The WNET Group

Background
WNET is the PBS affiliate located in Newark, New Jersey. They first signed on the air on May 15, 1948, being the oldest of all the stations (although it joined NET in 1962). It also serves New York City, New York.

(May 15, 1948-1958)
Nicknames: "The Beginning of Public Television", "WATV Field", "Test Pattern", "WATV Test Pattern", "WATV Skyline"

Logo: On a sky background located at what appears to be the landscape on a farm, we see the letters "WATV" at an oblique angle. Between "T" and "V" is a thin supporting pole with a sign on it that says "NEWARK NEW JERSEY" facing straight at the camera. On top of the "T" is "13" in a bold font.

Variants:
 * There is a variant that shows the channel's test pattern.
 * There is a variant, where the background is a skyline (probably Newark), the letters are lowercase, a sign with "NEWARK" is on them, and "13" is on the sign and supporting a sign with the text "super power".

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Possibly silent, although it may have had an announcer.

Availability: Ultra rare. Seen on Dove Son Nato.

Editor's Note: The design of this logo looks really strange, especially for its time.

(1958?-1962?)
Nicknames: "Big 13", "Cheesy 13"

Logo: On a black background, we see the words "WNTA/TV" sliding in from the left side of the screen and a large "13" forming next to them afterwards.

Trivia: Around this time, this was the flagship station for the short-lived NTA Film Network.

Variant: There is a variant, where "13" is in another font, and is larger.

FX/SFX: The "sliding", the "13" forming.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Unknown, may be seen on old WNET recordings before 1962.

Editor's Note: In 1962, National Telefilm Associates sold this affiliate to the Educational Broadcasting Corporation, where it would be rebranded as WNDT, later WNET.

1st Logo (1962-1970)
Nicknames: "Owl of Athena", "WNDT Owl"

Logo: On a static black background, we see the words "CHANNEL 13" and "WNDT" on the left, and an abstract owl on the right, separated by a large slash.

Variant: A white background version exists. Here, the owl is larger and placed to the left of the slash, while the right has a large "13" and "WNDT" is located below it.

Trivia: The owl is currently used as the favicon for WNET's station (not corporate) website.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: Unknown. The variant uses the closing theme of the show.

Availability: Extinct. Only used as a local ID.

Editor's Note: The abstract owl's design looks a tad creepy.

2nd Logo (1963)
Logo: On a black background, we see a large "13" with the letters "WNDT" below it on the left side. On the right side, we see the text "A PRODUCTION OF", and "EDUCATIONAL BROADCASTING CORPORATION NEW YORK" with "EBC" between them.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: The closing theme of the show.

Availability: Extinct. Found on shows on the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.

Editor's Note: We are lucky to have this as NET tends to plaster these older logos.

3rd Logo (1968-1971)
Nickname: "The WNDT/WNET Rings"

Logo:
 * Opening: On a black background, a large ring made of dark red bars appear one-by-one. They brighten up to as a smaller ring made of dark green bars appear by the same effect and the large ring flashes to . An even smaller ring of bars appears in dark teal. The rings then fade through different colors for about 3 seconds as a  bar ring slides into view, along with "IN COLOR" below. The rings fade out and the text "PRODUCED IN NEW YORK BY WNDT" appear below in white and stacked with each other. "IN COLOR" continues to slide along the bottom of the screen until it goes off screen.
 * Closing: On a black background, a winding path of yellow bars appear one by one, followed by a dark red path of bars behind it. They form 3 bar rings, which turn, , and yellow respectively, and eventually slide into each other to form a yellow ring. The yellow ring then turns into a // ring as the same text in the opening variant appears below, with a copyright reading "©1970 EBC" appearing below. The ring then "spins" through its colors before fading to dark green.

Variant: On the Realities episode "Soldiers Who Search and Dissent", this is used as a still in-credit logo, in monochrome. "WNET" replaces "WNDT", and the copyright year is given as 1971.

FX/SFX: The bars appearing, the limited sliding.

Music/Sounds: A funky bongo beat with an announcer either saying "Produced in New York by WNDT." or "Soul! was produced in New York by WNDT."

Availability: Extremely rare.
 * This was used for only a short time before it merged with NET to create WNET (they would also use this logo very briefly).
 * It can be seen on the Shout! Factory TV print of the March 5, 1970 episode of Soul! (incorrectly stated to be the first episode of the series, though it may have simply been the earliest Shout! Factory TV could get a hold of) and appears to have been used for the first three seasons thereof. It also appears early on in the documentary Mr. Soul!.
 * An in-credit version appeared on occasional episodes of Realities, including "Soldiers Who Search and Dissent".

Editor's Note: Not much was known about this logo's existence until very recently, when Shout! Factory put up the original episodes on their Shout! Factory TV service. The animation is definitely very limited, but it's also very effective. The copyright on the bottom of the logo stands for Educational Broadcasting Corporation, the holding company for WNDT; the name existed until 2011, when it was renamed to WNET.org.

1st Logo (March 1972-Spring 1973)
Nickname: "Scanimate Letters/Numbers"

Logo: This is a reworked version of the 13th NET logo, with the logo altered to read "wnet". The animation also appears to be sped up, the mass is completely yellow until it unravels, and a "13" also moves downward from the swirling mass, which causes the word to move up.

Variant: A black & white and possibly filmed variant appears on Science '72.

FX/SFX: Same as the 13th NET logo, though slightly altered with the design changes that were made.

Music/Sounds: Same as the 13th NET logo, but with an additional loop to the keyboard tune, and the announcer says "The following program is from WNET 13." or "The following program is a presentation of WNET 13."

Availability: Very rare. The logo appeared on An American Family, where it may or may not have been used in tandem with the 3rd logo, and also appeared on Soul!. The alternate announcer variant appeared on Science '72.

Editor's Note: See the 13th NET logo, although this version is a bit cheaper on the animation side.

2nd Logo (October 1, 1973-June 27, 1979)
Nicknames: “The Puzzle”, "Rockin' WNET"

Logo: On a black background, rectangles with white horizontal pieces shoot away from the viewer, converging into a  screen with a white “FROM NEW YORK” on it. After a few seconds on screen, the pieces shoot towards the viewer, revealing bars, and “WNET” zooms forward on a  background, with "PRESENTS" appearing below a second later.

Variants:
 * A black and white version exists.
 * A filmed version exists.
 * There exists a version where the background at the end is a color.

FX/SFX: The “puzzle pieces” converging.

Music/Sounds: A synthesized, keyboard-driven rock tune. The first half of the music has two arrangements: one slightly faster and more hokey-sounding, and the other cleaner and more professional. Both have the same ending.

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 VHS of Portraits of an Artist, 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 The Great Radio Comedians, the DVD release of The Great American Dream Machine (all episodes on Volumes 1 and 2), and early (pre-1976) episodes of The Robert MacNeil Report, which are available on DVD and online at the American Archive of Public Broadcasting.
 * Its last appearance was on the seven-part miniseries Women in Art.
 * You can also see the complete logo about an hour into the documentary Mr. Soul!.

Editor's Note: While arguably cheap-looking and primitive by today's standards, this logo's usage of Scanimation was pretty innovative for the time, and it also has a really sweet musical theme.

3rd Logo (Spring 1973-1975)
Nickname: "Art Deco 13"

Logo: An art deco-style "13" that appears to be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise writes itself on a black screen. The "13" zooms out as a similarly styled "13" that is rotated 90 degrees clockwise writes itself in as a mirror image, overlapping with the "3" in the former "13". Then both of them disappear, as "WNET" written in the same style appears at the bottom and zooms out. A "W" zooms in and out, followed by an "N", an "E", and a "T". Then the background turns, and "WNET", in white and in a more normal-looking font, zooms in.

Variant: A filmed variant appears on the Bill Moyers special An Essay on Watergate.

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

Music/Sounds: A clean arrangement of the first half of the previous logo plays, followed by a hokey arrangement of that half with an announcer saying either "Produced in New York by WNET" or "A Presentation of WNET". Afterwards, the second half plays as usual.

Availability: Seen on An American Family, where it may or may not have been used in tandem with the 1st logo. It also appeared on a 16mm print of the Bill Moyers special An Essay on Watergate.

Editor's Note: A pretty odd logo, with a pretty odd design. The animation definitely beats that of its predecessor though.

4th Logo (October 6, 1978-May 31, 1985)
Nickname: "WNET of Boredom"

Logo: Two 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, individual, institution, foundation, or organization that funded the program which this precedes (e.g. "Corporation for Public Broadcasting", "Public Television Stations", "The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies", etc.). After the last text slides, the whole thing fades to black.

Variants:
 * The color of the background may either be black or . The latter is used for the filmed version and also on Great Performances.
 * On the Great Performances spin-off Live from Lincoln Center, the first slide after "FROM WNET NEW YORK" reads "Great Performances", and the funding credits announcer also waits a few more seconds to start talking.
 * Sometimes, it's superimposed.
 * If there are no funding credits at the start of the program, this simply fades in and out.
 * On the first season of Nature, one of the last programs to use this logo, the whole thing is set in the Modern No. 20 typeface.

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 (including Theater in America and Dance in America) and its spinoff, Live from Lincoln Center, as well as on Non-Fiction Television.
 * It first appeared on We Interrupt This Week, on which it was superimposed over the opening. Its last appearance was on Love's Labour Lost, broadcast as part of The Shakespeare Plays on May 31, 1985.

Editor's Note: This is a boring and rather unremarkable logo.

5th Logo (September 28, 1981-July 4, 1982)
Nicknames: "Great Performances", "The Ballerina, the Actor, the Singer, and the Conductor"

Logo: On a black screen, "WNET" appears as an 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.

Editor's Note: This is an impressive lead-in to the then-new Great Performances intro.

6th Logo (October 9, 1983-September 25, 1989)
Nicknames: "Radar", “The Radar Map", "The Radar Screen", "PBS Radar"

Logo: On a black background, circular lines showing the New York skyline wipe in, with an outlined “WNET” on it. The pre-2001 World Trade Center "Twin Towers" can also be seen on the far left. As the “radar” circles two more times, the outlined “WNET” becomes more solid, and the morning 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 4th logo.

Variant: A filmed version appeared on Heritage: Civilization and The Jews.

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

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

Availability: Very rare. Older tapes of WNET programs should have this.
 * Look for Time-Life Video and Lorimar Home Video releases of early episodes of Nature, such as "Forest in the Sea" (where this logo debuted), "Designed for Living" (which was the last episode to use this ID), "Secret Weapons", "Cats", and "Man's Best Friend", the latter three of which were also made available by PBS Home Video.
 * You could spot this on episodes of Great Performances and American Masters (which used this logo until 1989) from this era, too.
 * This logo was also seen on a Home Vision tape of New World Visions-American Art and the Metropolitan Museum (1650-1914)-Part Two.
 * This logo also followed the 1983-1991 MGM/UA Television logo on The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute By Katharine Hepburn.

Editor's Note: Pretty good and effective Scanimation. It’s actually a favorite among closing logo fans.

7th Logo (September 9, 1987-January 27th, 1992?)
Nickname: “WNET in Space”

Logo: On a space background with dancing stars, “FROM” and “NEW YORK” zoom out, along with a "W". Then, an "n", an "E", and a "t" slide out while the animation zooms away from the viewer, all of which resembles the "Thirteen" logo at the time. “Sparks” then create parallelograms to surround “FROM” and “NEW YORK”, placed above and below the logo.

Variants:
 * An in-credit version appears at the end of 1986-1991 episodes of American Masters. The logo has "A PRESENTATION OF" above the logo and "NEW YORK" either appears in the bottom parallelogram or is under it, leaving either the top or both blank. There may be a copyright notice below.
 * In a rare exception to the general rule that station logos don't appear on co-productions between PBS stations, this and the KCET logo are played simultaneously, without any music, before Television.
 * On some programs, including Shining Time Station, the logo is slightly sped up to 30fps (the logo was originally animated at 24fps) and the audio is out of proportion, or vice-versa.

FX/SFX: The letters sliding out, along with the entire logo zooming out; the stars dancing all the while. The animation is actually in sync with the music.

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

Availability: Rare.
 * However, this logo is easier to find than the previous logo, given the fact that it has appeared on PBS Home Video tapes of the era from WNET, including episodes of Nature and Great Performances, and even plastered the previous logo on some Time-Life releases of the former.
 * Its first appearances were on The Power of Choice and I Would Be Called John: Pope John XXIII, as well as on sixth-season episodes of Nature and the 1987 rebroadcast of The Adams Chronicles.
 * Both first and second season Shining Time Station episodes (the first season being when Ringo Starr was Mr. Conductor and the second season with George Carlin as Mr. Conductor) have this logo, too. Depending on your PBS station, it was seen either at the beginning or end of an episode.
 * It also appeared on the Laserdisc releases of the Nature episode "The Volcano Watchers" and the American Masters episode "A. Einstein: How I See the World". It is unknown if this appears on any DVD releases.

Editor's Note: Typical 1980s CGI abound here. The animation is actually pretty fast-paced.

8th Logo (September 6, 1988-1995)


Nickname: "Abstract Thirteen"

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 its 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. Several rectangles appear in the background.

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.

Editor's Note: None.

9th Logo (February 9?, 1992-October 23, 1999)
Nicknames: “The Spotlight”, "Choir"

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

Trivia: This is a live-action logo, created by Liberty Studios (which also produced HBO's "In Space" opening from 1982) in 1991 and directed by Robert Lyons and David Bruce. An Oxberry Animation Stand Camera was used for the filming of this logo, which like the 1992 PBS logo, was shot on 35mm film.

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

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

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

Music/Sounds Variant: Sometimes, announcer Tom Stuart will say, "A production of WNET New York" over the jingle. This can be seen on American Masters.

Availability: Very rare. In its day, it appeared on Nature, American Masters, Charlie Rose and the pilot episode of Cyberchase (one of the last appearances of this logo). Also appeared at the beginning or end of season 3 episodes of Shining Time Station. It may appear on early DVD releases of Nature. It also appears on the PC game The Day the World Broke.

Editor's Note: The music is somewhat strange. The logo looks very impressive, however, considering it was created entirely in live-action.

10th Logo (1993-October 23, 1999)
Nickname: "Abstract Thirteen II"

Logo: On a blue background reminiscent of TV static, we see the "ThiRtEEn" from the 8th logo, the "wnet" from the 9th logo, and a bullet wipe-in.

Variant: There is a version on a solid black background.

FX/SFX: The wipe-in effect. The black background variant is still.

Music/Sounds: An announcer says "Local broadcast of the news hour is made possible courtesy of Thirteen WNET." The variant uses the audio of the clip that plays before this logo.

Availability: Extinct. Was only used as a local ID.

Editor's Note: None.

11th Logo (July 21, 1995-October 1, 1999)
Nickname: "Abstract Thirteen III"

Logo: Tinted with the 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 8th PBS logo, a compass, a giant white/sea green "N" swinging in front of a running leopard, etc.) as the "ThiRtEEn" from the 8th and 10th logos zooms in very slowly towards us. As all this happens, a violet banner with "WNET NEWARK NJ" (which later changes to "NEW YORK NY") briefly appears below at the lower-right.

Variants: There were at least a couple of variants which use the aforementioned clips:
 * Arts and Entertainment: Known to use the short version.
 * Explore: Known to use the short version.
 * Depth, Dialogue, Discussion: Known to use the short version.
 * History: Known to use both the long and short versions.

FX/SFX: TBA.

Music/Sounds: A pretty new-age tune with a piano, flutes and violins. For the variants, same as the 1995 PBS bumper variants; the short versions have different voiceovers.
 * Explore: "The world is waiting; explore it with Thirteen."
 * Depth, Dialogue, Discussion: "Thirteen, when you want the whole story." or "Thirteen, making sense of it all."
 * History: "Thirteen, where history comes to life."

Availability: Extinct. Was only used as a station ID.

Editor's Note: None.

12th Logo (October 24, 1999-October 31, 2006)
Nicknames: "The Bubbles", "Skyscraper 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 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.

Variants:
 * One version has flashing dots covering the horizontal middle of the screen.
 * Another one is on a background with dots moving towards and away from the  dot on "thirteen".

FX/SFX: Nice animation.

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

Availability: Common. Can currently be seen on Cyberchase releases on VHS and DVD and most reruns on PBS. Also appeared on 1999-2006 episodes of Nature and Charlie Rose. Also seen at the end of American Masters and The Face - Jesus in Art.

Editor's Note: Quite a nice looking, simple logo. The dotscrapers are sort of reminiscent to some of the ABC Yellow ID's from the same time period.

13th Logo (November 1, 2006-March 27, 2015)
Nicknames: "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.

Variants: On Make Em' Laugh, after the logo finishes, a hand bounces the dot off the "I".

FX/SFX: The pan from the overhead view. Not much on animation here, but it's not too bad either.

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: Uncommon.
 * 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 start and end of recent prints of the 1976 miniseries The Adams Chronicles, accompanied by, surprisingly enough, the 1984 PBS ID (this plasters the 1987 logo from the Fall 1987 reruns).
 * Even after it officially ended in 2009, this continued to appear on Charlie Rose's programs for some time after, with Charlie Rose: The Week using it until March 27, 2015.
 * This can also be seen on some reruns of Cyberchase.

Editor's Note: None.

Background
WNET.ORG is the name of the organization that holds the licenses of WNET and its sister station on Long Island, WLIW.

1st Logo (May 13, 2009-2021?)
Nickname: "Manhattan Skyline"

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".

Variants:
 * On Worldfocus, Firing Line with Margaret Hoover, and 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 Live from Lincoln Center, "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, the live-action scenery.

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

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

Availability: Common. This logo still appears on most new programs, mainly in prime time.
 * Can be seen on American Masters, Tavis Smiley, PBS News Hour Weekend, Nature, Great Performances, Charlie Rose, Charlie Rose: The Week (though no logo appears at all on most editions beginning December 18, 2015), and Cyberchase.
 * The original variant made its last appearance on a rebroadcast of the Nature episode "Invasion of the Giant Pythons", though it's also seen on PBS airings of Thomas and Friends (DVDs and Sprout airings do not have this logo).

Editor's Note: None.

2nd Logo (2019-2021?)
Nicknames: "The Billboard", "The Sign"

Logo: On a nightime New York skyline, we see a billboard reading "A PRODUCTION OF THIRTEEN" (with "A PRODUCTION OF" in red and "THIRTEEN" in yellow, stacked atop each other) atop a brownish building. The camera then pans down to a 20th Century Studios-like angle. The logo then fades out.

FX/SFX: The camera panning.

Music/Sounds: TBA

Availability: Current. Known to have appeared on Cyberchase.

Editor's Note: As this logo has only known to have appeared on one show, this might have been a placeholder. The skyline also appears to be a 2D picture.

(May 14, 2021- )
Nickname: "Media Made Possible By All Of You"

Logo: On a white background with dots below, we see the words "WNET", "The", and "Group", being scattered across the screen. Afterward, the logo moves to the center with the text moving to a yellow line. A thin line forms by WNET group, and the text, "Media Made Possible By All Of You".

FX/SFX: The text moving around as the logo forms.

Music/Sounds: A five-note synth tune. Sometimes, as seen on Part 2 of the Nature special miniseries Growing Up in the Rockies, the logo is silent.

Availability: Brand new. First seen on the May 14, 2021, edition of Firing Line. It also appears on Tulsa: The Fire and the Forgotten. Since July 9, 2021, it has also appeared on Great Performances, and since July 27, 2021, on American Masters; however, don't expect to see this on anything not mentioned in this section, which still use the previous two logos.

Editor's Note: This is a pretty big disappointment overall. Considering the amount of details the last logos had, this just seems oversimplified, and in a bad way.