WGBH idents

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Television station WGBH Boston has been a major source of PBS programming for over four decades, and over the last three decades, its identification and sounder has appeared at the beginning or end of its national shows accompanied by different animating graphics.

[edit] 1st ident

In 1972, WGBH introduced its first ident and the synth jingle. The logo begins with the letters "WGBH" in a yellow Helvetica font zooming out away from the viewer to a green background. Then the word "Boston" zooms forward from the center and engulfs the screen and changes the background to yellow, and "Presents" slowly zooms forward in green. A black and white version was introduced in 1974. The music begins with a choppy, futuristic computer-type synth, followed by a rising synth violin stinger; all elements probably produced on a MOOG synthesizer.

This logo is extremely rare, but can be found on tapes of old WGBH programming such as 1972-78 episodes of ZOOM, a few classic episodes of Julia Child's The French Chef, and pre-1978 NOVA episodes on VHS.

[edit] 2nd ident

In late 1978, the WGBH ident was changed. The logo begins with two tiny, moving lights forming two orange two-dimensional "shadows" on the top and bottom of the screen. The lights then draw an orange outline of "WGBH" in the center of the screen between the "shadows". Once the lights finish the logo, an orange flash starts behind the outline, which morphs into "Boston Presents". The music is the same as that of the 1972 logo. Sometime in the mid or late 1980's this ident was shortened to just the latter half, with its jagged electronic music and eerie animation reported to have scared many younger viewers. A more "viewer friendly" version was introduced in 1993 and moved to the end of shows where one might not expect. This jingle features the "WGBH" logo already formed as an orange flash starts under the outline and "B O S T O N" appears under it. The music features just the rising synth chord. Occasionally, an announcer would say "A production of WGBH Boston".