is one of three
PBS member stations serving the
Chicago, Illinois market-the others are
WYCC and
WYIN . The station 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 98.7FM.
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.
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 .''
On , WTTW's broadcast signal was hijacked by an unknown person wearing a
Max Headroom mask during a telecast of the ''
Doctor Who '' serial ''
Horror Of Fang Rock '' for about 90 seconds. 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.
