WGBH idents

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.

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 1973. 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.

2nd ident

In 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 1990'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. This shortened version features the "WGBH" logo already formed as an orange flash starts under the outline and "B O S T O N" appears under it, with the jingle shortened to just the rising synth chord. Occasionally, an announcer would say "A production of WGBH Boston".

3rd ident

The third WGBH ident, premiered in 2002, is in the form of a 3D-generated series of neon light tubes filling, then the WGBH logo zooming back to reveal it to be the WGBH logo with lens flare. When the WGBH logo fades out, the "2" logo lights up in white. Unlike the first two idents, this ident is only found on WGBH-TV itself and not its national shows.