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From now on, the W in WGBH is silent

Just GBH now

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.

New GBH logo, in purple
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Comments

they named it after a date rape drug?

or is that GHB

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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,

Nah.. its God Bless Harvard :p

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The band was named after a criminal offense in England: Grievous Bodily Harm.

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Glad I wasn’t alone in thinking this

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Is there a particular reason why they are doing this, or were they just bored? Why mess with something that's not broken?

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From highly paid marketing people who have to justify their existence. What a crock of poo.

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The usual thing is that there's a new member of upper management who wants to make something different, so they hire a branding consultant. Because that's what such people do.

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$50,000? More?

Like something was wrong with their brand? Half of people call it 'GBH anyway.

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More.

Remember that the next time they ask for a donation.

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hat s he trangest hing I ver eard. ho ame p ith hat dea? akes o ense.

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Am I going to have to bookmark a new URL?

The world is full of obscure acronym names that are no longer relevant, if they ever were. (New York radio station call letters include WINS and WEVD.) Or non-acronyms,like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Lakers.

On the other hand, "GBH" is half as long to say as "WGBH," and maybe that's what they're aiming for.

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It was just the call letters the station happened to be issued. This was well before the FCC began issuing "customized' call letters if a station requested them - like how Channel 56 became WLVI.

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WINS- was for Hearst's International News Service when it got those calls in 1934- 1010 WINS is enough of a brand in New York that even Entercom isn't dumb enough to mess with it

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"The station was bought by William Randolph Hearst in 1932. That same year, effective January 15, it adopted its present call sign, named after Hearst's International News Service" Source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WINS_(AM)

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That's the first thing I thought of. Nowadays, changing your name is also changing your address. Are more people gonna suddenly be interested in them and their fresh identity than just can't find them anymore?

I love the left end of the dial in this town, but I wouldn't say WGB... erm, jibieych, catered to many people in the under-70 set. If anyone has trouble finding their station on the internet, it's gonna be GBH listeners.

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They're trying to attract more listeners in places like Atertown, Ellesley, Altham, Inchester, and of course, Joe Kennedy's favorite, Orchester.

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digital-first shade of purple

It's the Blue Steel of purple.

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Name change not gonna fly.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GBH_(band)

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Ah, following the Dunkin Donuts model.

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Why not WWWGBH?

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What Would WGBH Do

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This reads that a station is required to ID their station using the full call sign and when.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2010-title47-vol4/pdf/CFR-2010-t...

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...you let the MBAs take over what's supposed to be an educational institution.

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How else would one know Zoom was on?
I know there are thousands of more important things to think about but, I’m going to miss the spinning WGBH.

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Best part of the video is the McDonald’s ad at the end! Straying a bit from “noncommercial” even then.

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