Kevin Across America | WTTW Channel 11 Chicago 1990s Fundraising Campaign During Airing of 'Barney on Broadway' 🎥 🦖 🎭 @KevinAcrossAmerica | Uploaded January 2024 | Updated October 2024, 11 hours ago.
WTTW (Channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The two stations share studios in the Renée Crown Public Media Center, located at 5400 North Saint Louis Avenue (adjacent to the main campus of Northeastern Illinois University) in the city's North Park neighborhood; its transmitter facility is atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility that is operated alongside the two stations.
WTTW is one of two PBS member stations serving the Chicago market, alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed WYIN (channel 56). WTTW, along with PBS Wisconsin flagship station WHA-TV in Madison, Wisconsin, serve as default PBS member stations for Rockford as that market does not currently have a PBS station of its own; both stations are available in that market exclusively on local cable and satellite providers.
On December 7, 2017, Window to the World Communications announced that it was seeking to purchase former fellow PBS member station WYCC from the City Colleges of Chicago in a move that would put WYCC and WTTW under one corporate umbrella. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 13, 2018, and was completed on April 20.
WTTW carries programs distributed by PBS, American Public Television, and other sources, along with airing several locally produced programs. WTTW also distributes several programs to public television stations independently of PBS, such as via American Public Television. In addition, WTTW is one of the few public television stations that regularly produce or present national public television programming. Its most prominent productions include the political discussion program The McLaughlin Group and the music program Soundstage. 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 also produced the popular cooking series The Frugal Gourmet during the 1980s. Other popular programs produced by WTTW for public television syndication have included the early art-video show Image Union; CEO Exchange; and locally produced restaurant review show Check, Please! cooking show Mexico: One Plate at a Time; travel show The Travel Detective; children's programs Lamb Chop's Play-Along, Kidsongs, WordWorld, and Nature Cat; and the irreverent magazine series Wild Chicago.
The most well-known program ever to have been originated by WTTW was Sneak Previews, the first movie review show to air on television. It began in 1975 with film critics Roger Ebert (then a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times) and Gene Siskel (then with the Chicago Tribune) as its hosts and was later hosted by Michael Medved, Neal Gabler, 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 canceled in 1996. 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 canceled due to funding constraints and the subsequent death of Ebert.[16][17][18][19]
Among its local programs, WTTW also produces the newsmagazine and analysis program Chicago Tonight, hosted by Paris Schutz and Brandis Friedman. The program began in 1984 as a half-hour panel interview program with local broadcast journalist John Callaway but was later expanded to an hour-long show with the addition of various feature segments including arts and restaurant reviews. The show is accompanied by two pre-recorded programs highlighting issues affecting Black and Latino communities, Chicago Tonight: Black Voices and Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices.
The station has produced hundreds of significant arts programs, highlighting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Ravinia Festival. In addition, WTTW features documentaries hosted by Geoffrey Baer, spotlighting the history and culture of various parts of the Chicago area. These programs' popularity has often resulted in a high volume of monetary pledges to the station. It also produces The Artsiders, an arts-focused program produced by Kai Harding, Inc. and created by former Big Idea director Chris Olsen.
WTTW (Channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago. Owned by not-for-profit broadcaster Window to the World Communications, Inc., it is sister to commercial classical music radio station WFMT (98.7 FM). The two stations share studios in the Renée Crown Public Media Center, located at 5400 North Saint Louis Avenue (adjacent to the main campus of Northeastern Illinois University) in the city's North Park neighborhood; its transmitter facility is atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WTTW also owns and operates The Chicago Production Center, a video production and editing facility that is operated alongside the two stations.
WTTW is one of two PBS member stations serving the Chicago market, alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed WYIN (channel 56). WTTW, along with PBS Wisconsin flagship station WHA-TV in Madison, Wisconsin, serve as default PBS member stations for Rockford as that market does not currently have a PBS station of its own; both stations are available in that market exclusively on local cable and satellite providers.
On December 7, 2017, Window to the World Communications announced that it was seeking to purchase former fellow PBS member station WYCC from the City Colleges of Chicago in a move that would put WYCC and WTTW under one corporate umbrella. The sale was approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on March 13, 2018, and was completed on April 20.
WTTW carries programs distributed by PBS, American Public Television, and other sources, along with airing several locally produced programs. WTTW also distributes several programs to public television stations independently of PBS, such as via American Public Television. In addition, WTTW is one of the few public television stations that regularly produce or present national public television programming. Its most prominent productions include the political discussion program The McLaughlin Group and the music program Soundstage. 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 also produced the popular cooking series The Frugal Gourmet during the 1980s. Other popular programs produced by WTTW for public television syndication have included the early art-video show Image Union; CEO Exchange; and locally produced restaurant review show Check, Please! cooking show Mexico: One Plate at a Time; travel show The Travel Detective; children's programs Lamb Chop's Play-Along, Kidsongs, WordWorld, and Nature Cat; and the irreverent magazine series Wild Chicago.
The most well-known program ever to have been originated by WTTW was Sneak Previews, the first movie review show to air on television. It began in 1975 with film critics Roger Ebert (then a critic for the Chicago Sun-Times) and Gene Siskel (then with the Chicago Tribune) as its hosts and was later hosted by Michael Medved, Neal Gabler, 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 canceled in 1996. 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 canceled due to funding constraints and the subsequent death of Ebert.[16][17][18][19]
Among its local programs, WTTW also produces the newsmagazine and analysis program Chicago Tonight, hosted by Paris Schutz and Brandis Friedman. The program began in 1984 as a half-hour panel interview program with local broadcast journalist John Callaway but was later expanded to an hour-long show with the addition of various feature segments including arts and restaurant reviews. The show is accompanied by two pre-recorded programs highlighting issues affecting Black and Latino communities, Chicago Tonight: Black Voices and Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices.
The station has produced hundreds of significant arts programs, highlighting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Ravinia Festival. In addition, WTTW features documentaries hosted by Geoffrey Baer, spotlighting the history and culture of various parts of the Chicago area. These programs' popularity has often resulted in a high volume of monetary pledges to the station. It also produces The Artsiders, an arts-focused program produced by Kai Harding, Inc. and created by former Big Idea director Chris Olsen.
