KRON-TV - Station Logos

Station Logos

Since the 1970s, KRON-TV has used a logo with the design of the number four based upon the Golden Gate Bridge. The vertical component is a bridge tower, the horizontal component is a portion of the bridge deck, and the curve is a portion of a suspension cable. (This logo was used as early as April 1974, during coverage of a Symbionese Liberation Army bank robbery.) By about 1990-1991, this evolved into the "circle 4" logo in use to this day, with the 4 keeping the bridge-like design. Notably absent from KRON's on-air identity was the NBC Peacock logo, even during its days as an NBC affiliate (the station would use the peacock logo sparingly in select on-air promotions, notably in the late 1980s and 1990s to promote NBC Sports coverage of local teams such as the San Francisco Giants as well as joint news promo spots featuring NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Brokaw and local anchors Jim Paymar and Sylvia Chase).

Also in the 1970s, KRON used a logo for NewsWatch 4. At the top of this logo was the "Golden Gate Bridge 4" logo (the "4" was superimposed over the famous Golden Gate Bridge), and on the bottom was the text in a stylized font in capital letters, which read NEWSWATCH. They also used Fred Weinberg's NBC Newspulse as its music theme for NewsCenter 4. Later, in 1978, the newscast title was changed to NewsCenter 4 and KRON's news logo was changed to feature the word NewsCenter in Helvetica font next to the "4" logo (similar to the NewsCenter 4 branding pioneered by NBC's owned-and-operated stations such as WNBC and KNBC). This lasted until June 1984, when the NewsCenter text's font was changed.

A 3D animated Golden Gate ID was introduced in June 1984, where some station IDs and newscast openings included animations wherein the "4" logo was superimposed upon a section of the bridge. There were two versions of this station ID: daytime and nighttime. In the early days of this station ID, the same music cue used for the early '80s' C Channel station was used. Later that year, a new music cue was used on the ID and was used until 1987. When KRON overhauled their set and debuted the foghorn music package in June 1987, a new updated music cue was used on the ID until 1989.

In addition, when "DayBreak" was changed on September 1, 1986, the DayBreak Sun (which mirrored that of NBC's Today Show) was used in the news openings/closings of the program with the Golden Gate Bridge being put on the other side of the sun.

The NewsCenter 4 logo was changed in 1978. The "4" was placed in a square and the bolder NewsCenter text appeared next to it. In 1984, the logo was changed again to feature the word NewsCenter in a new font (same as the font used for NBC News programming in the early-to-mid 1980s). The "4" was italicized and the square was removed. This logo was used until 1988. In 1991, the current circle 4 logo is introduced.