KCOP-TV

Background

KCOP-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States that was founded in 1948 and owned and operated by Fox Television Stations alongside it's sister station, KTTV. It was once an independent station when it was founded to the 1990's, but then got served as UPN's West Coast flagship station in 1995, and now have been affiliated with MyNetworkTV since 2006.

1st Logo (1962-1971)

Visuals: A bunch of dots move around on a black background, with a red dot appearing in the middle that has the number "13" on with four other dots having the same number. Then, they fly into the center and blend together with the "13" dot in the middle, while the camera slowly zooms in. The middle dot then becomes white, and fades back into its previous appearance. A white diamond and later, a colourful circle outline appear around the dot, with the text "KCOP LOS ANGELES" appearing below. And after that, four another diamonds blend together with the white diamond outline, and it fades back to its previous appearance again.

Variants: A more common still variant exists, where there is a big line that is formed by multicoloured diamonds with the word "KCOP" on the line, and a big blue diamond on the right of the line that has a number "13" on it. And the words "LOS ANGELES" and "A Chris Craft STATION" simultaneously appear below and above the diamond line. The background's color can be varied.

Technique: Cel animation, none for the still variant.

Audio:

Main Variant: A majestic and triumphant fanfare, accompanied by an announcer saying: "Channel 13 presents the following program in color".
Still Variant: An announcer saying a sentence that can be varied by different variants.

2nd Logo (1975-1977)

Visuals: On a black background, multiple numbers "13" in yellow come out from the middle. When all of them are about to go out, many purple copies of the number "13" fly in from the right, all stop at one place, and form a layer of the station's logo. And then, many yellow copies of the number, and alongside with an another decent amount of purple copies of the number after them, also do the same thing. With the latter copies being bigger than the ones before them, eventually the station's logo is formed and completed when the last purple "13" flying in. The logo then zooms out a little bit, and the text "KCOP" with the word "Los Angeles" in a funky font, also zooms out next to the logo word-by-word.

Technique: Cel animation.

Audio: A relaxing flute tune at first, and then a majestic and proud fanfare composed by Tom Bruner.

3rd Logo (1979-1981)

Visuals: On a space background with stars moving around, five yellow and orange lines draw themself one-by-one from left to right and make an oval in the near-center. After the lines go out of the screen, a flash occurs inside of the oval, and the number "13" in silver then appears in it and zooms in. After that, the logo moves to the center, and the words "KCOP" and "LOS ANGELES" zooms out nearby the lines, with the latter being placed below the former.

Technique: Scanimation from Image West.

Audio: The same fanfare from the previous logo.

4th Logo (1981-1982)

Visuals: Against a navy background, multiple lights fly to above center the of the screen, forming a flash and creating a silver circle. The number "13" then forms inside it as the circle turns into the oval, and the text "KCOP" zooms from us and settles under the logo. As the logo shines, the text "Los Angeles" appears at the bottom. We then transition to see the Chris Craft wordmark against the same background from before. When the transition is done, the star between the two texts shines, and the two texts "A" and "TELEVISION STATION" fade in above and below the wordmark respectively.

Technique: Scanimation for the first two station idents (done by Image West), and computer animation for the two last idents.

Audio: A loud fanfare with drumrolls and trumpet sounds in it, with a dramatic fanfare when the transition appears, followed by an announcer saying: "This is channel 13, KCOP Los Angeles, a Chris Craft Industries television station".

5th Logo (1982-1984)

Visuals: On a blue sky, the camera flies through some teal wireframe mountains. Then, the camera pans down, and we see the view of Los Angeles, with purple and red lights all around the city with some clouds. The "Oval 13" logo zooms out, flashes and lands on a blue lake with a purple sunset scenery behind it, while the city disappears and transitions to the lake. After that, the text "KCOP" and "Los Angeles" appears below the logo, which rapidly shines, and the clouds also fade in on the sky.

Technique: Compter animation.

Music/Sounds: A dramatic tune at the start, and a futuristic synth tune when the city appears, with the announcer saying: "Channel 13, KCOP Los Angeles".

6th Logo (1984-Spring 1986)

Normal Version
Extended Version
Redone Version

Visuals: Against a black background is an orbit with 3D orange pieces and three colorful oval rings spinning around it. Then, they gradually spin faster as the orbit moves to the left. When they’re all lined up together, the “Oval 13” logo got formed, with the number "13" being red, and the two ovals being light blue, and blue respectively. Three purple, blue and red ovals fly out of the logo after the forming, the word "KCOP" gets revealed from the red ring, and the word "Los Angeles" appears below.

Variant: There's two other variants:

An extended variant exists. Here, we get a segment of the pieces fly to the orbit before they spin around, and after the forming, the red ring also reveals a beach at sunset background. After that, we also see the word "KCOP Los Angeles" fades out, and the word "Chris Craft Television" appears and fades in at the same place, with an animated star between the word "Chris" and "Craft". And finally, the rings from the "Oval 13" logo flies out and reveals the news open.
A redone variant also exists, where here, the background has some diagonal lines on it, the color of the oval rings are altered to just lime and blue, and the words "KCOP Los Angeles", which is now modified to being blue and has different font, appears right when the forming happens.

Technique: Scanimation for the first two station idents, and compter animation for the two last idents. This was done by Bo Gehring in Los Angeles.

Audio: A dramatic fanfare, which is actually a snippet was from "Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125, second movement", with an announcer also saying "Channel 13, KCOP Los Angeles". This was also used in the other variants.

7th logo (Spring 1986-Fall 1986)

Normal Version
Sign-Off Variant

Visuals: On a blue pyramid-like shaped background, the italic number"13" in orange zooms out to the center, and a blue grid background zooms in behind and replaces the previous background. Then, the word "KCOP " with the word "LOS ANGELES" in orange, zoom in below the number"13". After that, an another blue background slides in from the bottom and replaces the former one, with this one having the same grid as before and the orange text "L.A'S NUMBER ONE KID'S STATION" in the center. And finally, the KCOP logo pans itself and flies to the bottom of the screen.

Variant: On a gray background with copies of station's "13" logo on it is the word "KCOP " and word "LOS ANGELES " below with both of them are in yellow, next to the blue number "13 ", and all of them are in italic. The logo stays still there for 25 seconds before fading out.

Technique: 2D computer animation, with the sign-off variant being still.

Audio: A cheerful tune with an annoncer saying: "Channel 13, KCOP, Los Angeles, LA's number one kid's station".

Audio Variant: The sign-off variant has the announcer saying: "This is KCOP, channel 13 Los Angeles, owned and operated by Chris Craft Industries Incorporated with studio in Hollywood and transmitters on top of Mount Wilson. Some progams seen on KCOP are produced by means of videotapes and films. Join us when we return to the air at 5:30 this morning for a full day of television programming for your enjoyment".

8th logo (Spring 1986-1990)

Visuals: On a black background is a big steel blue rectangle that has a grid and a royal blue rectangle on it. And on the royal blue rectangle, we can also see a blue cross on it, and a really tiny gray rectangle in the center. The steel blue rectangle spins as it zooms in to the center. And while it zooms in, the number"13" in orange flies into the screen and lands on the gray rectangle, which now has lines on it with a more close-up viewing, with the 3D word "KCOP" and the word "LOS ANGELES" fades in below on the right side of the number"13" right before the rectangle stops zooming in. And after that, the gray rectangle spins itself, now reveal to be 3D, and transitions to a promo of a show or their news segment which is "News 13".

Technique: The first ident used 2D computer animation; the second ident, the 1987 "Main Ident" and "Daytime Ident" is made by CGI; and the sign-off and "Very Independent" IDs is still.

Audio: A triumphant fanfare, with an announcer saying: "This is channel 13, KCOP, Los Angeles".

9th logo (1987-1990)

Main ID (1987)
Daytime ID (1987)
"Very Independent" ID (1987)

Visuals: The silver number "13 " and the word "KCOP " turn themself and stop when they're front facing the screen, with the word "KCOP " being right on the hole of the number "13 ", with the word "LOS ANGELES" fading in below on the right. The background can be varied.

Variants: Two other variants were seen:

Daytime ID: Against a purple background with pink circles on it, the number "13 ", now being red here, turns itself and stops at the center like the main ident, and four letters which are "K", "C", "O", and "P" spin themself and land right in the hole of the number, front-facing the screen. The word "LOS ANGELES" fades in below on the right.
"Very Independent" ID: Against a gray background is a white box with the word "INDEPENDENT" on the right and a black box on the left side of it, and the word "VERY" is seen on the black box, with both words . The word "KCOP" with the logo "13" are seen on the bottom left.

Technique: CGI, including the daytime variant. The "VERY INDEPENDENT" variant is still.

Audio: A proud fanfare, with the announcer saying "Channel 13, KCOP, Los Angeles".

Audio Variants:

Daytime ID: A dreamy tune with xylophone sounds on it, and a couple with the announcer saying "Channel 13, KCOP, Los Angeles" like the last ident.
"Very Independent" ID: None, or sometimes with the promo's music before it.

10th Logo (1990-1995)

Visuals: On a white background is the same rectangles from before with the Chinese translation of the word "VERY INDEPENDENT" at the bottom. The translation soon fades to it's translations of Tagalog, Korean, Spanish, Japanese and finally, to English. The outlined rectangle with the word "KCOP" and red square which contains the logo, fade in along with the black word "LOS ANGELES" in spaced out letters below.

Technique: 2D computer animation

Audio: A triumphant note being held out, accompained by a 5-note woodwind tune.

11th Logo (1995-1997)

Visual: On a diamond plate with an "N" and some sparks around, a silver block morphs and transforms into the '95 UPN logo, and next to it, a red-white block also zooms back nearby, which has the station's 13 logo on the red side, and the word "KCOP" on the white side. The words "UNITED PARAMOUNT NETWORK" and "LOS ANGELES" fade in below, while a gold metal slides in from the top and everything below it fades into black. The sparks on the top still fly around until the ident's over.

Technique: CGI with live-action with the background.

Audio: The jingle from the '95 UPN ident.

12th Logo (1996(?), 1997-1999)

(a)
(b)
(c)
Children's Programming ID

Visual: In this period, the station modified the previous logo. And here, the three-color UPN variant was being used, with the word "LOS ANGELES" below and the "13" logo next to it. A total of 3 station idents were used in this era:

(a): On a blue sky, the camera is seen moving around some palm-trees with a blurry effect on it. The "13" logo then fades in and zooms out to the right side, alongside the three "U", "P" and "N" blocks fly to the left side of it and form the UPN logo, and the word "LOS ANGELES" fades in below.
(b): A woman who wears a black sunglasses is seen driving on a road to Los Angeles. She then turns around, the camera zooms in and cut to a side-view mirror, which has the station's logo fades in on a purple sky with a white building and palm trees are being seen, on a blue sunny sky, which also has a white building and some palm trees. After that, the background transitions to some trees on a purple sky being twisted and zoomed in by the camera, a green flash occured, and it cuts again to the Capitol Records building on an another purple sky. And when the first transition the background appears, the background on the side-view mirror also changes to the one from the previous ident. And at the end, the mirror zooms in and takes up almost the full screen.
(c): The camera slightly turns around over a roadster, which is seen on a dark scenery and has a person sitting in it. A shiny cloud on the sky transforms to the station's logo, with a flash occuring on the right side. And while that happens, the person on the car points to the logo, and then put their hands down at the end.

Variant:

Children's Programming ID: There's an ident for children's programming where the logo, now with the word "KCOP" and a slash appears before the word "Los Angeles", is seen on a paper, which is being placed diagonally; and being animated. It then cuts to various angles of the paper, before it stays still on the screen horizontally with the logo being in the center in the right direction.

Technique: CGI, with some live-actions on the backgrounds.

Audio: All of the three station idents have the same tune, but each have a little bit of modification to make each of them sounds different, and all of them is accompanied by a female announcer saying: "This is KCOP-TV", and a male announcer saying: "LA's UPN Channel 13" afterwards.

Audio Variants:

(a): An ethereal tune, along with a tropical beat in the background.
(b): The tropical tune from the first background, but it's now modified to a new-age tune, with also an UFO synth-tune at the end.
(c): An orchestral fanfare with the same melody as the last ident's beat, with a 4-note tune at the end.
Children's Programming ID: A cheerful piano tune with a trumpet sound at the end.

13th Logo (1998-2002)

(a)
(b)

Visual: There are at least two variants that has been found:

(a): On a clip of a view of a red car, which fades out and transitions to a gray car for a split-second, the italic number "13" with the shade of the part of the background but blurrier, zooms out. Everything then shines and transitions to a filmstrip effect, and two lines with rectangular hole on each of them slides in simutaneously from the bottom and the top while the effect is still happening, which minimze the screen with the VHS effect, and also reveal a black background behind. The effect then stops, and the following things happen:
- The "VHS effect" screen fades out back to the same as the number number "13" with also the blurry shade of the background.
- In the background, some red and blue flashes is first seen, and it then cut to a zoom-in of a speedometer.
- The two lines that sandwiched the "13" portion of the screen, also stop minimze the screen when the effect stop and slide in horizontal direction, left for the top line and right for the bottom line
- At the bottom, a wide red flash occurs and the station's logo appears with a red glow on it, and the italic text "KCOP/KCOP-DT LOS ANGELES" fades in below.
(b): Same as the first variant, but in here, the background is changed to the skyline of Los Angeles, the second background is the same as the first one but there's now red and yellow lightning on it, and the station's logo at the bottom is also changed to have yellow glow on it.

Technique: Computer animation, with live-actions for the background in the two 1998 idents.

Audio: A calming tune for both idents, with slightly modifications on the melody in each one.

14th Logo (2000-2002?)

Visual: On a red-orange gradient background, rays is seen rapidly moving around the screen. A dark green background flashes and covers the screen, and the station's logo and the text "KCOP/KCOP-DT LOS ANGELES" soon fade in, with them rapidly shaking throughout the ident.

Technique: Computer animation, with live-actions for the background in the two 1998 idents.

Audio: A loud electric guitar tune.

15th Logo (2002-2006)

Visual: Against a red background, which has the '02 UPN on it and the KCOP's logo at the time in the center, zooms in. It then stops, rapidly shakes, and then transitioned to a blue background, with the station's logo still staying in. Some circular lines at the top and below the logo draws themself, the word "TURN IT UP" also appears below and rotates itself, and an another circular line draws itself at the end.

Variant: There's a news variant where here, on a red and orange gradient background which has a curved gold line on the right, a circular red and yellow object below, and a 3D silver number "13" rotating around, the number "1" and "3" zoom out to the right of a rectangle which has a small red rectangle on the left having the '02 UPN logo at the left to form the KCOP's logo in that period. Then, the small text "TONIGHT 11PM" fades in below it and zooms in, and the shiny word "NEWS" zooms in letter-by-letter above the said text, with the text "KCOP-TV/KCOP-DT LOS ANGELES" also fades in at the bottom. The second "T" in the "TONIGHT 11PM" text shines at the end.

Technique: Computer animation.

Audio: The network's "Turn It Up" campaign music.