Taft Television & Radio Company

Credits

Descriptions by
TheMisterFree

Captures by
TheMisterFree

Background

Taft Broadcasting was active in some form or another from 1939, when the WKRC radio station was started in its home city of Cincinnati, Ohio, to 1996, when the company (by then having been renamed to Great American Broadcasting, then Citicasters) was acquired by Jacor Communications, which itself was acquired by ClearChannel in 1999.

ID (1984-1987)

• 
• 

Visuals: On a rotating space background, an orange "flash" occurs in the middle of the screen, making "TAFT" in an outlined blue 3D font zoom towards the bottom of the screen, where it stop, emits a blue glow and becomes 2D, with the byline "Television & Radio Co, Inc." appearing below. Meanwhile, the station's logo animates above the Taft logo.

Known Variants:

• WBRC: The station's "lined 6" logo and call letters simply zoom in above.
• WTVN: The station's logo and call letters zoom in after the text settles below.
• WCIX: The logo, "WCIX" in a thick futuristic font connected to a box with a thin numeral "6" within it and an additional bar reading "Miami - Ft. Lauderdale" zooms in, glowing blue. A later variant had the logo in 3D, cast in silver and shining after the zoom in.
• WDAF: The text "WDAF-TV, Kansas City", flanked by the NBC "Proud N" on the left and a "4" in a circle on the right, zooms in, glowing blue.
• WDCA: An abstract, gold "20" forms with gold trails, followed by the call letters in a similar effect, and "Washington, DC" flashes in below them.
• WTAF: The station's "29" logo in a shiny gold color "beams" in horizontally, and the call letters "flash" in below.
• WKRC: The station's "12" logo zooms in above, glowing blue.
• Ending Variant: The text is centered in the middle of the screen, and "A Presentation Of" is seen above the text. Copyright text in blue zooms in below.

Technique: Decent '80s CGI for the lettering, but the rotating background's a bit hokey.

Audio: A synth noise, followed by a "whoosh" noise and a synth chime. A local voiceover often accompanied the music.

Availability: It was only used in the mid-'80s as an ID on Taft-owned stations. Check old tapes.