Section C, story 24 min read
Public broadcasting in Chicago is not one organization but several. There is a public radio newsroom, a PBS television station with a sister classical music station, and a cluster of college and university stations at the low end of the FM dial. They have different owners and different jobs, and knowing who is who makes it easier to find what you want.
The stations at a glance
| Station | Where | Licensee in FCC files | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| WBEZ | 91.5 FM | Chicago Public Media | Public radio |
| WTTW | Channel 11 | Window to the World Communications | Chicago’s PBS station |
| WFMT | 98.7 FM | Window to the World Communications | Classical and folk music |
| WDCB | 90.9 FM | College of DuPage | College station |
| WNUR-FM | 89.3 FM | Northwestern University | University station |
| WLUW | 88.7 FM | Loyola University of Chicago | University station |
WBEZ: Chicago Public Media
WBEZ broadcasts on 91.5 FM and is licensed to Chicago Public Media, according to the FCC’s public file. The FCC’s file lists it as a noncommercial educational station. Its frequency also tells you something: under the FCC’s rules, 88.1 to 91.9 MHz is reserved for noncommercial educational stations, and 91.5 sits near the top of that reserved band.
WTTW: how Chicago public TV began
WTTW’s own history page says the station, whose call letters stand for Window to the World, was founded in 1955 by Inland Steel chairman Edward Ryerson and other civic leaders with the goal of providing educational television to the city. Its first program, Report to the Teachers, premiered on September 6 that year, and many early shows came from a temporary studio in the Bankers Building downtown.
The same page lists a string of early firsts it claims for the station, including a remote broadcast from Orchestra Hall and, with Chicago’s Board of Education, college courses for credit through its TV College series. WTTW moved in August 1965 to 5400 North St. Louis Avenue, and in the fall of 1970 it became a charter member of PBS. Among its local programs, the weeknight newsmagazine Chicago Tonight and the Friday news roundup Chicago Tonight: The Week in Review began in the 1980s and are still running.
On an antenna, WTTW is virtual channel 11 and transmits on RF channel 25, according to the FCC. Its history page notes that in 2003, as it became a fully digital operation, it launched WTTW Prime, a separate stream of programming on channel 11.2.
WFMT: the radio sister
WFMT, on 98.7 FM, describes itself as Chicago’s classical and folk music radio station. What surprises many listeners is that the FCC lists it as a commercial station, even though its licensee is Window to the World Communications, the same nonprofit that holds WTTW’s license. So WFMT sits above the reserved part of the dial, among the commercial stations, while sharing an owner with Chicago’s PBS station.
The college and university stations
At the low end of the FM dial you will find stations run by educational institutions. WLUW on 88.7 is licensed to Loyola University of Chicago, WNUR-FM on 89.3 to Northwestern University in Evanston, and WDCB on 90.9 to the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. All three are noncommercial educational stations in the FCC’s files.
These stations usually have smaller coverage areas than the big commercial stations, so reception depends on where you live. A station licensed to Glen Ellyn may come in clearly in DuPage County and only faintly on the North Side, while a station licensed to Evanston may be the reverse. If one fades in and out, try repositioning the radio or adding a simple wire FM antenna.
Tip: Want to explore the noncommercial dial? Start at 88.1 and tune slowly up to 91.9. Everything in that range is set aside for noncommercial educational stations, and what you hear will vary by neighborhood.
Where public media fits in emergencies
Like every broadcaster, public stations take part in the Emergency Alert System, the federal framework that requires radio and TV stations to carry emergency messages. When a serious alert goes out, it interrupts programs on public and commercial stations alike. For how those alerts work, see Emergency Alerts in Chicago: TV, Radio, Phones and Weather Radio.
Supporting public stations
Because they are noncommercial, public stations depend on donations and memberships. You will hear pledge drives on the radio and see them on television several times a year. The programs themselves remain free to anyone with a radio or antenna; membership pays for producing and broadcasting them.
Watching and listening
- For WTTW, scan with any antenna; it is a UHF signal on RF 25.
- For WBEZ and WFMT, any FM radio works across most of the city.
- For the college stations, a radio with a good antenna and a window position helps.
- Online, WTTW describes its site as streaming news, kids, drama and documentaries.
For the whole radio dial, see Chicago Radio Stations by Frequency: FM and AM From Bottom to Top, and for the full TV line-up, Chicago TV Channels: The Local Stations You Can Watch With an Antenna. The story of how WTTW fits into a century of Chicago broadcasting is told in A Short History of Chicago Broadcasting: WGN, WLS and WTTW.