WTTW
Encyclopedia : W : WT : WTT : WTTW
WTTW (Channel 11) is one of three PBS member stations serving the Chicago, Illinois market; the others are WYCC and WYIN. WTTW began broadcasting on March 5, 1955 and is owned and operated by Window to the World Communications Inc. (Window to the World), a not-for-profit broadcasting entity. WTTW continues to broadcast its educational and informational programming in part because of the continued support of its viewers and funding 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, and a classical music radio station WFMT located at 98.7 FM.
WTTW distributes The McLaughlin Group and Lamb Chop's Play-Along to public television stations independently of PBS. Furthermore, WTTW produces the music program Soundstage for PBS.
WTTW was the original airer of the hit cooking show by Alton Brown, Good Eats. WTTW also produced The Frugal Gourmet with Jeff Smith in the 1980s. However, the most famous show ever to originate at WTTW was Sneak Previews, perhaps 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. The former Siskel and Ebert program is now called Ebert and Roeper. Sneak Previews was canceled in 1996.
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. Until December 2005, Chicago Tonight was also hosted by Bob Sirott, who had previously worked as a disc jockey and a reporter/anchor with WBBM-TV, WMAQ-TV and WFLD-TV.
Other popular programs produced by WTTW have included the restaurant review show Check, Please! and the irreverent magazine series Wild Chicago.
In 2006, the station is scheduled to show six games of the expansion Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association. It's believed that WTTW is the only non-commercial TV station with broadcast rights to a major-league professional sports team in the U.S.
Hijack
On November 22, 1987 at 11:00pm Central Standard Time, WTTW's broadcast signal was hijacked by an unknown person wearing a Max Headroom mask for about 90 seconds during a telecast of the Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock. This was the second incident that night involving the interruption of a television station's broadcast signal. Approximately two hours prior to the WTTW incident, another Chicago television station, WGN-TV, had its broadcast hijacked by the same Max Headroom masked person during the 9 O'Clock News sports report.WTTW, which maintains its transmitter atop the Sears Tower, found that its engineers were unable to stop the hijacker because at the time there were no engineers on duty at the Sears Tower. Also, the station's master control center was unable to contact its transmitting equipment remotely to switch the STL (Studio To Transmitter Link), unlike their counterparts at WGN-TV, who were able to thwart the intruder by switching their John Hancock Center transmitter STL remotely within seconds.
See also
External links
- [Official website]
- [Productions]
- [Public-domain video of WTTW Channel 11 broadcast signal being hacked available at TVParty.com]
- [Query the FCC's TV station database for WTTW]
| Terrestrial television>Broadcast television in the Chicago market [(Nielsen DMA #3)] | ||
|---|---|---|
|
WBBM 2 (CBS) -
W04CQ 4 (ANC) -
WMAQ 5 (NBC) -
WLS 7 (ABC) -
WGN 9 (The WB/The CW) (The Tube on DT2) -
WTTW 11 (PBS) -
WOCK-CA 13 (MTV2) -
W13BQ 13 (DW) -
W18AT 18 / W54BK 54 (LeSEA) -
WYCC 20 (PBS) -
WWME-CA 23 (Ind) -
W24AW 24 (LeSEA) -
WCIU 26 (Ind) -
WSPY-LP 30 (A1) -
WFLD 32 (Fox) -
WWTO 35 (TBN) -
WCPX 38 (i) -
WOCH-CA 41 (Ind) -
WSNS 44 (TEL) -
WFBT-CA 48 (Ind) -
WPWR 50 (UPN/My Network TV) -
W54BE 54 (edu.) -
WYIN 56 (PBS) -
WXFT 60 (TFT) -
WJYS 62 (Ind) -
W64CQ 64 (TBN) -
WGBO 66 (UNI)
| ||
| Local cable television channels | ||
| CLTV - Comcast SportsNet Chicago - Superstation WGN | ||