Minow pays tribute to WTTW’s McCarter at memorial service

Friends and colleagues of the late Bill McCarter filled Kenilworth Union Church in the Chicago suburb “to hear tributes to the man credited with transforming WTTW-Channel 11 into one of the nation’s premier public television stations during his 27 years as president and general manager,” writes Chicago media reporter Robert Feder today (May 6). One speaker was Newton Minow, the former FCC chairman who recruited McCarter to the post. Minow recalled a visit with McCarter to the station’s transmitter atop what was then the world’s tallest building, the Sears (now Willis) Tower: “That signal is pure, it is powerful, it is innovative, it is fair, it is trusted, and above all, it stands for public service,” Minow said. “That signal is the legacy Bill leaves to all of us.”