23 Facts About WTTW

WTTW is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States.

WTTW owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility that is operated alongside the three stations.

WTTW is one of two PBS member stations serving the Chicago market, alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed WYIN.

WTTW first signed on the air on September 6,1955, as a member station of National Educational Television.

The WTTW call letters were chosen as the founders wanted the station to be Chicago's "Window To The World".

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On October 5,1970, WTTW became a charter member station of the Public Broadcasting Service.

WTTW did not broadcast programming on Saturdays until summer 1972, when it began airing a limited schedule of programming on that day until 2:00 pm ; the station expanded its Saturday programming scheduled to a full broadcast day in 1974.

In 2012, WTTW eliminated the position of 16-year company veteran Joanie Bayhack, who had been senior vice president of communications and corporate partnerships.

In 2014, WTTW eliminated the position of Holly Gilson, a 13-year veteran of the company who most recently had been director of strategic partnerships and special projects.

WTTW has long been a pioneer in many technical aspects of television broadcasting, particularly in broadcast audio transmission.

When WTTW began production on Made in Chicago, the station made the decision to transition from monaural audio to stereo for the FM broadcasts.

WTTW began syndicating Made in Chicago to other public television stations under the new title Soundstage, with the first official taping of that program in June 1974 featuring previously filmed concert footage of folk singer Jim Croce prior to his death in a plane crash in September 1973.

In 1975, WTTW management was approached by a startup company called Telesonics with an idea to develop an audio system for television broadcasts that used a mono-compatible, stereo audio channel.

Around this time, the Sears Tower had been completed and WTTW became one of the first broadcasters to move its transmitter facilities atop the new building; WTTW had broadcast from a temporary antenna as the now familiar twin towers that adorn the top of the building had not yet been completed.

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 carries programs distributed by PBS, American Public Television and other sources, along with airing several locally produced programs.

WTTW has produced over 110 SoundStage episodes 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 Gravenites, Buddy Miles and his long-time collaborator, pianist Otis Spann among others.

WTTW produced the popular cooking series The Frugal Gourmet during the 1980s.

In January 2011, WTTW produced a new movie review program created by Ebert, Ebert Presents: At the Movies, which was hosted by Christy Lemire and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Ebert himself hosting a segment called "Roger's Office"; the program lasted one season, before being cancelled due to funding constraints and the subsequent death of Ebert.

In May 2015, WTTW downgraded the resolution of its main channel from 1080i to 720p, which the station had previously transmitted its high definition content in prior to September 2009, during which time it downconverted HD content provided by PBS from their native 1080i format.

WTTW Prime carries some PBS programs in their traditional timeslots WTTW Prime is available on Comcast digital channel 370.

WTTW shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 11, on June 12,2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate.

The "WTTW" callsign was officially transferred from the now-defunct analog channel 11 to digital channel 47, with the "WTTW-DT" callsign used to identify digital channel 47 during the pre-transition era officially being discontinued.