Field Communications

Background

Field Communications was a company which built its first station, WFLD in Chicago (the call letters of WFLD stand for Field Communications), in 1966. The company would later acquire Kaiser Broadcasting (including all but two of their stations) in 1977 and was later shut down in 1984 after selling its last station, WKBD in Detroit, to Cox Communications (it had begun its liquidation process when it sold WFLD to Metromedia in 1983 (Metromedia was in turn sold to Fox in 1986 when the Fox Broadcasting network first signed on, and had WFLD as one of its charter owned-and-operated stations, former sister station WKBD also became a charter affiliate) and would then sell KBHK in San Francisco to United Television and WLVI in Boston to Gannett, WKBS in Philadelphia would instead shut down).

1st (known) Logo (1977-mid January 1979)

Visuals: Against a black background, there are the words "FIELD COMMUNICATIONS" in yellow, and in a font with pointy serifs.

Technique: A still, printed graphic.

Audio: A four-note Moog synthesizer tune with an ascending synth flourish, with a male announcer saying "This is Field Communications in (city name)".

Availability: Early home video recordings from Field stations may contain this.

2nd ID (1978-1984)

Visuals: On a black background, the 3D top of "Field" and the bottom of "Communications" below it, face the viewer. The two words flip upwards and downwards respectively while zooming out to the middle.

Variant: A version with a chyroned-in copyright exists.

Technique: Scanimate produced by Image West. The words are likely physical models that were enhanced with the Scanimate process.

Audio: An ascending piano crescendo followed by a seven-note piano tune which is then followed by a "ting" sound while a synth hum is in the background. This is a variant of Field's "The Choice Is Yours" campaign.

Audio Variant: Sometimes, there will be an announcer (often Darwin Gillette) saying "This is Field Communications in (city name)" like the last logo.

Availability: Likely seen on off-air recordings of the Field stations from this era, and also appears on a 1980 Field sales tape. The version without announcer is available on a 1979 demo reel from Image West.