Circle 7 logo

"Circle 7" redirects here. For other uses, see Circle 7 (disambiguation).

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 being used not only by several 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 was 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 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; those plans never came to pass.^[2] American Broadcasting-Paramount Theatres, ABC's then-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 January 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]

Circle Seven Animation, a short-lived (2005-2006) division of ABC parent company Disney that was working on sequels to Disney-owned Pixar films, was indirectly named after the logo, as its studios were located on Circle Seven Drive in Glendale, California, a street which was renamed for the logo when KABC-TV moved its studios there.^[5]

U.S. stations using the Circle 7 logo or a variant

Station	Market name	Affiliation and ownership
KABC-TV	Los Angeles, California	ABC owned-and-operated station
KATV	Little Rock, Arkansas	ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
KETV	Omaha, Nebraska/Council Bluffs, Iowa	ABC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
KGO-TV	San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose, California	ABC owned-and-operated station
KIRO-TV	Seattle/Tacoma, Washington	CBS affiliate owned by Cox Media Group
KLTV	Tyler/Longview, Texas	ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
KMGH-TV	Denver, Colorado	ABC affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company
KOAT-TV	Albuquerque/Santa Fe, New Mexico	ABC affiliate owned by Hearst Television
KPLC	Lake Charles, Louisiana	NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television
KQCD-TV	Dickinson, North Dakota	NBC affiliate owned by Gray Television, satellite to Bismarck, North Dakota, NBC affiliate KFYR-TV
KRCR-TV	Redding/Chico, California	ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
KSWO-TV	Lawton, Oklahoma/Wichita Falls, Texas	ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television
KTVB	Boise, Idaho	NBC affiliate owned by Tegna
KVIA-TV	El Paso, Texas/Las Cruces, New Mexico	ABC affiliate owned by News-Press & Gazette Company
KVII-TV	Amarillo, Texas	ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
WABC-TV	New York, New York	ABC owned-and-operated station
WBBJ-TV	Jackson, Tennessee	ABC (7.1) and CBS (7.3) affiliate owned by Bahakel Communications
WDAM-TV	Laurel/Hattiesburg, Mississippi	NBC (7.1) and ABC (7.2) affiliate owned by Gray Television
WHDH	Boston, Massachusetts	Independent station owned by Sunbeam Television
WHIO-TV	Dayton, Ohio	CBS affiliate owned by Cox Media Group
WJLA-TV	Washington, D.C.	ABC affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group
WLS-TV	Chicago, Illinois	ABC owned-and-operated station
WSVN	Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida	Fox affiliate owned by Sunbeam Television
WWNY-TV	Carthage/Watertown, New York	CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television
WWSB	Sarasota/Bradenton/Venice/North Port, Florida	ABC affiliate owned by Gray Television; refers to being branded by cable channel 7 rather than actual virtual channel (station is on Channel 40)
WXYZ-TV	Detroit, Michigan	ABC affiliate owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, formerly an ABC owned-and-operated station
WZVN-TV	Naples/Fort Myers/Cape Coral/Port Charlotte, Florida	ABC affiliate owned by Montclair Communications Inc.1; refers to being branded by cable channel 7 rather than actual virtual channel (station is on Channel 26)

¹WZVN is operated through an LMA by Hearst Television.

Non-U.S. use

• In Australia, Seven Network affiliate ATN-7 used the "Circle 7" logo from 1968 to 1969 with customized versions across the network from 1970 to 2000.
• In Malaysia, this logo was adopted by NTV7 from 2001 until March 5, 2018.
• In Peru, RTP (now TV Perú) adopted this logo in 1989 and used it until 1991.
• In the Philippines, GMA (also known as DZBB-TV) used the logo from 1961 until 1974 when it was dropped due to Marcos' martial law and the handover to new owners.^{[citation needed]} The logo stayed until the latter part of the decade.
• In Indonesia, TV7 used the stylized Circle 7 logo from its launch in November 2001 until its relaunch as Trans7 in December 2006.
• In Brazil, RecordTV adopted the logo in 1965 and used it until 1970.
• In Bermuda, ABC affiliate ZFB-TV uses the Circle 7 logo, although the station refers to being branded by cable channel 7 rather than actual virtual channel (station is on Channel 19).
• In Turkey, Kanal 7 used the Circle 7 logo since 2002. The circle in the logo is slightly oval and leg of digit 7 through the circle.

See also

• American Broadcasting Company logos
• Enclosed Alphanumerics, a section of Unicode that includes circle-IRP dingbats (e.g. ➆)

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
5. Hill, Jim (August 7, 2005). "The Skinny on Circle Seven". Jim Hill Media. Retrieved May 26, 2021.

Sources

Media related to Circle 7 logo at Wikimedia Commons

• "New '7' logo designed for KGO-TV (ch.7)" (PDF file), Broadcasting, August 27, 1962, p. 72.
• "Designed Symbols for AT&T, ABC Stations Dean Smith; Corporate Logo Creator", Los Angeles Times, March 28, 1987