Vision Statement

Milwaukee Public Television educates, informs, entertains, and stimulates the imagination of adults and children alike. We make the best use of noncommercial media and related services to enhance the quality of life in our community by encouraging people to consider issues and explore ideas, and by inspiring a continued sense of wonderment. MPTV Friends promotes and generates community support for MPTV.

About Milwaukee Public Television

As a public service outreach venture for the Milwaukee Area Technical College, Milwaukee Public Television serves 2.1 million potential viewers with public and educational television programming. More than 116 hours of programming each day, 365 days a year, are delivered by the unique operation of three, co-located, full power broadcast services. Nearly 1.9 million viewers watch MPTV each week. The Nielsen rating service currently ranks Milwaukee the 33rd largest television market in the nation.

WMVS, Channel 10, began broadcasting in October 1957 as the 28th educational television station to go on the air in the nation. Today, Channel 10 mixes quality occupational, cultural, minority, public affairs, entertainment, recreation, Ready to Learn and life-long educational television programming from PBS, regional PTV networks and independent producers. Locally produced specials and series deal with topics of importance to the diverse audience served.

WMVT, Channel 36, began service in January 1963, and fulfills a more formal educational mission with dayparts devoted to statewide K-12 in-classroom instruction, MATC College of the Air associate degree courses, and regularly scheduled news, sports and information programs.

WMVS-DT, Channel 8, inaugurated digital television service in the Milwaukee area in April 2000 and currently carries pass-through High Definition (HDTV) specials and four multicast Standard Definition (SDTV) services from PBS.

MPTV-HD began carrying high definition programming 24 hours a day in 2003.

The stations have a rich history of technological and programming firsts:

In 1946, the Milwaukee Radio and Television Council formed to encourage quality programming. In 1967, that group evolved into the Community Broadcast Council and took on the added role of seeking financial support for the stations. Today, MPTV Friends, Inc., a not-for-profit fundraising organization, supplies more than 50% of the operating budget for the stations through generous donations from individual members, corporate underwriters, and auction donors. The licensee, the Milwaukee Area Technical College (MATC), provides substantial support for station equipment and operating expenses. Additional funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and the State of Wisconsin for services provided to the Educational Communications Board (ECB).

The stations' blend of national and locally produced programs provides opportunities for personal, civic, and multicultural enrichment, as well as increased understanding of the global economy, international business and world affairs. Local production efforts continues to be responsive to the community with the series Black Nouveau and Adelante!. Program Advisory Panels enlist stakeholder input from the African American and Latino communities to further enhance the content of these programs.

Ongoing weekly series include: Outdoor Wisconsin, Interchange, I Remember Milwaukee, and Great Lakes Gardener. They are augmented with specials that showcase area arts activities or deal with compelling issues in the community. A new season of the nationally distributed Tracks Ahead is being produced in high definition and will be scheduled soon for release. Overall station performance is discussed monthly by the Public Television Committee of the MATC Board and in quarterly meetings with the Community Advisory Board, a group of interested citizens from each county in the MPTV coverage area.

More than 60 MATC degree program students gain real-life TV industry experience by utilizing MPTV facilities, staff mentors, and local production settings.

The 1950 proposal for an educational TV system for the Milwaukee area was championed by Dr. William Rasche, Director of Milwaukee Vocational and Adult Schools, Milwaukee Mayor Frank Ziedler, and Milwaukee Public School Superintendent Harold Vincent and supported by the Milwaukee Public Museum, the UW-Milwaukee Extension service and the Milwaukee Public Library.

Their vision led to the development Milwaukee Public Television of today, a viewer supported service of Milwaukee Area Technical College, that has grown into a recognized contributor to the area's quality-of-life. On the eve of the digital age, MPTV has assembled services that include full service analog television, full service HDTV and SDTV digital television, broadcast data delivery, world-wide-web presence, 4 channels of ITFS, closed captioning for the hearing impaired, descriptive video for the visually challenged, publishing of Fine Tuning Magazine. The station will continue to add new services as opportunities and needs occur.