254

Sources

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