{{short description|Television station logo}} {{redirect|Circle 7}} {{Use American English|date=December 2022}} {{Use mdy dates|date=December 2022}} 150x150px|thumb|The ''Circle 7'' logo
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, most notably GMA Network in the Philippines, ntv7 in Malaysia and TV7 (now Trans7) in Indonesia.
== History and information == [[File:WLS TV Eyewitness News team 1972.JPG|thumb|200px|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,<ref>{{cite book | last1 =Fischbeck | first1 =George | author-link =George Fischbeck | last2 =Roach | first2 =Randy | title =Dr. George: My Life in Weather | publisher =University of New Mexico Press | date =2013 | location =Albuquerque, New Mexico | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=FrCkc8_mLz4C&dq=Circle+7+logo+ABC&pg=PT67 | isbn =9780826353337 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="TVinAm">{{cite book |editor-last=Murray |editor-first=Michael D. |editor-last2=Godfrey |editor-first2=Donald G. | title =Television in America: Local Station History from Across the Nation| publisher=Iowa State Press| year =1997| location =Ames, IA| page =6| isbn =0-8138-2969-0 }}</ref> 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)<ref>[http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=CSTB&p_theme=cstb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB421CA72D653DA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM Chicago Sun-Times:: Search<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> 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.<ref>{{Citation | last1 =Grey | first1 =Johnathan | last2 =Johnson | first2 =Derek | title =A Companion to Media Authorship | publisher =John Wiley & Sons | year =2013 | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhHJUqFyFNwC&dq=Circle+7+logo+ABC&pg=PT237 | isbn =9781118495254 }}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hill|first1=Jim|title=The Skinny on Circle Seven|url=http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2005/08/08/655.aspx|access-date=May 26, 2021|work=Jim Hill Media|date=August 7, 2005}}</ref>
== Gallery == <gallery mode="packed-overlay"> File:WABC TV New 2021.svg|Logo used for WABC-TV in New York, KABC-TV in Los Angeles, WLS-TV in Chicago, and KGO-TV in San Francisco. File:WJLA ABC 7 Fall 2021.svg|Logo used for WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. A similar logo is used for KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, and KRCR-TV in Redding, California. File:WXYZ-TV logo.svg|WXYZ-TV logo in Detroit, Michigan. Buffalo ABC affiliate, WKBW-TV, used a similar logo from September 2014 to December 2021. File:ABC7Suncoast.svg|WWSB logo in Sarasota, Florida File:KOAT 7 ABC 2022.svg|KOAT-TV logo in Albuquerque, New Mexico File:KVIA 2022.png|KVIA-TV logo in El Paso, Texas File:KVII 2015 logo.svg|KVII-TV 2015 logo in Amarillo, Texas (and a satelite station '''KVIH-TV''' in Clovis, New Mexico) File:KMGH ABC 7 Denver.png|KMGH-TV logo in Denver, Colorado File:WSVN-WHDH Circle 7.svg|Logo used for both WSVN in Miami, Florida, and WHDH in Boston, Massachusetts. </gallery>
==See also== *American Broadcasting Company logos *Enclosed Alphanumerics, a section of Unicode that includes circle-IRP dingbats (e.g. ➆)
== References == {{reflist}}
==Sources== {{commonscat_inline}} *"[https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1962/1962-08-27-BC.pdf New '7' logo designed for KGO-TV (ch.7)]" (PDF file), ''Broadcasting'', August 27, 1962, p. 72. *[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-28-mn-546-story.html "Designed Symbols for AT&T, ABC Stations Dean Smith; Corporate Logo Creator"], ''Los Angeles Times'', March 28, 1987
{{DEFAULTSORT:Circle 7 Logo}} Category:American Broadcasting Company Category:Local television programming in the United States Category:Commercial logos Category:Symbols introduced in 1962