KTCA

1st Logo (1970s-1979?)

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Visuals: On a black background, a white light spins around and zooms away from the screen towards the left. "KTCA" flashes in one letter at a time, then below that, "St. Paul", then "Minneapolis" flashes in. Finally, a white flash makes the logo disappear.

Technique: Lighting effects and cel animation.

Audio: None, or the opening theme.

Availability: A 1979 demo reel from the station has this logo.

2nd Logo (1978-1983)

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  Normal

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  Prototype

Visuals: On a black background, "F R O M" appears in a Courier-like font with a blue glow, followed by "MINNESOTA" in a thick font with a green glow. Rows of growing raindrops then fade in row-by-row, wiping away the text and then bringing in rows of growing snowflakes. The snowflakes then fade away and rows of blue waves wipe in. They then turn orange and descend to make room for "K T C A" in white and "MINNEAPOLIS ST PAUL" in sky blue, in the same font as the text in the beginning, with "K T C A" glowing orange before it dies down when the waves disappear.

Variant: A 1978 prototype variant exists. It's the same as the normal variant, except the "MINNESOTA" text at the beginning is green and in a different font, and the "K T C A MINNEAPOLIS ST PAUL" text is also in a different yellow font, and doesn't glow.

Technique: Cel animation with lighting effects.

Audio: A theme made of 5 horn notes and 3 guitar notes, which is followed by a reversed arrangement of the theme (3 horn notes, 5 guitar notes), which is repeated a couple of times and sounds like a mariachi band playing, each time going down in pitch with sort of a flourish at the end.

Availability: It was seen on Ping Chong & Meredith Monk: Paris, Encounters With Minnesota Artists and possibly the very first episodes of Newton's Apple. The prototype variant was only seen on From China To Us.

3rd Logo (1983-1990?)

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  Prototype

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  Normal

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  Normal with orange text

Visuals: On a light gray background, "KTCA" in a tubular font very similar to KQED's logo from around that time, constantly shining throughout the logo, along with "MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL", both colored pinkish-orange, fly away from the viewer from the bottom. About the same time, a rectangle containing water inside (possibly to represent the image of a lake) also flies in, but towards the viewer. They both rotate into a tilted position (plus the rectangle appears to flip for a bit), and when they join together, the screen fades out, though the water in the rectangle still creates little waves.

Variants:

• A prototype version exists with a few differences, with "KTCA" having different shine effects and the rectangle featuring live-action footage of a lake. The music is also high-pitched.
• A filmed variant of the prototype exists.
• A slower version exists where the music is pitched and sped down 25%, and the logo hangs at the end so that it matches up with the music.

Technique: CGI animation by Editel Hollywood on System IV.

Audio: A downward synthesized glockenspiel tune, then 5 synth-glockenspiel notes, then one last note held at the end. As a station ID, an announcer says "You are watching KTCA, Saint Paul · Minneapolis, Channel 2." over the logo's music.

Availability: Seen on Grant Wood's America, Channel 3 Moscow and more notably seen on '80s episodes of Newton's Apple.

4th ID (1988-2000)

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Visuals:

• Opening:
  • 1988-1989: On a black background with a blue spotlight, the "KTCA" logo from the previous logo moves to the left, along with a "2" in the same font, and "MINNEAPOLIS/SAINT PAUL" in Times New Roman underneath the logo, against a 2D forest. While doing that, a sun moves to the upper-right corner. Then some blocks featuring the letters of the words "A" and "MINNESOTA" drop down, while "Original" is written out in a cursive font, tilted at an angle, and "water ripples" occur.
  • 1989-1990: On the same background from the previous variant is the new logo, which is "KTCA" in a beige Aero Extended font, and a square "2" in that same color, with "SAINT PAUL - MINNEAPOLIS" on the bottom also in Aero Extended. The animation is identical, except the "2" rotates around in the opposite direction, and the letters "A MINNESOTA" are not inside blocks at the end, and are also in Aero Extended.
  • 1990-2000: Same as the previous variant, but after all the previous text is off the screen, the word "PRESENTS" in a thin, white Elephant font flashes in with a line of flashing orange dots. The "water ripples" still occur in the background.
• Closing:
  • 1988-1989: The logo is still (even though it has the "water rippling" effect), and the text underneath the logo says "PRODUCTION". The fonts are the same as the opening counterpart of the time.
  • 1989-2000: Again, the logo is still (with the water rippling) with "PRODUCTION" intact and in the same font as the opening variants of the time.

Technique: Computer effects.

Audio:

• Opening:
  • 1988-1990: A synth-orchestra jingle, with the sound of birds calling, as well as a female announcer saying "The following is a production of KTCA - a Minnesota original."
  • 1990-2000: The same orchestral tune mixed with a jazz piano tune and electronic drums as a male conductor says "One, two." and a female singing "Na-na-na-na-na!" A chord is synchronized into the last note.
• Closing: The same synth-orchestra jingle, but the announcer says "This program was produced by KTCA - a Minnesota original." It also has the beginning cut-off.

Availability: Some local shows and specials might carry this logo, such as My Mary, a special of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

5th ID (1989)

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Visuals: On a black background, the letters "kA" in Peignot slide apart to leave room for the letters "TC" also in Peignot, which slide down into place from the top of the screen. "A" appears above the text, followed by a yellow circle with footage of a loon chirping on a lake. "PRODUCTION" appears below as the loon continues chirping and turns its head.

Trivia: This logo appears to be a nod to the logo of MTM Enterprises (which already parodied Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer).

Technique: A mix of live action and camera-controlled/cel animation.

Audio: Silence, followed by the loon chirping with sounds of water rushing.

Availability: This was a custom variant only seen on My Mary, a special of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

6th ID (1989-2000)

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Visuals:

• Opening: On a blue background, the trees from the 4th logo pasted multiple times, along with part of the skyline of each city (Minneapolis and Saint Paul) are seen. Waves start to come in from the top left, revealing "KTCA" in Aero Extended over "SAINT PAUL" and "MINNEAPOLIS", both stacked under "KTCA" and in a smaller white print.
• Closing: The logo simply fades in, plus "PRODUCTION" appears on the bottom.

Variant: On NewsNight Minnesota, after the logo ripples, it stays for a few seconds, only to fade out to make space for "MPTV" in a tall font, which looks a bit similar to the font "Impact" but thinner, and "MINNESOTA PUBLIC TELEVISION" below it.

Trivia: This logo was based on its bumpers of the time when the new KTCA 2 logo was debuted in late 1989, in which its background appeared on everyday funding bumpers, the funding bumper before a show started and the bumper for KTCA's address at the end of every pledge breaks. However, the sign-off and credits with the background from this logo would not debut sometime around 1990. The 2 bumpers (the everyday funding bumpers and the funding bumper before the show started) were retired in fall of 1995 and were replaced by new bumpers (In the everyday funding bumpers, the background with trees and the silhouettes of the Minneapolis and Saint Paul skylines were replaced by realistic images of the Minneapolis and Saint Paul skylines with a water dripping effect over it and new age music playing in background, while the other bumper before the show started had the background from the 1989 logo replaced by footage of CGI/live-action objects that was used in the 1995 WNET ident and other bumpers from other PBS stations (except for the comedy shows in which it has footage from comedy shows such as Mr. Bean, The Red Green Show and Fawlty Towers instead), as part of the "If PBS Doesn't Do It, Who Will?" campaign, and a picture frame, with the logo of each show on it, scrolls to the left on the bottom of the screen and stops in the center as background footage switches to a moving fabric background with every variant of the background for every genre of the shows aired on KTCA (for example, news shows such as Nightly Business Report, Frontline and The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer has an American flag moving in the background, in which the stars are shown), while the background from the 1989 logo was still used for the address bumper at the end of every pledge breaks until 1997, when it was replaced by the same background from the everyday funding bumpers, but with no animation and it was static.

Technique: CGI animation.

Audio:

• Opening: A fantasy-oriented synth/piano theme with water sound effects. A longer version is heard at sign-off and the everyday funding bumpers (in which it was used until fall of 1995).
• Closing: A synth-bass note being held, as well as a "BONG!" sound. The music was done on the Roland D-50 synthesizer.

Availability: Can be seen on '90s episodes of Newton's Apple, as well as Once Upon a Tree when rerun on select PBS stations.

7th ID (October 14, 1994)

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Visuals: After the Kartemquin Films logo fades out, "and" is seen in the bottom right corner. Then a red light emerges from the center of the screen and the text fades out. "K T C A" in black with a blue outline appears. Under it is "PUBLIC TELEVISION" and "SAINT PAUL - MINNEAPOLIS" in 2 sets of lines below the text. The light stays on the screen.

Technique: Simple CGI animation.

Audio: None.

Availability: Seen on Hoop Dreams (not the original Turner VHS release however, as it goes straight to the movie after the Fine Line Features logo).

KTCA

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