WYCC

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WYCC
Chicago, Illinois
City of license	Chicago, Illinois
Branding	Wise TV WYCC
Slogan	Change Your Mind
Channel	Digital: 21 (UHF)
Subchannels	20.1 PBS 20.3 MHz Worldview
Affiliations	PBS
Owner	City Colleges of Chicago (College District #508, County of Cook)
First air date	February 17, 1983
Callsign meaning	We're Your City Colleges
Former channels	Analog: 20 (1983-2009)
Effective power	98.9 kW
Height	378 m
Facility ID	12279
Antenna coordinates	41°53′55.7″N 87°37′22.5″W / 41.898806°N 87.622917°W / 41.898806; -87.622917
Website	www.wycc.tv

WYCC is a television station affiliated with PBS in Chicago, Illinois which broadcasts over digital channel 21. Owned and operated by the City Colleges of Chicago, the station's studios are based at Kennedy-King College and the transmitter is atop the John Hancock Center.

WYCC is in a market which features two other member stations of PBS, WTTW in Chicago and WYIN, which is based in nearby Gary, Indiana and targets viewers in Northwest Indiana. As the Chicago market is well-served by PBS national programming by those two stations, WYCC focuses more on airing adult educational and other instructional programming, along with other programming obtained by producers outside of PBS, which provides only 13% of WYCC's weekly schedule.

Funding for the station is provided by the usual mix of member donations, pledge drives, and CPB funding, along with that of the State of Illinois and the City of Chicago via the City Colleges division.

The station makes the claim of being the largest public television station run by a minority operation, and reaches the 3.5 million households of Chicago, along with 6 million households in a four-state area.

[edit] Programming

[edit] Local

As part of the City Colleges of Chicago, the television station provides distance learning courses. These courses, when viewed, may be credited towards an associate degree at any of the city colleges. The city colleges also use WYCC to air informational programs for neighborhood outreach and community service.

[edit] British and Irish

WYCC is the Chicago-area carrier for "Out of Ireland," and "Tartan TV," the last of which focuses on Scotland. In addition, it carries "Monarch of the Glen," "Last of the Summer Wine," "Are You Being Served?," and "Monty Python's Flying Circus."

It has also carried Ballykissangel, an Irish comedy soap opera. As of this writing, WYCC and WTTW show a similar number of scripted British shows and both broadcast Monty Python's Flying Circus.

[edit] Children

As a Public Broadcasting Service television station, WYCC provide children's programming. Favorites include Clifford the Big Red Dog, whose lead character was voiced by the late John Ritter.

[edit] News

WYCC offers comprehensive international news coverage. It offers Worldfocus, Germany's DW TV Journal, France 24, and Euronews. Popular news talk shows include those hosted by Charlie Rose and Tavis Smiley.

Additionally, local news programming produced by undergraduate and graduate students at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism airs on WYCC. Students from the City Colleges of Chicago contribute to the production of these shows, too.

[edit] Digital

On April 16, 2009 at 6:00AM CDT, WYCC switched to all-digital broadcasting, becoming Chicago's first television station to stop broadcasting in an analog signal.^[1]

Channel 20.3 offers international programming from MHz Networks' Worldview.^[2]

[edit] Digital Television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• WYCC
• Public Broadcasting Service
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WYCC
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WYCC-TV