WXYZ-TV first signed on the air on October 9, 1948, as the second television station in both Detroit and Michigan and the 39th of the nation, over a year behind WWJ-TV, now WDIV-TV) and 15 days ahead of WJBK-TV. It was also the third of ABC's five original owned-and-operated television stations to sign on, after WABC-TV in New York City and WLS-TV in Chicago, and before KGO-TV in San Francisco and KABC-TV in Los Angeles. WXYZ-TV was created out of ABC-owned radio station WXYZ (1270 AM, now WXYT).
1955–1958[]
1958–1961[]
1961–1966[]
1962–present[]
1962–2001[]
Designer:
G. Dean Smith
Typography:
Unknown
Launched:
1962
In 1962, ABC commissioned designer G. Dean Smith to create a proprietary logo for its owned-and-operated stations, known as the "Circle 7". This logo has since expanded into use by many ABC stations not owned by the network. It predates Paul Rand'sABC logo by 4 months.
When Capital Cities announced its merger with then-owner ABC in 1985; in order to comply with the FCC ownership limits at the time, ABC opted to sell WXYZ-TV to The E.W. Scripps Company, who also planned on acquiring future ABC sister station WFTS-TV in Tampa–St. Petersburg from Capital Cities; despite the sale, the station has kept the ABC circle 7 logo to this day; it is now no longer proprietary to the network's owned-and-operated stations on channel 7.
2001-present[]
In 2001, the Circle 7 was modified with a slightly thicker stroke.
1KZTV is owned by SagamoreHill Broadcasting, but it is programmed and operated by Scripps under a Shared Services Agreement. 2WFLX is owned by Gray Television, but is programmed and operated by Scripps under a Shared Services Agreement.