WYCC

This article is about the television station. For the chess competition, see World Youth Chess Championship.
WYCC
Channels
BrandingWYCC FNX
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
OwnerWindow to the World Communications, Inc.
WTTW, WFMT
History
First air date
  • September 20, 1965 (1965-09-20) (original incarnation)
  • February 17, 1983 (1983-02-17)
Last air date
June 1, 2022 (2022-06-01)
(39 years, 104 days)
Former call signs
  • WXXW (1965–1977)
  • WCME (1977–1983)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 20 (UHF, 1983–2009)
  • Digital: 21 (UHF, 2003–2018); 47 (UHF, 2018–2019)
Call sign meaning
"We are Your City Colleges" (owners 1983–2017)
Technical information
Facility ID12279
ERP250 kW
HAAT496 m (1,627 ft)
Transmitter coordinates41°52′44.1″N 87°38′10.2″W / 41.878917°N 87.636167°W / 41.878917; -87.636167

WYCC (channel 20) was a public television station in Chicago, Illinois, United States. It was last owned by not-for-profit broadcasting entity Window to the World Communications, Inc., alongside PBS member station WTTW (channel 11) and classical music radio station WFMT (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) in the city's North Park neighborhood; WYCC and WTTW shared transmitter facilities atop the Willis Tower on South Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop. WYCC previously maintained studios at Kennedy–King College 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;[1] a month later, on November 27,[2] 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 (FNX).

Window to the World Communications relinquished the license of WYCC, with an effective date of June 1, 2022.[3] With the license defunct, WTTW replaced FNX with the World Channel, now mapping to channel 11.6.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference WYCCHome10252017 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Thank you for allowing us to bring our programs into your home for more than 30 years. Over and out with much love and gratitude". Facebook. November 27, 2017. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  3. ^ "Cancellation Application". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission. June 2, 2022. Retrieved June 3, 2022.