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
(October 5, 1970-September 30, 1973)

Logo: On a black background, we see the following words:

A PRODUCTION OF [W]NET EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION (year)

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Possibly silent.

Availability: Extremely rare. This was used briefly by WNET as a closing logo.

Scare Factor: None.

3rd logo
(October 2, 1972-1980?)

Nickname: "Weird 13"

Logo: On a blue background, we see a teal-blue “13” to the left of a salmon-colored “WNET”, all in a very odd font.

FX/SFX: It’s probably a still logo.

Cheesy Factor: Even in 2D, you could use some animation here! And the color scheme looks pretty bad, too!

Music/Sounds: Possibly none.

Availability: Unknown.

Scare Factor: None.

4th 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.

5th logo
(October 2, 1972-September 30, 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.

6th 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.

7th 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.

8th Logo
(October 4, 1982-September 5, 1988)

Nickname: "Radar", “The Radar Map", "The Radar Screen", "PBS Radar"

Logo: On a black background, circular lines showing the New York skylines wipe in, with an outlined red “WNET” on it. As the “radar” circles two more times, the outlined “WNET” in red becomes more solid, and the morning WNET (1984-1988)sky becomes night. Finally, when the sky becomes completely dark, and “WNET” is filled in with white, “From” and “New York” can be seen above and below the letters respectively. The whole thing is in the same font as the previous logo.

FX/SFX: Great animation, despite it being simple.

Music/Sounds: A 5-note synthesizer tune with chimes, repeating three times, just with different pitches.

Availability: Like all other pre-1992 WNET IDs, this is a tough find, but older tapes of WNET programs should have this. A hint: look for Time-Life Video and Lorimar Home Video releases of early episodes of Nature, such as "Forest in the Sea", "Designed for Living" (which was the last episode to use this ID), "Secret Weapons", "Cats", and "Man's Best Friend", the latter three which are also available on PBS Home Video. You could spot this on episodes of Great Performances and American Masters (which used this logo until 1988) from this era, too.

Scare Factor: None. It’s actually a favorite among closing logo fans.

Nickname: TBA.

9th Logo
(September 6, 1988-1990)

Logo:On a greenish-gray background ,we see the words "ThiRtEEn WNET NEWARK, NJ" in white on a transparent rectangle protruding from the right. The "ThiRtEEn" is made up of some abstract, combined letter forms upper and lower-case all in it's corporate font and the other text is simply in Optima. Later, the bottom text fades to "Keeping what matters in sight" in a compressed white font aligned to the left.

FX/SFX: The text fading.

Music/Sounds: A relaxing 12-note piano tune with a few string and flute riffs thrown in.

Availability: Extinct. It was used only as a local ID. Check these old tapes for this logo.

Scare Factor: None.

10th Logo
(September 14, 1987-October 4, 1992)

Nickname: “WNET in Space”

Logo: On a dark blue space background with dancing stars, “FROM” and “NEW YORK” zoom out, along with a "W", which then has an "N", an "E", and a "T" (all lowercase, sans "E" and in the same font the previous local logo was in) sliding out while the animation zooms out away from the viewer. “Sparks” then create parallelograms to surround “From” and “New York”, placed above and below the logo.

Variant: An in-credit version appears at the end of 1986-1991 episodes of American Masters.

FX/SFX: The letters sliding out, along with the entire logo zooming out.

Cheesy Factor: Typical 1980s CGI abound here.

Music/Sounds: Same as the “Radar” logo.

Availability: Once again, see above. However, this logo is easier to find given the fact that it has appeared on PBS Home Video tapes of the era from WNET, including episodes of Nature and Great Performances. Both first and second-season Shining Time Station episodes (the first season being when Ringo Starr was Mr. Conductor) have this logo, too. Depending on your PBS station, it was seen either at the beginning or end of an episode.

Scare Factor: Low. The animation is pretty fast-paced, which may surprise some.

11th Logo
(1990-1993, 1996-October 1, 1999)

Logo: Tinted with the red color scheme from the Public TV For East Tennessee ident, we see various CGI/live-action-related clips (such as a train moving towards us, the window sill from the 6th PBS logo, a compass, a giant white/sea green "N" swinging in front of a running leopard, ect.) as the "ThiRtEEn" from the fifth logo zooms in very slowly towards us. As all this happens, a violet banner with "WNET NEWARK, NJ (later changes to"NEW YORK, NY)" briefly appears below at the lower-right.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: A pretty new-age tune with a piano, flutes and violins.

Availability: Same as the 5th logo.

Scare Factor: TBA.

12th Logo
(October 5, 1992-October 31, 1999)

Nickname: “The Spotlight”, "Choir"

Logo: On a black background, we see “wnet” in a thin font in a black rectangle with the letters carved out of it, and “NEW YORK” (in sky blue) appearing letter by letter, circling the logo counterclockwise while a spotlight shines around the logo, from right to left.

Variant: Sometimes, the logo is referred as "FROM wnet NEW YORK".

Trivia: This is a live-action logo, created by Liberty Studios in 1991 and directed by Robert Lyons and David Bruce. An Oxberry Animation Stand Camera was used for filming of this logo, which, like the 1992 PBS logo, was shot on 35mm film.

FX/SFX: The spotlight, the words appearing letter by letter.

Cheesy Factor: The logo looks creative, but the jingle is a bit peculiar.

Music/Sounds: A beatbox jingle with a choir sounder.

Music/Sound Variant: Sometimes, announcer Tom Stuart will say, "A production of WNET New York" over the jingle.

Availability: You might find this logo on TV, but it’s still a tough find. In its day, it appeared on Nature, American Masters, and Charlie Rose, so check those old tapes! Also appeared at the beginning or end of Shining Time Station.

Scare Factor: Minimal to low, because of the strange music and darkness.

13th Logo
(1993-October 31, 1999)

Nickname: TBA.

Logo: TBA.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: TBA.

Availability: Same as the 5th and 7th logos.

Scare Factor: TBA.

14th Logo
(November 1, 1999-October 31, 2006)

Nickname: “Thirteen”, "The Bubbles"

Logo: On a dodger blue background with many flashing dots (apparently arranged to look like skyscrapers), a pulse “wipes” inside the words “thirteen” with a red dot on the "I" (placed on the background as to be placed on one of the "dotscrapers" as if an antenna), and the words “WNET NEW YORK” fade in below.

FX/SFX: Nice animation.

Music/Sounds: A digital 5-note piano sounder. However, you can also hear the closing theme of a particular show over this logo (like Cyberchase, for example).

Availability: Can currently be seen on Cyberchase reruns on PBS. Also appeared on 1999-2006 episodes of Nature and Charlie Rose.

Scare Factor: None.

15th Logo
(November 1, 2006-May 11, 2009, July 19, 2013- )

Nickname: "Thirteen in the Sky", "CGI Skyscrapers"

Logo: We see an overhead view of New York City, with the "thirteen" from the previous logo, rendered in CGI, floating overhead. The camera pans down to a 20th Century Fox-esque angle (except it's reversed), so we see the logo from below.

FX/SFX: The pan from the overhead view. Not much on animation here.

Music/Sounds: A held-out bass violin note, followed by a soft 5-note piano sounder with violas at the end. Sometimes it has the closing theme playing over it.

Availability: Appeared on Nature, Charlie Rose, Barney & Friends, Cyberchase, and NOW, among others. Usually replaced with the 2009 logo, but this is still abound on most shows of the era such as reruns of Sprout's Franny's Feet. It also appears at the end of recent prints of the 1976 miniseries The Adams Chronicles, accompanied by, surprisingly enough, the 1984 PBS ID. Strangely, this still appears at the end of most new episodes of Charlie Rose: The Week, and even though the next logo appears on the April 3, 2015 episode and beyond, this logo can be seen for a split second just before the funding credits, as if sloppily plastered.

Scare Factor: None.

16th Logo
(May 13, 2009- )

Logo: We see the skyline of Manhattan at night. A line draws itself next to the moon, and spins several times and stops by forming a lowercase "i". "TH" slides out of the left side of the "I" and "RTEEN" slides out of the right side of the "I". All of the text is in the Gotham typeface. When that is done, "WNET.ORG" appears above "THIRTEEN".

Variant:

On PBS Newshour Weekend, "CREATIVE NEWS GROUP" appears in place of "THIRTEEN". Since 2012, instead of "WNET.ORG", only "WNET" appears. As a result, the "i" animation is no longer used. Sometimes, as seen on episodes of Great Performances, "THIRTEEN" doesn't appear at all. On WLIW-produced programs, such as Front and Center, "WLIW21" appears in place of "THIRTEEN".

FX/SFX: The light shining forming the words.

Music/Sounds: A gracious 4-note orchestra tune. Sometimes extended.

Music/Sound Variant: A re-orchestration of the previous logo's music was used a few times.

Availability: Current. Can be seen on American Masters, Tavis Smiley, PBS NewsHour Weekend, Nature, Great Performances, Charlie Rose, some episodes of Charlie Rose: The Week, and current episodes of Cyberchase.

Scare Factor: None.