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.
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.
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.[4]
| 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) |