Every story on the site, by section: on the dial, getting a signal and Chicago on air.
On the Dial
- Chicago TV Channels: The Local Stations You Can Watch With an Antenna
The full-power TV stations licensed in and around Chicago, with the channel your TV displays, the RF channel the signal really uses and the town each license names, taken from the FCC’s public files.
- Chicago Radio Stations by Frequency: FM and AM From Bottom to Top
A walk up the Chicago FM and AM dials, with each station’s call sign, frequency and city of license from the FCC’s public files, plus the simulcasts that put AM stations on FM.
- Chicago Sports Radio: Where to Hear the Cubs, Sox, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks
Which Chicago stations carry each major team’s games, taken from the teams’ and stations’ own announcements, plus the FM and HD Radio frequencies that make the AM sports stations easier to hear.
- Spanish and Polish Language Radio and TV in Chicago
The Spanish-language and Polish-language stations on Chicago’s radio dial and TV guide, with frequencies, call signs and licensees from the FCC’s files and what each station’s own site says about itself.
Getting a Signal
- TV Antennas in Chicago High-Rises: What Works When You Live Above the Street
How to get free TV in a Chicago apartment or condo tower: choosing an antenna that also receives VHF, testing windows, what federal antenna rules cover on a balcony and what they do not cover on the roof.
- TV Reception in the Chicago Suburbs: Antennas for Houses, Distance and HOA Rules
Getting free TV in the collar counties and Northwest Indiana: when an indoor antenna is enough, when to go to the attic or roof, why channel 2 needs VHF, and what federal rules say about homeowners associations.
- How to Watch Chicago Local News Without Cable
Three ways to keep up with Chicago’s local newscasts without a cable bill: a free antenna, the stations’ own websites and apps, and streaming services, with what each one can and cannot do.
- NextGen TV in Chicago: What ATSC 3.0 Means for Antenna Viewers
Chicago is listed as an on-air NextGen TV market. What the new ATSC 3.0 standard adds, why the FCC’s simulcasting rule keeps older TVs working, and what to check before buying a NextGen set or receiver.
Chicago on Air
- Chicago Weather on TV and Radio: Lake Effect Snow, Warnings and Weather Radio
Why Chicago forecasts can be so local, what the National Weather Service says about lake effect snow, and which NOAA Weather Radio transmitters serve Cook, DuPage, Lake, Will, Kane and McHenry counties.
- Public Radio and TV in Chicago: WBEZ, WTTW, WFMT and the College Stations
Who runs Chicago’s public and noncommercial stations, where they sit on the dial and the TV guide, and what WTTW’s own history says about how Chicago public television began.
- A Short History of Chicago Broadcasting: WGN, WLS and WTTW
How three of Chicago’s best-known call signs began, told through the stations’ own archives: the Tribune’s WGN in 1924, Sears’s WLS the same year, and WTTW, the city’s public TV station, in 1955.
- Emergency Alerts in Chicago: TV, Radio, Phones and Weather Radio
How a warning reaches you in Chicago: the Emergency Alert System on TV and radio, Wireless Emergency Alerts on your phone and NOAA Weather Radio, with the FCC rules behind each and which phone alerts you can turn off.