Circle 7 logo

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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.^[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]

¹WZVN is operated through an LMA by Hearst Television.

• 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.

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

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