From now on, the W in WGBH is silent

WGBH announced today it's changing its official name from WGBH to just GBH because we live in an online world and they're just a media source in it.

For nearly 70 years, the W in WGBH’s call letters reflected that it was a broadcast licensee east of the Mississippi River (while most licensees on the west side have call letters beginning with a K). But with more than half of its audience impressions coming via digital platforms, the public media pioneer dropped the "W" to better reflect its leadership in the new media environment.

Of course, for more than 70 years, the GBH in WGBH's call letters reflected that it was a broadcast licensee with an antenna atop the Great Blue Hill, which most of its audience outside of Massachusetts has likely never heard of, but in the new media environment, the audience can look up the meaning on Google.

While its local TV and radio broadcast stations will always be important, the new branding recognizes GBH’s commitment to on-demand and digital-first content for audiences nationwide through streaming, apps, podcasts, social media, educational curricula and virtual events.

Also, fans of logos, fonts and the color purple will be excited to learn:

The new logo retains the look of the iconic ‘drop shadow’ that Chermayeff & Geismar originally designed in the early ‘70s. The font will change to the clean and modern Red Hat, which functions better digitally. The iconic audio mark, also known as the sting, or the sound that audiences hear at the end of GBH-produced content, will not change. The new primary brand color will be a vibrant, digital-first shade of purple. Equality, wisdom, empathy, creativity and resilience are all associated with purple and align with GBH’s core brand values.