Milwaukee PBS is the collective brand for two Public Broadcasting Service (
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
)
member
Member may refer to:
* Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon
* Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set
* In object-oriented programming, a member of a class
** Field (computer science), entries in ...
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 ...
s
licensed
A license (or licence) is an official permission or permit to do, use, or own something (as well as the document of that permission or permit).
A license is granted by a party (licensor) to another party (licensee) as an element of an agreeme ...
to
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
,
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
, United States:
WMVS (channel 10) and
WMVT
WMVT (channel 36) is a secondary PBS member television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is owned by Milwaukee Area Technical College alongside primary PBS member WMVS (channel 10). Collectively branded as Milwaukee PBS, the ...
(channel 36). Both stations are owned and operated by the
Milwaukee Area Technical College
Milwaukee Area Technical College (or MATC) is a public two-year vocational-technical college based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. MATC offers day, evening, and weekend classes at campuses in downtown Milwaukee, Oak Creek, West Allis, and Mequon. ...
(MATC).
Overview
WMVT and WMVS share studio facilities located at the Continuing Education Center on the Milwaukee Area Technical College campus at 1036 North 8th Street in downtown Milwaukee; by coincidence of the city's
grid system, Milwaukee PBS has the unique distinction of its studio's
address number incorporating the channel numbers for both of the stations (most television and radio stations that have their channel number as an address use a vanity address or street not within a community's numbering system, e.g.
KLAS-TV
KLAS-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Channel 8 Drive near the northern portion of the Las Vegas Strip in the ...
channel 8 in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
is located on Channel 8 Drive). A second facility in suburban
Brookfield a block west of the
Milwaukee County line was also maintained as a production facility and donation/pick-up center for the organization's fundraising efforts, including the annual ''Great TV Auction'' until it was sold in 2018 and all efforts were moved to MATC facilities.
WMVS operates as a traditional PBS station, while WMVT brands as a more educational-oriented station with an emphasis on news,
instructional and
DIY
"Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and sem ...
programs, along with
documentaries
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
.
The stations maintain transmitter facilities at the MPTV Tower (standing for its former branding until 2016 of Milwaukee Public Television, which was represented visually as an abbreviation), located at the northern end of Humboldt Boulevard in Milwaukee's
Estabrook Park
Estabrook Park is a Milwaukee County park in the village of Shorewood, Wisconsin and is home to the WITI TV Tower and the historic Benjamin Church House. It was named for Charles E. Estabrook, a distinguished Wisconsin lawyer and politician, a ...
neighborhood; the facility went into service in 1999, and is owned in conjunction with the
American Tower Corporation (MPTV formerly leased space on the
WITI TV Tower
The WITI TV Tower is a lattice communications tower located in Shorewood, Wisconsin, which transmits the signal of several television and radio stations in the Milwaukee area, including its namesake, Fox owned-and-operated station WITI (chann ...
for WMVS and WMVT's respective transmitters from the 1960s until 1981, and then
WVTV
WVTV (channel 18) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with The CW and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on Calumet Road in the Park Place office park near the I-41/ US 45 ...
's tower until 1999). Besides transmitting WMVS and WMVT, MPTV/American Tower leases tower and transmitter space on the MPTV Tower for
WVTV
WVTV (channel 18) is a television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with The CW and owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group. The station's studios are located on Calumet Road in the Park Place office park near the I-41/ US 45 ...
(channels 18/24, both owned by
Sinclair Broadcast Group
Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. (SBG) is a publicly traded American telecommunications conglomerate that is controlled by the descendants of company founder Julian Sinclair Smith. Headquartered in the Baltimore suburb of Cockeysville, Maryland, ...
), religious
independent station WVCY-TV
WVCY-TV (channel 30) is a religious independent television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, owned by locally based VCY America, Inc. The station's studios are located on West Vliet Street in Milwaukee. Through a channel sharing a ...
(channel 30, owned by
VCY America
VCY America, is a traditional, evangelical, conservative Christian ministry based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The VCY America Radio Network maintains a format of Christian talk and teaching, as well as traditional Christian music through its broadca ...
),
WMKE-CD
WMKE-CD, virtual channel 21 ( UHF digital channel 36), is a low-powered, Class A television station licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Owned by CNZ Communications, it is a sister station to Fond du Lac-licensed Cozi TV affil ...
(channel 21, owned by
LocusPoint Networks
LocusPoint Networks LLC was an owner of television stations in the United States. The company is 99% owned by The Blackstone Group. After selling off most of their in 2017 and 2018 in the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) spectrum auction a ...
),
WPXE
WPXE-TV (channel 55) is a television station licensed to Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States, broadcasting the Ion Television network to the Milwaukee area. It is owned and operated by the Ion Media subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company alongs ...
(channel 55, owned by
Ion Media Networks
Ion Media (formerly known as Paxson Communications Corporation and Ion Media Networks) was an American broadcasting company that owned and operated over 71 television stations in most major American markets (through its television stations group ...
) and
WTSJ-LD
WTSJ-LD, virtual channel 38 (UHF digital channel 26), is a low-power Azteca America- owned-and-operated television station licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The station is owned by HC2 Holdings. WTSJ-LD's transmitter is located ...
(channel 38, owned by
DTV America
DTV America Corporation is an owner of low-power television stations in the United States.
Majority owned by telecommunications conglomerate INNOVATE Corp., DTV America stations have no local operations, and the company relies almost entirely ...
).
Milwaukee PBS has some of the highest viewership of any PBS member station or network in the United States. In the February 2019 sweeps period, WMVS was ''the'' highest-rated station in the entire PBS system. The group's ''Great TV Auction'' led the nation's PBS auctions in
prime time
Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...
viewer ratings and was the #1 PBS auction in the nation, based on net revenue. In 2019, the Great TV Auction hired for the last time.
WMVS and WMVT are the only
public television
Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...
stations in
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
which are not affiliated with the
Madison Madison may refer to:
People
* Madison (name), a given name and a surname
* James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States
Place names
* Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...
-based
PBS Wisconsin
PBS Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin Public Television or WPT) is a state network of non-commercial educational television stations operated primarily by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It c ...
(formerly Wisconsin Public Television, a state network that was created fifteen years after the founding of WMVS, and is owned by the
University of Wisconsin Extension), although Milwaukee PBS contributes to and promotes Wisconsin Educational Communications Board instructional programming within their ten-county area in lieu of PBS Wisconsin.
On April 13, 2017, Milwaukee PBS announced it had participated in the
FCC
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 jurisdictio ...
's 2016
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 ...
and successfully sold the UHF spectrum for WMVT for just under $85 million. The WMVS spectrum was combined to serve both channels, with the only changes being the 36.4-36.6 subchannels being removed for bandwidth conservation concerns.
Digital television
WMVS and WMVT share a digital signal on
VHF channel 8; the stations respectively map to their respective former analog channel allocations via
PSIP
The Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) is the MPEG (a video and audio industry group) and privately defined program-specific information originally defined by General Instrument for the DigiCipher 2 system and later extended for the AT ...
, 10 and 36. All of the
digital subchannel
In broadcasting, digital subchannels are a method of transmitting more than one independent program stream simultaneously from the same digital radio or television station on the same radio frequency channel. This is done by using data compress ...
s mentioned below broadcast 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Until September 1, 2010, WMVS provided its main channel feed in
1080i
1080i (also known as Full HD or BT.709) is a combination of frame resolution and scan type. 1080i is used in high-definition television (HDTV) and high-definition video. The number "1080" refers to the number of horizontal lines on the screen. ...
HD, while WMVT's digital channel was used for
simulcast
Simulcast (a portmanteau of simultaneous broadcast) is the broadcasting of programmes/programs or events across more than one resolution, bitrate or medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at exactly the same time (that is, simultane ...
ing in
480i
480i is the video mode used for standard-definition digital television in the Caribbean, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Laos, Western Sahara, and most of the Americas (with the exception of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay). The ''480 ...
standard definition
Standard-definition television (SDTV, SD, often shortened to standard definition) is a television system which uses a resolution that is not considered to be either high or enhanced definition. "Standard" refers to it being the prevailing sp ...
. However, with the complexities of the digital transition causing viewers to be unable to receive WMVS's VHF over-the-air signal – as has been a major problem in other markets – the Milwaukee PBS stations re-mapped their digital channels on September 1, 2010, in order to maximize their services, and to prepare for WMVT's 36.1 channel to eventually be transmitted in high definition in response to viewer demand. The main 10.1 signal was also reduced to
720p
720p (1280×720 px; also called HD ready, standard HD or just HD) is a progressive HDTV signal format with 720 horizontal lines/1280 columns and an aspect ratio (AR) of 16:9, normally known as widescreen HDTV (1.78:1). All major HDTV broadcast ...
, as opposed to PBS's preferred 1080i format.
Most of the services also broadcast over
Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
's
digital tier on that provider's southeastern Wisconsin systems, and began to be carried on
Charter Communications
Charter Communications, Inc., is an American telecommunications and mass media company with services branded as Spectrum. With over 32 million customers in 41 states, it is the second-largest cable operator in the United States by subscribers, ...
systems on October 15, 2008 (although Charter did not purchase and absorb Time Warner Cable until 2016).
WMVS and WMVT were once unique in American television for not providing a digital simulcast of the stations' programming schedule for their analog channels, and the channels were transposed, with the multicast carried over WMVS' channel 8, and the HD signal featuring channel 10's programming (which until 2007 only featured PBS'
basic HD schedule with oft-repeated programming) on channel 35, WMVT's digital allocation; this was done in order to give the stations' main signal the best possible coverage area with low interference, as WMVS-DT shared a frequency with the analog channel 8 signal of
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
affiliate
WOOD-TV
WOOD-TV (channel 8) is a television station licensed to Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for West Michigan. It is owned by Nexstar Media Group alongside Battle Creek–licensed ABC affiliate WOTV (channel 41) an ...
in
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the List of municipalities in Mi ...
. WOOD-TV's analog signal propagated easily across
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...
and was sometimes receivable clearly in the lakeshore communities of
Port Washington and
Sheboygan. WOOD-TV likewise placed
translator stations in
Muskegon
Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expans ...
and
Holland
Holland is a geographical regionG. Geerts & H. Heestermans, 1981, ''Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal. Deel I'', Van Dale Lexicografie, Utrecht, p 1105 and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th c ...
to avert cross-lake interference from WMVS-DT and to provide extended analog service for those communities. The issues between WOOD-TV and WMVS remained until the June 12, 2009
digital transition Digital transition refers to the process of moving an existing analog system to a digital format. Used without further qualifiers, the term normally refers to the move from analog television to digital television, the digital television transition. ...
, when WOOD-TV shut down its analog signal on channel 8 to broadcast exclusively over digital channel 7.
The simulcasting situation was rectified on September 1, 2008, with both stations launching a simulcast of both channels' analog signals on their digital broadcast feeds ahead of the original February 17, 2009 digital switchover date and beginning broadcasts on their own signals. At that time, MPTV's
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...
channel, which formerly aired on 10.3, was discontinued due to PBS ceasing the ''PBS Kids Channel'' service to focus more on the cable-only
PBS Kids Sprout
Universal Kids is an American children's television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal.
The channel launched on September 26, 2005, as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented channel jointly ...
until its sale to
NBCUniversal
NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate corporation owned by Comcast and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States.
NBCUniversal is primari ...
in 2013, and WMVS' 5 a.m. – 6 p.m. weekday schedule shifted to entirely children's programming to compensate. To assuage viewers in one of the show's most popular markets, MPTV promised to continue to carry ''
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'' (sometimes shortened to ''Mister Rogers'') is an American half-hour educational children's television series that ran from 1968 to 2001, and was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series ''Misterogers'' debut ...
'' weekdays at noon despite PBS ending national distribution of the program on a five-day-a-week basis; this ended in late January 2010 with a sharp increase in program rights payments for the series by its distributor (the program now only airs on Sunday mornings).
Due to the bandwidth required for subchannels, and budget concerns, WMVT's main 36.1 signal remained in standard definition until February 7, 2011, when it was converted to high definition.
[MPTV Channel 36.1 Goes High Definition Next Monday](_blank)
Milwaukee Public Television, February 3, 2011.
A secondary
translator station
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater (two-way radio) or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats (or tran ...
for WMVS broadcasting on UHF channel 36 signed on the air on August 14, 2012, transmitting from the MPTV Tower to better serve the main portion of WMVS' service area with UHF-only antennas. Also planned is a boost in power of the main WMVS signal courtesy of a Public Telecommunications Facilities Program award. The channel 36 translator relayed all four multicast feeds on WMVS, and to allow differentiation between the 8 and 36 channels and reduced confusion, the PSIP info added a "1" before the subchannel designation, thus the 36 translator aired virtual channels 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, and 10.14.
After the
DTV Delay Act
The digital transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of terrestrial television programming. According to David Rehr, then president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, th ...
was passed by the U.S. Congress, MPTV, along with Milwaukee's commercial
Big Four network stations and two other full-power stations, decided to convert to digital-only broadcasts on the rescheduled transition date of June 12, 2009 instead. WMVS and WMVT wound down their analog broadcasting operations at 9 a.m. on that date, prefaced with a broadcast of the station's inaugural introduction followed by the national anthem, "
The Star-Spangled Banner
"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States. The lyrics come from the "Defence of Fort M'Henry", a poem written on September 14, 1814, by 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key after witnessing the b ...
", then a final display of the
Indian Head test card
The Indian-head test pattern is a test card created by RCA of Harrison, New Jersey, which became the standard image of the RCA TK-1 monoscope. It features a drawing of a Native American wearing a headdress and numerous graphic elements designe ...
and test tone before both stations signed off their analog service.
Due to unknown issues, Milwaukee PBS had never introduced any
second audio program
Second audio program (SAP), also known as secondary audio programming, is an auxiliary audio channel for analog television that can be broadcast or transmitted both over-the-air and by cable television. Used mostly for audio description or oth ...
channels allowing the use of services such as
Descriptive Video Service
Audio description, also referred to as a video description, described video, or more precisely called a visual description, is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a media work (such as a film or telev ...
on their digital channels, a rarity in the PBS system as DVS is usually expected as a regular feature (DVS and SAP were available during the analog age on both stations). This was not rectified until February 2016, when WMVS and WMVT added second and third audio program streams to all of their channels, allowing viewers to utilize DVS, along with English translation for the
Spanish language
Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a world language, global language with more than 500 millio ...
program ''¡Adelante!''. MPTV was the last major station in the Milwaukee market to add SAP and DVS services, eight months after FCC requirements regarding
audio description
Audio description, also referred to as a video description, described video, or more precisely called a visual description, is a form of narration used to provide information surrounding key visual elements in a media work (such as a film or te ...
came into effect for the Milwaukee market for major commercial stations, though they are voluntary for non-commercial broadcasters.
In November 2016, Milwaukee Public Television switched its branding to Milwaukee PBS to better illuminate its role as the PBS member station group for Milwaukee, and in line with the launch of PBS's video portal where a yearly donation to the station allows access to archive programming, and a new
PBS Kids
PBS Kids is the brand for most of the children's programming aired by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. Some public television children's programs are not produced by PBS member stations or transmitted by PBS. Instead, ...
channel.
On August 31, 2017, Milwaukee PBS discontinued two audio channels carried by WMVT; Milwaukee PBS Classical on 36.4, which carried programming from
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 ...
/
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
's "
Beethoven Satellite Network", and Milwaukee PBS Jazz on 36.5, which carried programming from WFMT's "Jazz Satellite Network", due to WMVT's upcoming spectrum merger with WMVS and to save revenue from costly carriage agreements with WFMT.
Sinclair,
Weigel Broadcasting
Weigel Broadcasting Co. is an American television broadcasting company based in Chicago, Illinois, alongside its flagship station WCIU-TV (Channel 26), at 26 North Halsted Street in the Greektown neighborhood. It currently owns 25 television s ...
, and Milwaukee PBS all decided on a switch date of January 8, 2018 for their various local spectrum moves. At that time, both WMVS and WMVT remapped their channels on physical channel 8, with WMVT retaining their main signal on 36.1 in HD, with
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 ...
moving to 36.2 and MPTV's weather service mapping to 36.3. WMVS then mapped to their main service on 10.1 in HD, with
Create on 10.2 and PBS Kids remaining on 10.3.
Despite the channel share, the inner-core channel 36 translator mapped to channels 10.11-10.13 did not repeat WMVT's channels, and only repeated those of WMVS.
The translator service was ended in mid-June 2020 as another after-effect of the spectrum auction where it was required to end service, as 36 is the last channel in the new UHF bandplan.
Digital channels
*¹ - Create formerly aired overnights on WMVT after 1 a.m. or 3 a.m. until 6 a.m., depending on if the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board was broadcasting instructional programming via Wisconsin Public Television. With the WECB moving to online-only broadcasting with the 2014–15 academic term, repeats of documentaries and British series now air overnights.
*² - KEC60 was used as the second audio program feed on WMVS' analog channel during programming without DVS or alternate language tracks.
Instructional division
Milwaukee PBS, as part of the Milwaukee Area Technical College, also provides the
student television station facility and production support for the Television and Video Production Division at MATC. TVP, formerly known as 'Telecasting', predates the stations and has produced several hundred broadcast video professionals over the years.
The two-year program is unique in Wisconsin's technical college system, as well as nationwide. Stations licensed directly to a college are fairly rare in the PBS system, especially in larger markets, and even fewer are attached to a technical/two-year college. As a result, students in the division enroll from all over the state. The student population also tends to include out-of-state students as well as international students. As such, one of the major goals of a TVP student during their time at MATC/MPBS is to produce a program of
educational television
Educational television or learning television is the use of television programs in the field of distance education. It may be in the form of individual television programs or dedicated specialty channels that is often associated with cable telev ...
or entertaining interest to air during the organization's ''Student Operations Day'', which occurs on a Saturday in late April or early May, where student programs air on WMVT throughout the broadcast day. WMVT also televises MATC graduation ceremonies.
See also
*''
The Making of Milwaukee''
References
External links
Official website
{{coord, 43, 02, 38.8, N, 87, 55, 16.8, W, type:landmark_region:US-WI, display=title
PBS member networks
Public broadcasting in Wisconsin
Television stations in Milwaukee
Local AccuWeather Channel affiliates