Saturday, December 1, 2007

Early Westinghouse TV Logos..1957-58


KDKA-TV 2 ad for "Waterfront" a Syndicated series airing Tuesday nights in May 1958..Originally signing on as DuMont's WDTV, Westinghouse acquired Channel 2 in early 1955. (TV Guide Pittsburgh)



Ad for the Syndicated "Whirlybirds" series aired in WBZ-TV 4 in Boston Tuesday nights in May 1957..Notice the bottom left corner the initials WBC..Westinghouse on ocassion would refer to themselves as "WBC" WBZ-TV 4 was Westinghouse's first television station, signing on in 1948. (TV Guide New England)





August 1957 ad for KYW-TV 3's 1:00 Movie Package..Westinghouse acquired then WPTZ-TV 3 Philadelphia in 1952 from Philco TV, moving the station to Cleveland as KYW in 1956, relocating back to Philadelphia in 1965. (TV Guide Cleveland)




One of the things that has fascinated me over the 8 months or so in doing this blog is the way TV stations used print advertising in Newspapers and TV Guide Magazine let the public know of particular shows or favorite station personalities.

Many times, in such advertising, the station uses a graphic representation of itself, known variously as a "station id" or "station logo".. to make itself stand out..A few days ago, we saw some YouTube examples of Network Level Id's/Logos on film..some dating back to the 1940's..

In collecting listings from TV Guide the last few years, I've managed to get a few 1957-58 listings from TV Guide Cleveland, Pittsburgh and a Reprint Boston/New England Edition. What all 3 cities had in common was the fact that Westinghouse Broadcasting owned a station in each city. In looking over the listings I noticed that KDKA, KYW and WBZ-TV all had the exact same logo..Call letters on the left, the letters TV on the right and a triangle in the middle with the channel number inside..It strikes me that the ABC owned stations have used a variation of "Circle 7" as long as I can remember..And NBC owned stations used a simple block number with the "N" Logo in the late 1970's..

Just to compare, here is one day's schedule for each station in the 1957-58 period

KDKA-2 Pittsburgh CBS/ABC

Thursday, May 15, 1958

6:55 Sermonette
7AM Pittsburgh AM
8AM Captain Kangaroo
8:45 Josie's Storyland
9:25 My Little Margie
9:55 News-Paul Shannon
10AM Garry Moore
10:30 How Do You Rate?
11AM Arthur Godfrey
11:30 Dotto
Noon News-Bill Burns
12:15 Florence Mason-Ladies
12:30 Search For Tomorrow
12:45 Guiding Light
1PM Movie-Mrs. Mike (Conclusion)
2:20 Women's Angle-Kiely
2:30 House Party
3PM Big Payoff
3:30 Verdict Is Yoursw
4PM Brighter Day
4:15 Secret Storm
4:30 Cartoons
4:55 Movie-Red Hot Tires 1935
6PM Annie Oakley
6:30 Superman
7PM News
7:15 CBS News-Douglas Edwards
7:30 Highway Patrol-Syndicated
8PM Leave It To Beaver
8:30 Big Record-Patti Paige
9PM The Millionaire
9:30 I've Got A Secret
10PM Armstrong Circle Theater
11PM News
11:15 Movie-They Made Me A Killer-1946
1:10 Movie-Meet The Missus=-1940
2:25 Sermonette

WBZ-4 Boston NBC/ABC

Thursday, May 16, 1957

6:30 Horizons
6:40 Daily Almanac
6:55 Weather-Don Kent
7AM Today
8:55 Film Shorts
10AM Home-Arlene Francis
11AM Fun With Food-Lynn (Price Is Right was shown only 3 times a week)
11:30 Truth Or Consequences
Noon News
12:15 Big Brother-Bob Emery
1PM Movie-First Lady-1937
2:25 News-Streeter Stuart
2:30 Tennesee Ernie
3PM Matinee-COLOR
4PM Queen For a Day
5PM Movie-Double Feature

1 Code of the Secret Service Pt. 2-1939
2 Escape From Crime-1942

6:45 News-Arch McDonald
7PM Telephone Time-ABC
7:30 Dinah Shore
7:45 NBC News-Huntley/Brinkley
8PM Groucho Marx
8:30 Dragnet
9PM People's Choice
9:30 Ford Show/Tennessee Ernie Ford
10PM Lux Video Theater-COLOR
11PM News
11:15 Broken Arrow-ABC
11:45 Tonight! Jack Lescoulie

KYW-3 Cleveland NBC

Thursday, May 1, 1958

7AM Today
8:55 News-Tom Haley
9AM Movie-Kentucky Kernels
10:25 Wimdow-Women
10:30 Treasure Hunt-Jan Murray
11AM Price Is Right-Cullen
11:30 Truth Or Consequences
Noon TicTac Dough
12:30 It Could Be You
1PM Movie-Here Comes The Band
2:45 News-Pete French
3PM Matinee Theater-COLOR
4PM Queen For A Day
5PM Blondie
5:30 Popeye (Fleischer/Famous)
6PM 6:00 Adventure (Soldiers Of Fortune)
6:55 News-Pete French
7PM Death Valley Days
7:30 Tic Tac Dough-COLOR
8PM Groucho Marx
8:30 Dragnet
9PM People's Choice
9:30 Tennessee Ernie Ford
10PM Romemary Clooney
10:30 Saber Of London
11PM News, Weather, Sports..Pete French, Joe Finan, Bob Neal
11:20 Movie-Tartu 1942

1 comment:

  1. It appears that all of the Group W/Westinghouse used similar logos as far back as 1957.

    Yes, I realize Westinghouse didn't adopt the "Group W" name until the early sixties, but that's how I refer to these stations regardless of what period of their history I'm talking about.

    -Joseph Gallant, Norwood, MA

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