WNET

Logo captures by snelfu and StephenCezar15

Editions by mr3urious, TheMisterFree, GETENT, ryanasaurus0077, Shadeed A. Kelly and StephenCezar15

Background
WNET is the PBS affiliate located in New York City, New York. It also serves Newark, New Jersey.

WATV
(1948-1958)

Logo : On a sky background located at what appears to be the landscape on a farm, we see the letters "WATV" in an Avant Garde Gothic font at an oblique angle. Between "T" and "V" is a thin pole (to hold it up) with a sign on it that says "NEWARK NEW JERSEY" facing straight at the camera with "NEWARK" in a plain sans serif font and "NEW JERSEY". On top of the "T" is "13" in the Haettenschweiler font.

FX/SFX : Probably a still logo.

Music/Sounds : Possibly silent.

Availability : Extinct. Only used as a local ID.

Scare Factor : None.

WNTA-TV
(1958-1962) Logo : On a black background, we see the words "WNTA/TV" and a large "13".

FX/SFX : None.

Music/Sounds : Possibly silent.

Availability : Extinct. Only used as a local ID.

Scare Factor : None.

WNDT
(1962-1970)

Logo : We see the words "CHANNEL 13" and "WNDT" on the left, and an abstract owl on the right, separated by a large slash. All of this takes place on a black background.

FX/SFX : Probably a still logo.

Music/Sounds : Possibly silent.

Availability : Extinct. Only used as a local ID.

Scare Factor : None.

1st logo
(October 5, 1970-September 30, 1973)

Logo :
 * October 5, 1970-October 1, 1972: On a blue screen, letters are swirling around in the center before settling to form "net". The "n" is red, the "e" is yellow, and the "t" is green. All are in a futuristic font.
 * October 2, 1972-September 30, 1973: On a blue screen, letters and numbers are swirling around in the center before settling to form "wnet 13". The "w" is light blue, the "n" is dark red, the "e" is yellow, and the "t" and "13", the latter which moves downward, are both teal. All are in the same futuristic font as before.

Closing Variant : Both of the following can be seen either on a black screen or superimposed.
 * October 5, 1970-October 1, 1972: We see the following words:

A PRODUCTION OF  NET  EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION (year)
 * October 2, 1972-September 30, 1973: We see the following words:

A PRODUCTION OF  WNET/13  © (year) EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION

FX/SFX : The "[w]net" swirling and/or the 13 moving downward...

Cheesy Factor : ...which reeks of '70s Scanimate all over. Still, this was pretty advanced for its time.

Music/Sounds : A four-note keyboard tune which is repeated four times, the last over a synthesized drone. An announcer says, "The following program is from NET." On the later variant, the four-note tune is repeated an additional time, and the announcer says, "The following program is from WNET/Thirteen."

Availability : Extremely rare. The original variant appeared on The Great American Dream Machine; the later variant appeared on An American Family, where it may or may not have been used in tandem with the 2nd logo. Both variants have appeared on Soul!. If you're lucky, a videocassette of Theater in America, the precursor of Great Performances, may also have this logo.

Scare Factor : Medium, especially if you're not used to seeing this.

2nd logo
(1973)

Logo : A dull pink art deco-style 13 writes itself on a black screen, and it appears to be rotated so the 1 faces the bottom of the screen. The 13 zooms out as a red art deco-style 13 writes itself as a mirror image, overlapping with the 3 in the pink 13. Then a red WNET written in the same style appears at the bottom and zooms out. A pink W zooms in and out, followed by a red N, a pink E, and a red T. Then the background turns red, and WNET, in white and in a more normal-looking font, zooms in.

FX/SFX : The 13 writing itself, and the zooming.

Music/Sounds : A synthesized, keyboard-driven rock tune. There are two arrangements: one slightly faster and more hokey-sounding, and the other cleaner and more professional. Over this, an announcer says, "Produced in New York by WNET."

Availability : Seen on An American Family, and may or may not have been used in tandem with the 1st logo during its usage. At the very least, it has appeared on rebroadcasts of the series as late as 2011.

Scare Factor : Medium, especially for those expecting the previous logo or the next.

3rd logo
(October 1, 1973-June 27, 1979)

Nickname : “From New York, WNET Presents”, "The Puzzle"

Logo : On a black background, red rectangles with white horizontal pieces shoot away from the viewer, converging into a red screen with a white “From New York” on it. After a few seconds on screen, the pieces shoot towards the viewer, and “WNET PRESENTS” zooms forward.

Closing Variant : Same as the 1st logo, except the text now reads:

A PRODUCTION OF  WNET/13  COPYRIGHT (year) EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION

FX/SFX : The “puzzle pieces” converging.

Cheesy Factor : This is too similar to the 1972 WGBH logo. Also, the pieces may hurt some people's eyes.

Music/Sounds : Same as the previous logo, but without the announcer.

Availability : Again, very rare. It could be spotted on pre-1979 recordings of PBS shows produced by WNET. If you're lucky, it may appear on an episode of The Men Who Made the Movies on a DVD directed by the subject of that episode. The version with the hokey arrangement appears on a Home Vision Entertainment VHS of Women in Art featuring Georgia O'Keeffe and at least two episodes of the first season of the PBS incarnation of The Dick Cavett Show; the version with the clean arrangement appears on first-season DVDs of The Robert MacNeil Report and on later prints of The Great Radio Comedians. Its last appearance was on the seven-part miniseries Women in Art.

Scare Factor : Low to medium. The “pieces” shooting and the music may alarm some daydreaming viewers.

4th logo
(October 6, 1978-October 2, 1983)

Nickname : "WNET of Boredom"

Logo : On a black or blue screen, white bars appear from opposite ends of the screen and slide horizontally to the center. After they collide, they retract to reveal "FROM WNET", with "NEW YORK" below. The whole text is in a stylized font. The white bars would do the same for the names of any company that funded the program which this precedes. After the last text slide, the whole thing fades to black.

Trivia : Known funding credits that have followed this logo include:
 * Corporation for Public Broadcasting (seen on post-1979 episodes of Great Performances and on We Interrupt This Week and The Lathe of Heaven)
 * Public Television Stations (seen on Great Performances, We Interrupt This Week, and The Dick Cavett Show)
 * National Endowment for the Arts (seen on post-1979 episodes of Great Performances)
 * Exxon Corporation (seen on Great Performances)
 * The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies (seen on The Dick Cavett Show)

Variants :
 * Sometimes, this was superimposed.
 * Sometimes, this simply fades in and out.
 * Sometimes, the logo was arranged so that "FROM" appears above "WNET", which is larger than the rest of the logo's text. This was seen on the Non-Fiction Television episode "Children of Darkness".
 * Some early programs with this logo, including We Interrupt This Week, would have the white bars appear one last time after the last funding credits slide.

Closing Variant : Against a black screen, we see the following in the same font as the opening variant:

A PRESENTATION OF WNET/THIRTEEN

Below that is a copyright notice for Educational Broadcasting Corporation, which may be absent.

FX/SFX : Simple and unremarkable animation.

Music/Sounds : Technically none, except for the voiceover announcing the funding credits, and/or the opening theme of the program. However, if you listen closely, you might hear a test tone towards the end of this logo.

Availability : Extremely rare. Seen on later episodes of The Dick Cavett Show, as well as on installments of the local late-night movie program Cinema 13 from the era and the 1980 adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven. You might also see this on episodes of Great Performances and its spinoff, Dance in America, as well as on Non-Fiction Television. It first appeared on We Interrupt This Week, on which it was superimposed over the opening.

Scare Factor : None. This is just a boring and rather unremarkable logo.

5th logo
(1981-198?)

Nickname : "Great Performances", "The Ballerina, the Actor, the Singer, and the Conductor"

Logo : On a black screen, "WNET" appears as a yellow outline, in a more normal font than before. Below it is "NEW YORK" in the same font as before. Below all that is the logo at the time for their performing arts anthology series Great Performances, depicting, from left to right, a ballerina, a stage actor, an opera singer, and an orchestra conductor standing atop a horizontal, rounded stage.

FX/SFX : None.

Music/Sounds : A fancy 9-note synthesized brass fanfare.

Availability : Only seen on episodes of Great Performances from the era, this was a special ident created specifically for the program's 10th season along with the new opening graphic. Don't expect to see this on Dance in America.

Scare Factor : Low; the fanfare may startle you, but this is an impressive lead-in to the then-new Great Performances intro.