Avco Broadcasting Corporation

Background : Avco Broadcasting Corporation was the broadcasting division of the Aviation Corporation, which was formerly known as the Crosley Broadcasting Corporation until 1945 (Crosley was an early operator of radio stations and a radio manufacturer). From 1945 up until 1968, the broadcasting division continued to operate under the Crosley name, even though the manufacturing division was already renamed "Avco". On March 1, 1976, the company was sold to Multimedia, Inc., renaming this unit to "Multimedia Program Productions". This division is often confused with Avco Embassy Television, which was formed to syndicate films from the Embassy library to television stations. Both companies were unaffiliated and were owned by Avco.

(1968-1977)

Nicknames : "Avco Slate", "The Empennage"

Logo : While the animations are far different, the end results are about the same:


 * Version A (1968-1973) : On a black background, a small, white right triangle, along with a thick maroon line, both italicized, slide in from the right side of the screen. As the triangle reaches the center, both shapes grow and stretch into a much larger size, and the maroon box shrinks into a rectangle. This creates a empennage (the tail fin of an airplane) that's off-center. "AVCO" in a Microgramma font, appears 2-by-2 on the white part, and "BROADCASTING CORPORATION" in a different font appears under the empennage, stacked on each other. Fading in with it is "PRODUCTION" off to the right in the same font, but much smaller and colored yellow, and a really small copyright notice reading "©(year) AVCO BROADCASTING CORPORATION" in extremely small print at the bottom of the screen.
 * Version B (1970-1977) : On a black background, a white triangle outline starts to zoom in, slowly extending as it does. As we go through it, several of the sides are revealed to be made of red, green, and blue in several different arrangements. When it goes off-screen, the empennage in red, green, blue, and yellow, emerge from the corners of the screen and all come together to briefly form a white empennage before it fades to the Avco logo. The result is notable similar, but the logo is centered with the text below it all now in the Microgramma font as well. The text is also a bit smaller and more compact, "PRODUCTION" is in a dark grey, and the copyright is much bigger as well.

Trivia : This logo appeared as state of the art on design magazines the time it premiered.

Variants :
 * On The Paul Dixon Show, the logo starts about 2 seconds into the animation.
 * When The Paul Dixon Show was reran in 1998, Version A had a copyright notice reading "(C)1998 HEARST ARGYLE TELEVISION, INC." tacked on below the logo.
 * There is a superimposed logo that would appear on cartoon specials that reads "PRODUCED FOR AND DISTRIBUTED BY" with the Avco logo (all in black with white text) and "BROADCASTING CORPORATION" below, all in the Microgramma font.
 * Another variant has the superimposed logo with the text "SYNDICATION DIVISION" below the logo.

FX/SFX : For Version A, the sliding and stretching, all done with cel animation. For Version B, the trail zooming in, the triangles coming together, all also done with cel animation.

Music/Sounds :
 * Version A: A 5-note trumpet fanfare, followed by 3 long horn notes, and finally 2 notes with the 2 instruments, which lingers into the end of the logo. Sometimes, it might be shorten a bit and merged into the end theme of the show, which fades out.
 * Version B: A 3-note synth similar to those of old UFO noises, and a loud synth whoosh in the middle of it. A echoing laser noise plays at the end.
 * For the superimposed variant, it's the end-title theme from any program.

Availability : Extinct.
 * Version A can be seen on Midsummer Rock and The Paul Dixon Show (which has the music variant) and was last seen in 1998. Version B appears on The Phil Donahue Show. They could have appeared on other shows at the time.
 * As for the superimposed variant, it is ultra rare and was seen on The Thanksgiving That Almost Wasn't every Thanksgiving and A Christmas Story every Christmas on Boomerang until 2014.

Editor's Note : By far some of the rarest logos in existance. Only Version A was known for the longest time, and recently Version B was found through a tape ring. However, with more prints popping up recently, it's a bit easier to find it.