California ABC stations switch to unified version of Circle 7 logo while one picks up ‘Eyewitness News’ branding

Two of ABC’s owned television stations in California have rolled out updated branding.

KABC is Los Angeles and KGO in the San Francisco Bay Area both switched over to using an updated version of the iconic Circle 7 logo to bring their looks in line with the group’s New York and Chicago stations, WABC and WLS. At the same time, KGO also began branding its newscast under the “Eyewitness News” banner.

KABC and KGO had both been using a variation of the Circle 7 logo that featured the ABC globe dot icon in the lower left of the lockup. With the update, the ABC icon moves up slightly to become centered vertically in the footprint of the 7 inside the circle.

Most ABC stations began rolling out logo updates starting in 2021 when the network unveiled a redrawn dot icon designed to read better across multiple platforms, most notably digital. The change included adding a bit more spacing between the dot’s outline and the letters. The letters themselves were also tweaked slightly to emphasize the rounded parts of each glyph.

For many stations, the network-level update involved swapping out the old icon for the new one wherever it appeared in relation to the local logo.

The new brand guidelines also called for removing any glassy effects and ensuring that the new globe icon was at least 60% of the height when used in most co-logo designs, with the exception of circular logos, where the network indicated it should be at least 75% of the height. This included instances where the “true” Circle 7 logo was used as well as variations of it or other station logo designs set inside a circle. At the time, it appeared the guideline was largely meant to ensure the ABC logo remained dominant and proportional to other elements in station lockups.

With KABC and KGO finally switching over, of the stations ABC owns assigned to virtual channel 7 are now using the same layout.

The group includes four stations that are not assigned to Channel 7: KFSN (Channel 30) in Fresno, California, WTVD (Channel 11) in Durham, North Carolina, WPVI (Channel 6) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and KTRK (Channel 13) in Houston, Texas. 

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For KGO, the update also included adopting the “Eyewitness News” moniker that most ABC-owned stations use, with KFSN and WPVI being the only exceptions and branding under the “Action News” name. In Fresno, CBS affiliate KGPE uses the “Eyewitness News” name, while in Philly, KYW stopped using the title in 2023. 

Thanks to different DNA histories between “Eyewitness News” the name and “Eyewitness News” the news format, CBS-owned stations that were then owned by Westinghouse began using the name (but not necessarily the format) starting in 1959, including KABC rival KPIX in San Francisco. Others included KYW in Philadelphia, WJZ in Baltimore, Maryland, WBZ in Boston, Massachusetts, and KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The Circle 7 logo, meanwhile, was first created by graphic designer G. Dean Smith in 1962 for the five stations the network owned at the time: WABC, KABC, WBKB in Chicago, Illinois, KGO and WXYZ in Detroit, Michigan. WBKB is now used by a small station in Alpena, Michigan, that carries all NBC, ABC and Fox programming across its signal, but had been used by the stations that would become the present-day WBBM (CBS-owned) and WLS in the Windy City. 

The “Eyewitness News” format, which emphasized on-the-scene reporting and visuals over the once-popular anchor shots, would be introduced in 1965 at KYW after a call sign swap between that station and the one now known as WKYC in Cleveland, Ohio.

The trademark to the name “Eyewitness News” for use with a television news program is owned by CBS, so ABC was likely required to enter into a licensing agreement with Paramount Global to use the name.

That on-the-ground and visual reporting style, meanwhile, has long been used at many stations across the U.S., including ones that do not use the “Eyewitness News” name, while not all stations that brand under the name necessarily stick to the original format completely. 

There are also numerous iterations of TV station logos that borrow heavily from the “Circle 7” concept, with variations in the typography used to form the “7” as well as various ring thicknesses popular modifications. There have also been stations that use the idea of placing a number inside of a ring with different numbers, which are sometimes referred as “Circle (N) logos” (with “N” being any number other than “7”). 

KABC and KGO’s changeover is perhaps more significant to TV news fans, but it does serve as a milestone for the station group in that it has now consolidated all of its branding for its Channel 7 stations. Because the two logo lockups are similar, the update has the advantage of still being familiar to viewers and not causing significant collision issues in cases where certain assets have not been updated yet.

In most cases, it’s likely that the average KABC and KGO viewer won’t notice the switch.

For KGO to switch to “Eyewitness News” is more significant, however. In many markets, viewers tend to identify stations more by channel number or branding as opposed to call letters, though there are still stations that actively promote their calls as their official brand.

Call signs have become less used in markets where networks own stations, with “(Network Name) (City or Region Name)” being popular schemas some time now. ABC, however, hasn’t made significant efforts to standardize under that format, instead preferring “ABC (Channel Number)” with the city or region name tacked on at the end in only select cases (including at WLS), in all of its owned markets with the exception of Philadelphia’s WPVI, which is known as “6 ABC.”

By way of example, KPIX dropped “Eyewitness News” in 2013 and now known as “CBS Bay Area,” meaning there has been about 13 years where the name wasn’t actively used in the market, so it’s likely that viewers are not as prone to associating the branding with KPIX. 

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