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WYCC (channel 20) was a public
television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the earth ...
in
Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
, United States. It was last owned by
not-for-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
broadcasting entity Window to the World Communications, Inc., alongside
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
member station
WTTW WTTW (channel 11) is a PBS member television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. 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). T ...
(channel 11) and
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also ...
radio station
WFMT WFMT is an FM radio station in Chicago, Illinois, featuring a format of fine arts, classical music programming, and shows exploring such genres as folk. The station is managed by Window to the World Communications, Inc., owner of WTTW, Chicago's ...
(98.7 FM). WYCC's operations were housed with WTTW and WFMT in the Renée Crown Public Media Center, located at 5400 North Saint Louis Avenue (adjacent to the main campus of
Northeastern Illinois University Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is a public university in Chicago, Illinois. NEIU serves approximately 9,000 students in the region and is a Hispanic-serving institution. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park wi ...
) in the city's North Park neighborhood; WYCC and WTTW shared transmitter facilities atop the
Willis Tower The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (S ...
on South
Wacker Drive Wacker Drive is a major multilevel street in Chicago, Illinois, running along the south side of the main branch and the east side of the south branch of the Chicago River in the Loop.Hayner, Don and Tom McNamee, ''Streetwise Chicago'', "Wacker ...
in the Chicago Loop. WYCC previously maintained studios at
Kennedy–King College Kennedy–King College (KKC) part of City Colleges of Chicago, is a public two-year community college in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Kennedy–King is a part of the City Colleges of Chicago, a system of two-year education that has existed i ...
on South Union Avenue and Halsted Parkway in the Englewood neighborhood. Channel 20 was started as a secondary channel for educational programming from WTTW in 1965, under the call sign WXXW. It continued in this role until it was shuttered in 1974. After being transferred to a consortium of educational institutions but never returned to air, the City Colleges of Chicago obtained the license in 1982 and brought it back to air in February 1983 as WYCC ("We are Your City Colleges"). It served as a secondary public station in Chicago, where WTTW was the primary PBS station, and focused on instructional programs and output from independent producers. The City Colleges sold the underlying spectrum for $16 million in 2016, and after shelving initial plans to shut down at that time, in October 2017, WYCC dropped its long-running affiliation with PBS to air
MHz Worldview MHz Networks is an American public broadcaster that specializes in international television programming. Washington, D.C., broadcast operations MHz (pronounced "M-H-Z") Networks began as a project of the Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corpor ...
; a month later, on November 27, it went off the air completely and was sold to Window to the World, essentially becoming a subchannel of WTTW with a separate license, airing MHz Worldview and then
First Nations Experience First Nations Experience (FNX) is a non-profit television network in San Bernardino, California, owned by the San Bernardino Community College District. The network, created by Executive Director Charles Fox, is broadcast from the KVCR-TV stud ...
(FNX). Window to the World Communications relinquished the license of WYCC, with an effective date of June 1, 2022. With the license defunct, WTTW replaced FNX with the
World Channel WORLD Channel, also branded as WORLD, is an American digital multicast public television network owned and operated by the WGBH Educational Foundation. It is distributed by American Public Television and the National Educational Telecommunicatio ...
, now mapping to channel 11.6.


History


Prior attempts to activate channel 20

On the heels of the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...
(FCC)'s recent lifting of its moratorium on new television station applications (the result of the agency's passage of the Sixth Report & Order of 1952) as well as the opening of additional channels on the UHF band, WIND Inc., a
joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to access ...
between the ''
Chicago Daily News The ''Chicago Daily News'' was an afternoon daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, published between 1875 and 1978 in Chicago, Illinois. History The ''Daily News'' was founded by Melville E. Stone, Percy Meggy, and William Doughert ...
'' and the family of Ralph J. Atlass—one-time owners of radio stations WBBM (780 AM) and
WIND Wind is the natural movement of air or other gases relative to a planet's surface. Winds occur on a range of scales, from thunderstorm flows lasting tens of minutes, to local breezes generated by heating of land surfaces and lasting a few hou ...
(560 AM)—petitioned the FCC for a construction permit to build a television station on UHF channel 20, which would be licensed to nearby
Gary, Indiana Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city has been historically dominated by major industrial activity and is home to U.S. Steel's Gary Works, the largest steel mill complex in North America. Gary is located along the sou ...
. The group also applied for and received the call letters WIND-TV for their new station, which was never signed on under their purview. On November 8, 1956, the
Westinghouse Electric Corporation The Westinghouse Electric Corporation was an American manufacturing company founded in 1886 by George Westinghouse. It was originally named "Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company" and was renamed "Westinghouse Electric Corporation" i ...
purchased the construction permit and WIND radio for $5.3 million. UHF stations struggled mightily during the 1950s, with many shutting down outright, due partly to the fact that manufacturers did not include UHF tuners in television sets (an issue that was remedied when the FCC made these tuners a requirement for sets made from 1964 onward through its passage of the
All-Channel Receiver Act The All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962 (ACRA) (), commonly known as the All-Channels Act, was passed by the United States Congress in 1961, to allow the Federal Communications Commission to require that all television set manufacturers must include ...
). By the end of the decade,
Westinghouse Broadcasting The Westinghouse Broadcasting Company, also known as Group W, was the broadcasting division of Westinghouse Electric Corporation. It owned several radio and television stations across the United States and distributed television shows for syndicat ...
(which never ran an independent television station) had soured on the idea of launching a station in the Chicago market. After the FCC sent 50 permitholders letters in February 1960 inquiring as to their plans for the station, WIND-TV was among five that were deleted at the owners' request.


WXXW

First conceived in 1953 and debuting in September 1955 as Chicago's first
non-commercial educational A non-commercial educational station (NCE station) is a radio station or television station that does not accept on-air advertisements (TV ads or radio ads), as defined in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and was ...
television station, WTTW began to experience growing pains by the early 1960s. Gradually moving away from its original mission of providing classroom instructional courses as more and more of its broadcast day was filled first with programming from
National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American educational broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It operated from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970, and wa ...
(NET) and those distributed by other member stations, the idea of a second station seemed like the perfect answer to provide additional sources for the displaced educational programming. In October 1962, the FCC, at the request of WTTW's owner, then known as the Chicago Educational Television Association (CETA), changed channel 20's status to reserved noncommercial. The CETA filed for the construction permit on January 18, 1963, receiving it on September 23. According to the quarterly ''WTTW Channel 11 News'' program guide from Winter 1963, hopes were high for the new station. Intending to devote its entire schedule to instructional programming (including the already established College of the Air telecourses), possibilities for the station—to be given the call letters WXXW—included special
police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and ...
training programs; police bulletins (including lineups);
public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
instruction in
pre-natal Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a surgic ...
and
post-natal The postpartum (or postnatal) period begins after childbirth and is typically considered to end within 6 weeks as the mother's body, including hormone levels and uterus size, returns to a non-pregnant state. The terms puerperium, puerperal perio ...
care; instructional programs for election
judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility ...
s; training for
Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
,
Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It i ...
and
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
reserve units;
civil defense Civil defense ( en, region=gb, civil defence) or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state (generally non-combatants) from man-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mit ...
disaster training; programs for unskilled workers; professional information services for
physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner ( Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through t ...
s and
dentist A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry (the diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases and conditions of the oral cavity and other aspects of the craniofacial comp ...
s; and seminar programs for various other professional groups. The new WXXW would also engage in rebroadcasting of the Midwest Program on Airborne Television Instruction school programs at times more convenient to Chicago schools than their initial broadcast from airplanes flying high above Indiana. The WXXW antenna had been intended to be placed on the
Field Building The Field Building, also known as the LaSalle National Bank Building and Bank of America Building is an art deco office building at 135 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois in the United States. The building was ...
, from which WTTW had broadcast, but a proposed skyscraper to be built by First National Bank of Chicago created possible multipath interference issues for both stations.
1000 Lake Shore Plaza 1000 Lake Shore Plaza is a 590 ft (180m) tall skyscraper in Chicago, Illinois. It was completed in 1964 and has 55 floors. Sidney Morris designed the building, which is the 47th tallest in Chicago. When it was completed, it was claimed as the t ...
offered free antenna space to both stations; the antenna switch set WXXW back from a planned September 1964 debut. However, the planned expansion of educational television for schools was carried out by retaining some instructional programs on WTTW and purchasing time on the other UHF station in the city,
WCIU-TV WCIU-TV (channel 26) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is the flagship television property of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is siste ...
(channel 26). On September 20, 1965, WXXW signed on as Chicago's second UHF television station and second non-commercial outlet. However the station, known as "the Classroom of the Air" and financed entirely from school reimbursements for educational programming, was essentially a failure. Plagued by a weak signal and a schedule filled with what former WTTW station manager Edward Morris called "talking heads and a blackboard", WXXW limped along until it quietly went dark in 1974. Throughout its entire existence, WXXW was only able to transmit in
black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...
, making it and commercial
independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, market ...
WCIU-TV WCIU-TV (channel 26) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, affiliated with The CW. It is the flagship television property of locally based Weigel Broadcasting, which has owned the station since its inception, and is siste ...
(channel 26) the only television stations in the Chicago market that had not transitioned to color broadcasts in the early 1970s. The monochrome transmissions were just another nail in the station's coffin. When the transmitter broke down in 1974, channel 20 was plunged into silence lasting nearly nine years. The station had held a construction permit to move to the
John Hancock Center The John Hancock Center is a 100-story, 1,128-foot supertall skyscraper located in Chicago, Illinois. Located in the Magnificent Mile district, the building was officially renamed 875 North Michigan Avenue in 2018. The skyscraper was designed ...
since 1972.


Becoming WYCC

In 1977, a consortium known as the Chicago Metropolitan Higher Education Council acquired the long-dark WXXW license from WTTW general manager Bill McCarter (again, the license was allegedly purchased for $1, making it the cheapest television license ever in the Chicago area) and changed its call letters to WCME. The consortium, which was led by City Colleges chancellor Oscar Shabat, had earlier examined the purchase of the partially built but unused WCFL-TV (channel 38) because channel 20 would have needed a new
Sears Tower The Willis Tower (originally the Sears Tower) is a 108-story, skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) ...
antenna installed. In addition to the city colleges, the Metropolitan Higher Education Council also included
Chicago State University Chicago State University (CSU) is a predominantly black public university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1867 as the Cook County Normal School, it was an innovative teachers college. Eventually the Chicago Public Schools assumed control of ...
,
Governors State University Governors State University (Governors State or GOVST) is a public university in University Park, Illinois. The campus is located south of Chicago, Illinois. GSU was founded in 1969. It is a public university offering degree programs at the und ...
,
Northeastern Illinois University Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) is a public university in Chicago, Illinois. NEIU serves approximately 9,000 students in the region and is a Hispanic-serving institution. The main campus is located in the community area of North Park wi ...
, and
University of Illinois at Chicago Circle The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...
. The consortium projected a mid-1979 start date to return channel 20 to the air after obtaining the license; little headway was made, and the consortium offered to transfer the license to the City Colleges in 1981. When it returned to the air as WYCC on February 17, 1983, the station began airing telecourses in such titles as "History of the American People from 1865", "Descriptive Astronomy 1", and "Introduction to Business". It broadcast for 52 hours a week with an annual budget of just $275,000 and 20 staffers; Elynne Chaplik Aleskow, the general manager, was the first woman to hold that post at a Chicago TV station. By 1987, the station had an annual budget of $1 million—$300,000 from the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
and the rest from the City Colleges—and was reputedly the only PBS station to never have aired a
pledge drive A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term " pledge" originates from the promise that a contributor makes to send in funding at regular interva ...
. It was on the air for 18 hours a day, though its only regular programming produced in-house was a weekly talk show with the City Colleges chancellor plus specials, news updates, and program promotions. The audience for its college courses had increased to 10,000 by 1991 and 15,000 by 1993.


More local programming

In 1992, the City Colleges closed City-Wide College, the extension division under which WYCC was operated, with
Harold Washington College Harold Washington College is a community college, part of the City Colleges of Chicago system of the City of Chicago, in Illinois, United States. It is located in the downtown "Loop" area of the City, near the series of parks along the lakefro ...
absorbing most of its functions, though the studios were located at Daley College. Four years later, the station began to introduce its own local program productions. Irma Blanco, at the time a morning co-host on Chicago radio, hosted the arts program ''Absolute Artistry''. Other programs included the education magazine ''Educate!'' and profiles of Chicago personalities on ''First from Chicago''. In 1999, it was proposed to move WYCC to a rebuilt Kennedy-King College in the city's Englewood neighborhood. This materialized eight years later, when the new facility opened in 2007; it was also part of a high-definition production pilot for PBS. The work also coincided with the station's digital television transition. WYCC began broadcasting in digital on May 1, 2003, and converted completely to digital on April 16, 2009. In its modern history, the station featured a variety of programming on three digital subchannels, including those provided by PBS, those produced locally, and international news and educational programs.


Spectrum auction

In 2015, the '' Chicago Tribune'' editorial board recommended WYCC sell its license in the forthcoming
spectrum auction A spectrum auction is a process whereby a government uses an auction system to sell the rights to transmit signals over specific bands of the electromagnetic spectrum and to assign scarce spectrum resources. Depending on the specific auction form ...
. After initial refusal, mayor
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...
authorized the City Colleges to sell the license. In April 2017, WYCC sold its spectrum for $15,959,957; at the time, the station indicated that it would enter into a post-auction channel sharing agreement. Not only was the bid much lower than many had expected, but the potential windfall would be further eroded by continuing expenses, as the station's lease for antenna space at the John Hancock Center ran through 2029. On September 13, 2017, WYCC announced in a letter to contributors that it would shut down October 25, 2017; most of the station's staff had been laid off following the conclusion of the auction. However, prior to September 22, 2017, WTTW approached WYCC with a channel-sharing agreement to stay on the air. WYCC then announced in a letter to employees that it would remain on the air through November 24; if a channel-sharing agreement was reached, operation of WYCC's channels would be handled by WTTW, with a tentative plan to use "a combination of WYCC and WTTW brands and programming". The deadline to file a plan with the FCC was November 24, 2017. In 2016, WYCC had an annual budget of $8.2 million, of which the City Colleges provided $5.7 million. The station lost $732,000 in 2016 in its non-operating budget, despite funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the state of Illinois, and private donors.


Sale to WTTW and closure

On October 25, 2017, a notice was posted on the station's website saying that subchannel 20.1 would broadcast
MHz WorldView MHz Networks is an American public broadcaster that specializes in international television programming. Washington, D.C., broadcast operations MHz (pronounced "M-H-Z") Networks began as a project of the Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corpor ...
, though the station announced there would be no changes to the 20.2 or 20.3 subchannels. WorldView, which offered international news programming, had been carried on a subchannel of WYCC since 2010; the 20.2 subchannel had been airing FNX since November 1, 2013. WTTW began accepting WYCC members. On December 7, 2017, Window to the World Communications, owner of WTTW, announced that it was seeking to purchase WYCC from the City Colleges of Chicago, in a move that would put the two stations back under the same corporate umbrella. However, the license assignment application was not submitted to the FCC until late January 2018, which disclosed that Window to the World Communications would acquire the WYCC license for $100,000. As part of the purchase, WYCC entered into a channel sharing agreement with WTTW. The sale was approved by the FCC on March 13, 2018, and was completed on April 20. As a part of MHz WorldView's closure on March 1, 2020, WTTW planned to move
World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
programming to channel 20.1, while its original channel slot (11.3) would have broadcast Create. However, WTTW changed its plan to provide FNX programming instead. In May 2022, Window to the World Communications filed an application to dissolve the WTTW-WYCC channel sharing agreement on June 1, 2022, announcing that the WYCC license would be surrendered after that date. The license was canceled on June 2, 2022.


Programming


Educational programming

Through its ownership by the City Colleges of Chicago, WYCC provided
distance learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually in ...
courses as part of its late night schedule, which could be credited towards an
associate degree An associate degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of qualification above a high school diploma, GED, or matriculation, and below a bachelor's degree. The fi ...
—when viewed—at any of the City Colleges campuses. The colleges also used WYCC to air informational programs for neighborhood outreach and
community service Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performed ...
purposes. As a PBS member station, WYCC also provided a relatively limited schedule of children's programming provided by the service as well as through independent distributors such as
American Public Television American Public Television (APT) is an American nonprofit organization and syndicator of programming for public television stations in the United States. It distributes public television programs nationwide for PBS member stations and indepen ...
, mainly airing on weekday mornings.


Local programming

After initiating the production of regular local programs in 1996, WYCC continued to create and air local public affairs programming until 2017. A televised version of political talk show ''
Beyond the Beltway ''Beyond the Beltway'' is a nationally syndicated political talk show based in Chicago that debuted on WBEZ 91.5 FM on June 26, 1980, as ''Inside Politics''. It airs on Sundays on approximately 25 terrestrial radio stations as well as online at b ...
'', which also airs nationally on radio, ran on WYCC until the end. In 2013, WYCC debuted ''In the Loop'', a half-hour weekly public affairs show on Thursday evenings, hosted by Barbara Pinto and Chris Bury (both of whom formerly served as correspondents for
ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show ''Good Morning America'', ''Ni ...
); Robin Robinson and
Lauren Cohn Lauren Cohn is a radio host at WLS in Chicago. Cohn previously worked as a morning anchor at WLS-TV in Chicago in 1993. She later moved to be an Anchor/general assignment reporter at WBBM-TV in 1998. Then, she worked for WFLD as a general assignm ...
(both former anchors at
WFLD WFLD (channel 32) is a television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside Gary, Indiana–licensed MyNetworkTV o ...
) joined the program as rotating co-hosts starting in September 2015. The station formerly produced the public affairs and editorial program ''Off 63rd with Garrard McClendon''. Airing on Thursday evenings, and funded by the
McCormick Foundation McCormick Foundation is a Chicago-based nonprofit charitable trust established in 1955, following the death of "Colonel" Robert R. McCormick of the McCormick family. , it had more than US$1 billion in assets. History In 1911, McCormick became the ...
and the Field Foundation, the show was hosted by professor and author Dr. Garrard McClendon. It also produced ''The Professors'', a half-hour weekly program on Sunday mornings featuring a panel of professors from the City Colleges of Chicago campuses discussing education-related issues. The station also aired ''Pritzker Military Presents'' from 2006 until 2017.


How-to programming

In 2010, the station began incorporating many "how to" shows on its weekday afternoon and Saturday midday schedules, featuring a mix of sewing, quilting, cooking, art/painting, gardening, home improvement, and travel programs from American Public Television and other distributors.


International programming

WYCC broadcast numerous international programs. WYCC carried mystery programs from PBS'
anthology series An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a diffe ...
''
Masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
'', as well as twice weekly airing of those produced by BBC Worldwide Americas (such as ''
DCI Banks ''DCI Banks'' is a British television crime drama series produced by Left Bank Pictures for the ITV network. Originally broadcast over five series in 2010–2016, the series was based on Peter Robinson's Inspector Alan Banks novels and s ...
'') in prime time on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Several British series have aired on the station, including '' The Café'' and '' Lead Balloon''. In 2010, the station began carrying reruns of
Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source o ...
sitcom ''
The Red Green Show ''The Red Green Show'' is a Canadian television comedy that aired on various channels in Canada, with its ultimate home at CBC Television, and on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States (airing on more than 100 PBS affiliates a ...
''. WYCC also served as the Chicago-area broadcaster of ''Out of Ireland''. The station formerly carried other
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
and Irish imports including ''Tartan TV'' (which focuses on
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...
), '' Monarch of the Glen'', ''
Last of the Summer Wine ''Last of the Summer Wine'' is a British sitcom created and written by Roy Clarke and originally broadcast by the BBC from 1973 to 2010. It premiered as an episode of ''Comedy Playhouse'' on 4 January 1973, and the first series of episodes foll ...
'', ''
Are You Being Served? ''Are You Being Served?'' is a British sitcom created and written by executive producer David Croft (Croft also directed some episodes) and Jeremy Lloyd, with contributions from Michael Knowles and John Chapman, for the BBC. Set in London, t ...
'', ''
New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural comedy drama, created by Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell, produced primarily by Wall to Wall (until its final year, when it was handled by Headstrong Pictures), and broadcast on BBC ...
'', ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known a ...
'', the Irish
comedic Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term origin ...
soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored b ...
''
Ballykissangel ''Ballykissangel'' is a BBC television drama created by Kieran Prendiville and set in Ireland, produced in-house by BBC Northern Ireland. The original story revolved around a young English Roman Catholic priest as he became part of a rural comm ...
'', and (in 2010), the British serial drama ''
Touching Evil ''Touching Evil'' is a British television drama serial following the exploits of a crack squad on the Organised & Serial Crime Unit, a rapid response police force that serves the entire country. The serial was produced by United Productions f ...
''. WYCC and WTTW show a similar number of scripted British programmes, with both airing ''
Antiques Roadshow ''Antiques Roadshow'' is a British television programme broadcast by the BBC in which antiques appraisers travel to various regions of the United Kingdom (and occasionally in other countries) to appraise antiques brought in by local people (g ...
'' and ''Masterpiece'', though at different air dates. WYCC has aired the BBC One programme ''
Lark Rise to Candleford ''Lark Rise to Candleford'' is a trilogy of semi-autobiographical novels by Flora Thompson about the countryside of north-east Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, England, at the end of the 19th century. The stories were previously published se ...
'' (which began in the UK in 2008) since 2009; and ''
Midsomer Murders ''Midsomer Murders'' is a British crime drama television series, adapted by Anthony Horowitz and Douglas Watkinson from the novels in the '' Chief Inspector Barnaby'' book series (created by Caroline Graham), and broadcast on two channels o ...
'' (which first aired in the UK in 1997) in November 2010. Mystery series presented on the station expanded in 2013 and 2014 to include '' Vera'', ''DCI Banks'', and the Australian series ''
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries ''Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries'' is an Australian drama television series. It was first broadcast on ABC on 24 February 2012. It is based on author Kerry Greenwood's historical mystery novels, and it was created by Deb Cox and Fiona Eagger ...
''. In the late 2010s, WYCC expanded their format with German, Swedish, and Norwegian mystery shows. With its large variety of mystery programs, WYCC runs two-day mystery marathons on some holidays, tied with fundraising.


News programming

WYCC carried local news programs produced by undergraduate and graduate students from the Medill School of Journalism at
Northwestern University Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. Chart ...
, with students from the City Colleges of Chicago contributing in the production of these shows. WYCC also produced programs for the Illinois gubernatorial and Assembly elections during the 2010 and 2012 fall election seasons. In the early 2010s, WYCC altered its program lineup, acquiring new program offerings from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
and using the English language international news shows available to offer news and opinions not provided elsewhere, particularly for viewers who watch broadcast television over-the-air in the Chicago area market. The station offered comprehensive international news coverage and national news discussion programs from DW TV's ''Journal'',
France 24 France 24 ( in French) is a French state-owned international news television network based in Paris. Its channels broadcast in French, English, Arabic, and Spanish and are aimed at the overseas market. Based in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Mo ...
, ''
NHK Newsline NHK Newsline (stylized as NHK NEWSLiNE, formerly and also simply known as Newsline) ( ja, NHKニュースライン ''NHK Nyūsurain'') is a foreign news program aired on NHK's international broadcasting service NHK World TV. This program broadc ...
'', RT News and
Euronews Euronews (styled on-air in lowercase as euronews) is a European television news broadcasting, news network, headquartered in Lyon, France. The network began broadcasting on 1 January 1993 and covers world news from a European perspective. The ...
. The station also broadcasts news/talk shows programs distributed for public television syndication such as those hosted by
Charlie Rose Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP. Rose also co-an ...
and
Tavis Smiley Tavis Smiley (; born September 13, 1964) is an American talk show host and author. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi, and grew up in Bunker Hill, Indiana. After attending Indiana University, he worked during the late 1980s as an aide to ...
. In 2013, WYCC began airing the PBS series '' Just Seen It'', featuring various entertainment industry people providing reviews of movies and television programs, with a quick format reflecting the original Siskel/Ebert movie review program '' At the Movies'', recommending viewers to see, skip or stream the reviewed media. WYCC was one of the very few PBS stations not to air ''
PBS Newshour ''PBS NewsHour'' is an American evening news broadcasting#television, television news program broadcast on over 350 PBS Network affiliate#Member stations, member stations. It airs seven nights a week, and is known for its in-depth coverage of i ...
'', as WTTW airs these newscasts.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wycc First Nations Experience affiliates Television channels and stations established in 1983 YCC 1983 establishments in Illinois Television channels and stations disestablished in 2022 2022 disestablishments in Illinois Defunct television stations in the United States City Colleges of Chicago YCC