WTTW
Encyclopedia
WTTW channel 11 is one of three Public Broadcasting Service
(PBS) member public television stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC
and WYIN
. WTTW began broadcasting on September 6, 1955 and it is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications, Inc., a not-for-profit broadcasting entity. Programming on WTTW is funded in part by financial support of viewers and by other not-for-profit organizations such as the Corporation For Public Broadcasting
. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility in the city’s North Park
section and a classical music radio station WFMT
located at 98.7 FM. WTTW, along with Madison, Wisconsin
's Wisconsin Public Television
affiliate WHA-TV, serves the nearby Rockford, Illinois
market via cable television
: Rockford is one of the few markets in the country without a PBS station of its own.
; Daley, Ryerson and businessman Irving B. Harris were responsible for creating WTTW, which began its life as an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry
in Chicago. The call letters came about because the founders wanted the station to be Chicago's Window To The World. The station's transmitter was given to WTTW by the staff and management of the defunct KS2XBS, a pay-television station that was bumped off the air from Channel 2 by WBBM-TV
.
Mr. Ryerson recruited a young communications lawyer to join the station's Board, and Newton N. Minow
would both chair the WTTW board and also serve President John F. Kennedy
as FCC Commissioner. Irving B. Harris, Henry W. "Brick" Meers, John W. McCarter, Jr., Martin J. "Mike" Koldyke and Sandra P. Guthman are the other individuals who have served this public broadcasting giant as Chairman of the Board. Guthman, a member of the famous Polk Brothers
family of Chicago, is the current Chairman of the Board.
Newt Minow is fond of saying that the only really important decision that he made as Chair of WTTW was to recruit William J. McCarter, Jr., as President and CEO, a post he held for 27 years. Having run public station WETA in Washington, D.C.
, McCarter, a decorated Korean War hero, and a veteran television pioneer, cut his teeth first as the cameraman on American Bandstand
and then as a part of the Army-McCarthy hearings
on the Hill. McCarter developed the concept of the political roundtable that is a staple of television formats today. In public television circles, McCarter is referred to as the "architect" of public television. (His friends know him as the man who kicked Bob Dylan
out of his office—Dylan was there to tape a SoundStage
and had found McCarter's office, which had a couch, and off he went to sleep. McCarter, returning from a meeting, found a sleeping bearded guy on his couch, woke him up, and ushered him out of his office).
During the 1960s, WTTW aired educational programming during the day, showing programs produced under the auspices of CAST, or Chicago Area Schools Television. Programs from "TV College", covering college subjects, were also shown on weekdays. Other afternoon shows included the locally produced The Storyteller, which featured a children's story presented weekdays at 5:30 pm, and was sponsored by local department store Marshall Field & Company. WTTW was an affiliate of National Educational Television
(NET) and continued its affiliation when that organization became the Public Broadcasting Service
. Back then, WTTW was off the air on Saturdays until mid-1972 when WTTW aired progamming only until 2:00 pm. In 1974, Saturday programming extended for a full day.
Chicago
magazine started as the program guide for WTTW. It was sold off in 1986.
mask. This was the second incident of that night involving the interruption of a television station's broadcast signal, with the first taking place during WGN-TV’s
News at Nine. While WGN-TV’s analog transmitter is atop the John Hancock Center
and thus engineers were almost immediately able to thwart the video hacker by changing the studio-to-transmitter frequency, WTTW's transmitter was atop the Sears Tower
(now Willis Tower) which made it harder to stop the hacker before almost two minutes of the interruption. These stations are two of only three existing victims of what is called broadcast signal intrusion
. Subscription television network HBO was the other victim; its signal was intercepted during a movie broadcast in April 1986.
and the music program SoundStage
.
WTTW produced The Frugal Gourmet with Jeff Smith
in the 1980s. The station produced hundreds of significant arts programs, highlighting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
, the Lyric Opera of Chicago
and the Ravinia Festival. Its Chicago Matters series is perhaps the preeminent local journalism collaboration in the country, involving television, radio and print, and dialogue at the highest levels of articulation; the series is underwritten by The Chicago Community Trust.
However, the most famous show ever to originate at WTTW was Sneak Previews
, the first movie review show on television. The show began in 1975 with hosts Roger Ebert
and Gene Siskel
and was later hosted by Michael Medved
and Jeffrey Lyons
when Siskel and Ebert moved into syndication
(starting the show At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
and later Siskel & Ebert & the Movies). Sneak Previews was cancelled in 1996. In January 2011, WTTW produced a new movie review program called Ebert presents At the Movies, hosted by Christy Lemire
and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Ebert himself hosting a segment called "Roger's Office".
WTTW has produced over 110 SoundStage shows from its Chicago studios, the first of which featured Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters
surrounded by his young proteges: Dr. John
, Junior Wells
, Michael Bloomfield
, Koko Taylor
, Rollo Radford, Buddy Guy
, Nick Gravenities, Buddy Miles
and his long-time collaborator, pianist Otis Spann
among others.
WTTW also produces the news magazine and analysis program Chicago Tonight
, hosted by Phil Ponce
. The program began as a half-hour panel interview program with local broadcast journalist John Callaway
, but was later expanded to an hour with the addition of arts and restaurant reviews and other features.
Other popular programs produced by WTTW have included the early art-video show Image Union, CEO Exchange
, restaurant review show Check, Please!
, cooking show Mexico: One Plate at a Time
, children's shows Lamb Chop's Play-Along
and WordWorld
and the irreverent magazine series Wild Chicago
. In addition, WTTW features documentaries written, produced and hosted by Geoffrey Baer, spotlighting the history and culture of various parts of the Chicago area. These programs are very popular and often result in a high volume of monetary contributions to the station.
One of the popular Shows in WTTW is The Artsiders produced by Kai Harding, Inc. and created by former Big Idea director Chris Olsen. Olsen has just finished directing the THREADS films which include Threads: A Pond Full of Pigs and Threads: Things That Go Puff in the Dark with the now defunct CGI digital studio Motion Picture Studios.
WTTW also has plans for a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 11.1, lbroadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.
The local cable franchise Comcast
currently retransmits WTTW (analog), WTTWD1 and WTTWD2. Create and V-me are transmitted over the air at 480i.
Previously, WTTW-HD/11.1 was branded as WTTW-Digital and featured a full-time high definition program schedule, while 11.2 transmitted the same schedule as analog channel 11. Starting in late 2008, channels 11.1 and 11.2 shared the same programing schedule. On March 30, 2009, WTTW Prime was launched on 11.2. WTTW Prime includes a combination of PBS prime time programing and WTTW's locally produced programing, including during the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. period when WTTW 11 runs children's programming. The WTTW Prime schedule returns some PBS programming to its traditional times, including a public affairs block Friday evening and the Nightly Business Report
at 5:30 p.m. WTTW Prime is also available to Comcast
digital cable subscribers on channel 370.
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion
, WTTW shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 47. However, through the use of PSIP
, digital television receivers display WTTW's virtual channel
as 11. Also, the "WTTW" callsign was officially transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 11 to digital channel 47 and the "WTTW-DT" callsign used to identify digital channel 47 during the pre-transition era was officially discontinued.
WTTW transmits its HD programming in 1080i, over the air, and to subscribing cable systems. Prior to the fall of 2009, WTTW transmitted its primary over-the-air signal in 720p, with HD programming converted from the original 1080i.
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(PBS) member public television stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC
WYCC
WYCC is a Public Broadcasting Service memebr public television in Chicago, Illinois which broadcasts over digital channel 21, also reached as 20.1, and two other digital channels, 20.2 and 20.3...
and WYIN
WYIN
WYIN, virtual channel 56, is a public television station in Gary, Indiana, serving the Indiana side of the Chicago, Illinois market on channel 17 as a Public Broadcasting Service member television station. Transmitting from Cedar Lake, Indiana, and with studios and offices in Merrillville,...
. WTTW began broadcasting on September 6, 1955 and it is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications, Inc., a not-for-profit broadcasting entity. Programming on WTTW is funded in part by financial support of viewers and by other not-for-profit organizations such as the Corporation For Public Broadcasting
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a non-profit corporation created by an act of the United States Congress, funded by the United States’ federal government to promote public broadcasting...
. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility in the city’s North Park
North Park, Chicago
North Park is one of 77 well-defined community areas of the City of Chicago. It is bordered by the North Shore Channel on the east, the Chicago River's North Branch and Foster Avenue on the south, Cicero Avenue on the west and Devon Avenue on the...
section and a classical music radio station WFMT
WFMT
WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk and jazz). The station is managed by Window To The World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, one of Chicago's two Public Broadcasting Service ...
located at 98.7 FM. WTTW, along with Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
's Wisconsin Public Television
Wisconsin Public Television
Wisconsin Public Television is a state network of public television stations operated primarily by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin–Extension...
affiliate WHA-TV, serves the nearby Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
market via cable television
Cable television
Cable television is a system of providing television programs to consumers via radio frequency signals transmitted to televisions through coaxial cables or digital light pulses through fixed optical fibers located on the subscriber's property, much like the over-the-air method used in traditional...
: Rockford is one of the few markets in the country without a PBS station of its own.
History
WTTW was founded by a group of civic-minded Chicagoans, led by Inland Steel executive Edward R. Ryerson. The station came to life in the first year of the first term of Mayor Richard J. DaleyRichard J. Daley
Richard Joseph Daley served for 21 years as the mayor and undisputed Democratic boss of Chicago and is considered by historians to be the "last of the big city bosses." He played a major role in the history of the Democratic Party, especially with his support of John F...
; Daley, Ryerson and businessman Irving B. Harris were responsible for creating WTTW, which began its life as an exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry
Museum of Science and Industry
MOSI may refer to:* MoSi — molybdenum silicide, an important material in the semiconductor industry* MOSI - Master Out Slave In, a signal on the Serial Peripheral Interface Bus* MOSI protocol, an extension of the basic MSI cache coherency protocol...
in Chicago. The call letters came about because the founders wanted the station to be Chicago's Window To The World. The station's transmitter was given to WTTW by the staff and management of the defunct KS2XBS, a pay-television station that was bumped off the air from Channel 2 by WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV
WBBM-TV, virtual channel 2 , is the CBS owned-and-operated television station in Chicago, Illinois. WBBM-TV's main studios and offices are located in The Loop section of Chicago, as part of the development at Block 37, and its transmitter is atop the Willis Tower.-History:WBBM-TV traces its history...
.
Mr. Ryerson recruited a young communications lawyer to join the station's Board, and Newton N. Minow
Newton N. Minow
Newton Norman Minow is an American attorney and former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. His speech referring to television as a "vast wasteland" is cited even as the speech has passed its 50th anniversary...
would both chair the WTTW board and also serve President John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
as FCC Commissioner. Irving B. Harris, Henry W. "Brick" Meers, John W. McCarter, Jr., Martin J. "Mike" Koldyke and Sandra P. Guthman are the other individuals who have served this public broadcasting giant as Chairman of the Board. Guthman, a member of the famous Polk Brothers
Polk Brothers
Polk Brothers was a large home appliance and electronics retailer in Chicago, Illinois that had 17 stores in the region at its peak in the 1980s....
family of Chicago, is the current Chairman of the Board.
Newt Minow is fond of saying that the only really important decision that he made as Chair of WTTW was to recruit William J. McCarter, Jr., as President and CEO, a post he held for 27 years. Having run public station WETA in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, McCarter, a decorated Korean War hero, and a veteran television pioneer, cut his teeth first as the cameraman on American Bandstand
American Bandstand
American Bandstand is an American music-performance show that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989 and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as producer...
and then as a part of the Army-McCarthy hearings
Army-McCarthy Hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between April 1954 and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the United States Army and Senator Joseph McCarthy...
on the Hill. McCarter developed the concept of the political roundtable that is a staple of television formats today. In public television circles, McCarter is referred to as the "architect" of public television. (His friends know him as the man who kicked Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
out of his office—Dylan was there to tape a SoundStage
Soundstage (TV program)
Soundstage is an American live concert television series produced by WTTW Chicago and HD Ready. The original series aired for 13 seasons between 1974 and 1985; a new series of seasons began in 2003, with the latest running through summer 2009, each presented in high definition with surround...
and had found McCarter's office, which had a couch, and off he went to sleep. McCarter, returning from a meeting, found a sleeping bearded guy on his couch, woke him up, and ushered him out of his office).
During the 1960s, WTTW aired educational programming during the day, showing programs produced under the auspices of CAST, or Chicago Area Schools Television. Programs from "TV College", covering college subjects, were also shown on weekdays. Other afternoon shows included the locally produced The Storyteller, which featured a children's story presented weekdays at 5:30 pm, and was sponsored by local department store Marshall Field & Company. WTTW was an affiliate of National Educational Television
National Educational Television
National Educational Television was an American non-commercial educational public television network in the United States from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970...
(NET) and continued its affiliation when that organization became the Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
. Back then, WTTW was off the air on Saturdays until mid-1972 when WTTW aired progamming only until 2:00 pm. In 1974, Saturday programming extended for a full day.
Chicago
Chicago (magazine)
Chicago is a monthly magazine published by the Tribune Company. It concentrates on lifestyle and human interest stories, and on reviewing restaurants, travel, fashion, and theatre from or nearby Chicago. Its circulation in 2004 was 165,000, larger than People in its market...
magazine started as the program guide for WTTW. It was sold off in 1986.
Max Headroom pirating incident
On November 22, 1987, WTTW had its signal hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max HeadroomMax Headroom (character)
Max Headroom is a fictional British artificial intelligence, known for his wit and stuttering, distorted, electronically sampled voice. The character was created by George Stone, Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton in the mid nineteen eighties, and portrayed by Matt Frewer as "The World's first...
mask. This was the second incident of that night involving the interruption of a television station's broadcast signal, with the first taking place during WGN-TV’s
WGN-TV
WGN-TV, virtual channel 9 , is the CW-affiliated television station in Chicago, Illinois built, signed on, and owned by the Tribune Company. WGN-TV's studios and offices are located at 2501 W...
News at Nine. While WGN-TV’s analog transmitter is atop the John Hancock Center
John Hancock Center
John Hancock Center at 875 North Michigan Avenue in the Streeterville area of Chicago, Illinois, is a 100-story, 1,127-foot tall skyscraper, constructed under the supervision of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, with chief designer Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan...
and thus engineers were almost immediately able to thwart the video hacker by changing the studio-to-transmitter frequency, WTTW's transmitter was atop the Sears Tower
Sears Tower
Sears' optimistic growth projections were not met. Competition from its traditional rivals continued, with new competition by retailing giants such as Kmart, Kohl's, and Wal-Mart. The fortunes of Sears & Roebuck declined in the 1970s as the company lost market share; its management grew more...
(now Willis Tower) which made it harder to stop the hacker before almost two minutes of the interruption. These stations are two of only three existing victims of what is called broadcast signal intrusion
Broadcast signal intrusion
Broadcast signal intrusion is a term given to the act of hijacking broadcast signals of radio and television stations. Hijacking incidents have involved local TV and radio stations as well as cable and national networks.- Method of intrusion :...
. Subscription television network HBO was the other victim; its signal was intercepted during a movie broadcast in April 1986.
Programming
WTTW distributes its programs to public television stations independently of PBS. Its most prominent productions include The McLaughlin GroupThe McLaughlin Group
The McLaughlin Group is a syndicated half-hour weekly public affairs television program in the United States, where a group of five pundits discuss current political issues in a round table format. It has been broadcast since 1982, and is currently sponsored by MetLife...
and the music program SoundStage
Soundstage (TV program)
Soundstage is an American live concert television series produced by WTTW Chicago and HD Ready. The original series aired for 13 seasons between 1974 and 1985; a new series of seasons began in 2003, with the latest running through summer 2009, each presented in high definition with surround...
.
WTTW produced The Frugal Gourmet with Jeff Smith
Jeff Smith (TV personality)
Jeffrey L. Smith was the author of a dozen best-selling cookbooks and the host of The Frugal Gourmet, a popular American cooking show which began in Tacoma, Washington around 1973 and aired on PBS from 1983 to 1997 , and numbered 261 episodes.-Early life:Jeff Smith was born on January 22, 1939...
in the 1980s. The station produced hundreds of significant arts programs, highlighting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1891, the Symphony makes its home at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and plays a summer season at the Ravinia Festival...
, the Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1952, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicolà Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria Callas's American debut in Norma...
and the Ravinia Festival. Its Chicago Matters series is perhaps the preeminent local journalism collaboration in the country, involving television, radio and print, and dialogue at the highest levels of articulation; the series is underwritten by The Chicago Community Trust.
However, the most famous show ever to originate at WTTW was Sneak Previews
Sneak Previews
Sneak Previews was an American film review show, running for over two decades on Public Broadcasting Service . It was created by WTTW, a PBS affiliate in Chicago, Illinois. It premiered on September 4, 1975 as a monthly local-only show called Opening Soon at a Theater Near You, and was renamed in...
, the first movie review show on television. The show began in 1975 with hosts Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
and Gene Siskel
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal "Gene" Siskel was an American film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted the popular review show Siskel & Ebert At the Movies from 1975 until his death....
and was later hosted by Michael Medved
Michael Medved
Michael Medved is an American radio host, author, political commentator and film critic. His Seattle, Washington-based nationally syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the U.S...
and Jeffrey Lyons
Jeffrey Lyons (television critic)
Jeffrey Lyons is an American television and film critic.-Life and career:Lyons was born in New York City, one of the four sons of Sylvia and Leonard Lyons...
when Siskel and Ebert moved into syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
(starting the show At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert
At the Movies was a movie review television program that aired from 1982 to 1990. It was produced by Tribune Entertainment and created by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, who had left Sneak Previews the previous year....
and later Siskel & Ebert & the Movies). Sneak Previews was cancelled in 1996. In January 2011, WTTW produced a new movie review program called Ebert presents At the Movies, hosted by Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire is the film critic for The Associated Press and co-host of Ebert Presents at the Movies with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. She also co-hosts the weekly online movie review show, What The Flick?!....
and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Ebert himself hosting a segment called "Roger's Office".
WTTW has produced over 110 SoundStage shows from its Chicago studios, the first of which featured Chicago blues legend Muddy Waters
Muddy Waters
McKinley Morganfield , known as Muddy Waters, was an American blues musician, generally considered the "father of modern Chicago blues"...
surrounded by his young proteges: Dr. John
Dr. John
Malcolm John "Mac" Rebennack, Jr. , better known by the stage name Dr. John , is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and guitarist, whose music combines blues, pop, jazz as well as Zydeco, boogie woogie and rock and roll.Active as a session musician since the late 1950s, he came to wider...
, Junior Wells
Junior Wells
Junior Wells , born Amos Wells Blakemore Jr., was an American Chicago blues vocalist, harmonica player, and recording artist...
, Michael Bloomfield
Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969–70...
, Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor
Koko Taylor sometimes spelled KoKo Taylor was an American Chicago blues musician, popularly known as the "Queen of the Blues." She was known primarily for her rough, powerful vocals and traditional blues stylings....
, Rollo Radford, Buddy Guy
Buddy Guy
George "Buddy" Guy is an American blues and jazz guitarist and singer. He is a critically acclaimed artist who has established himself as a pioneer of the Chicago blues sound, and has served as an influence to some of the most notable musicians of his generation...
, Nick Gravenities, Buddy Miles
Buddy Miles
George Allen Miles, Jr. , known as Buddy Miles, was an American rock and funk drummer, most known as a founding member of The Electric Flag in 1967, then as a member of Jimi Hendrix's Band of Gypsys from 1969 through to January 1970.-Early life:George Allen Miles was born in Omaha, Nebraska on...
and his long-time collaborator, pianist Otis Spann
Otis Spann
Otis Spann was an American blues musician, who many consider the leading postwar Chicago blues pianist.-Career:Born in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, Spann became known for his distinct piano style....
among others.
WTTW also produces the news magazine and analysis program Chicago Tonight
Chicago Tonight
Chicago Tonight is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on WTTW in Chicago. Chicago Tonight reports primarily on local news and presents features showcasing local artists and events. The show started in 1984 and for 15 years popular Chicago broadcast journalist John Callaway...
, hosted by Phil Ponce
Phil Ponce
Phil Ponce is a Chicago television journalist who hosts Chicago Tonight, a nightly television magazine of news and culture on WTTW 11.Ponce grew up in East Chicago, Indiana, and graduated from Bishop Noll Institute in Hammond. He then attended Indiana University and received a B.A. in English in...
. The program began as a half-hour panel interview program with local broadcast journalist John Callaway
John Callaway (journalist)
John Callaway was an American journalist, who appeared on radio and television as a host, interviewer and moderator...
, but was later expanded to an hour with the addition of arts and restaurant reviews and other features.
Other popular programs produced by WTTW have included the early art-video show Image Union, CEO Exchange
CEO Exchange
CEO Exchange is a television program featuring conversations between the host and two CEO guests, often from related industries. It is hosted by Jeff Greenfield of CNN. The show was distributed by WTTW to public television stations...
, restaurant review show Check, Please!
Check, Please!
Check, Please! is a popular restaurant review program that airs on Chicago's PBS member station WTTW. The show first aired in 2001.The format of the show is very simple: three everyday people, from anywhere in the greater Chicago area, sit down with a host to discuss three eating establishments,...
, cooking show Mexico: One Plate at a Time
Mexico: One Plate at a Time
Mexico: One Plate at a Time is a television series starring chef Rick Bayless distributed to public television stations by WTTW. The show is currently broadcasting its seventh season...
, children's shows Lamb Chop's Play-Along
Lamb Chop's Play-Along
Lamb Chop's Play-Along is a children's television series that was shown on PBS in the United States from 1992 until 1997, as well as on YTV in Canada. It was created and hosted by puppeteer Shari Lewis, and featured her puppet character Lamb Chop. Appropriately, Lamb Chop was a sheep; other...
and WordWorld
WordWorld
WordWorld is a three-time Emmy Award-winning children's television series partially funded by the United States Department of Education as part of the Ready To Learn literacy initiative targeted to 3- to 7-year olds. The show airs in 10 languages and 90 countries, including in the United States....
and the irreverent magazine series Wild Chicago
Wild Chicago
Wild Chicago was a television series that aired on Chicago's WTTW from 1988 to 2006. The show took viewers on a trip through Chicago's "urban jungle", highlighting hundreds of offbeat and unusual people, places, and events in the metropolitan area...
. In addition, WTTW features documentaries written, produced and hosted by Geoffrey Baer, spotlighting the history and culture of various parts of the Chicago area. These programs are very popular and often result in a high volume of monetary contributions to the station.
One of the popular Shows in WTTW is The Artsiders produced by Kai Harding, Inc. and created by former Big Idea director Chris Olsen. Olsen has just finished directing the THREADS films which include Threads: A Pond Full of Pigs and Threads: Things That Go Puff in the Dark with the now defunct CGI digital studio Motion Picture Studios.
Digital television
| Channel | Video Display resolution The display resolution of a digital television or display device is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed. It can be an ambiguous term especially as the displayed resolution is controlled by all different factors in cathode ray tube , flat panel or projection... |
Aspect Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
Name | Programming |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11.1 | 1080i 1080i 1080i is the shorthand name for a high-definition television mode. The i means interlaced video; 1080i differs from 1080p, in which the p stands for progressive scan. The term 1080i assumes a widescreen aspect ratio of 16:9, implying a frame size of 1920×1080 pixels... |
16:9 | WTTW-HD | Main WTTW Programming / PBS Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia.... HD High-definition television High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD... |
| 11.2 | 480i 480i 480i is the shorthand name for a video mode, namely the US NTSC television system or digital television systems with the same characteristics. The i, which is sometimes uppercase, stands for interlaced, the 480 for a vertical frame resolution of 480 lines containing picture information; while NTSC... |
4:3 | WTTW-DT2 | PBS Encore "WTTW Prime" |
| 11.3 | WTTW-DT3 | Create | ||
| 11.4 | WTTW-DT4 | V-me V-me V-me is a public television service in the United States, broadcasting only in Spanish. The 24-hour digital broadcast service was launched on March 5, 2007, and is currently available in over 75% of all U.S... |
WTTW also has plans for a Mobile DTV feed of subchannel 11.1, lbroadcasting at 1.83 Mbit/s.
The local cable franchise Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
currently retransmits WTTW (analog), WTTWD1 and WTTWD2. Create and V-me are transmitted over the air at 480i.
Previously, WTTW-HD/11.1 was branded as WTTW-Digital and featured a full-time high definition program schedule, while 11.2 transmitted the same schedule as analog channel 11. Starting in late 2008, channels 11.1 and 11.2 shared the same programing schedule. On March 30, 2009, WTTW Prime was launched on 11.2. WTTW Prime includes a combination of PBS prime time programing and WTTW's locally produced programing, including during the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. period when WTTW 11 runs children's programming. The WTTW Prime schedule returns some PBS programming to its traditional times, including a public affairs block Friday evening and the Nightly Business Report
Nightly Business Report
Nightly Business Report is a Business news television magazine broadcast live Monday to Friday evenings on most public television stations in the United States. Every weeknight, Nightly Business Report distills the essence of what matters in the business world, and provides analysis and reflection...
at 5:30 p.m. WTTW Prime is also available to Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
digital cable subscribers on channel 370.
As part of the analog television shutdown and digital conversion
DTV transition in the United States
The DTV transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of free over-the-air television programming...
, WTTW shut down its analog transmitter on June 12, 2009, and continued to broadcast on its pre-transition digital channel 47. However, through the use of PSIP
Program and System Information Protocol
The Program and System Information Protocol is the protocol used in the ATSC digital television system for carrying metadata about each channel in the broadcast MPEG transport stream of a TV station and for publishing information about television programs so that viewers can select what to watch...
, digital television receivers display WTTW's virtual channel
Virtual channel
In telecommunications, a logical channel number , also known as virtual channel, is a channel designation which differs from that of the actual radio channel on which the signal travels....
as 11. Also, the "WTTW" callsign was officially transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 11 to digital channel 47 and the "WTTW-DT" callsign used to identify digital channel 47 during the pre-transition era was officially discontinued.
WTTW transmits its HD programming in 1080i, over the air, and to subscribing cable systems. Prior to the fall of 2009, WTTW transmitted its primary over-the-air signal in 720p, with HD programming converted from the original 1080i.