LBC - a history in logos

The Lebanese Broadcasting Station has itself a new logo not long after a rebrand in 2010. Back to back rebranding can be to put it mildly, confusing. Not to mention costly for a TV station (those microphones you see on air need to be done outside Lebanon, without mentioning the trucks, logistics, and a zillion other items). I am not sure what the rationale of the rebranding is.

Now the logo is very "meh." But just like the new yahoo! logo which did not leave everyone speechless, I guess we will end up getting used to it. Actually, maybe that's the idea - a logo so inoffensive, so bland and 2D (despite the drop shadow under international) it does not distract from the website or from the news.

Or perhaps the other logo they used was too close to ABC for comfort?

Apparently, the logo was done in-house (the one that resembles ABC) after pitching no less than 8 international branding companies and finding them wanting (I shall not engage in rumors but I have inside knowledge that a certain highly placed person in LBC simply said - "just give me the ABC logo" prior to the final decision-making meeting).

Now if we go back in history, we will find this logo which served LBC for a long time and was synonymous with the no holds barred approach of expansion at the time. So yes, the world was not enough and on they went for a major expansion of their brand and image. Note I am not even approaching the many legal problems surrounding LBC but simply trying to contextualize what their logo implied.

And the above? Well, the above is the first logo of LBC. Mind you, LBC was the channel which introduced the word "good morning" to Lebanese audiences (as uttered by their star speakerine at the time Dalida Baroud) because Tele Liban - the only channel which was legal to broadcast in Lebanon (so yes, LBC originally was a pirate station) - would only open at 2 P.M. with what was known as "Souwar wa mousiqa" (Mire+musique).

It might sound strange that it is the logo above which I am partial to. I know it is outdated, and it served its purposes - but it had character and presence. And maybe instead of ditching it altogether, they could have lifted it slightly to suit the passing of the ages. But at least it conveyed something. Then again, at the time, LBC did stand for "something" - love it or loathe it.