# PBS Wisconsin

PBS Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin Public Television or WPT) is a network of non-commercial educational television stations operated primarily by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It comprises all of the PBS member stations in the state outside of Milwaukee (which has its own PBS stations).
The state network is available via flagship station WHA-TV in Madison and five full-power satellite stations throughout most of Wisconsin. As of April 5, 2009, all stations have converted to digital-only transmissions. PBS Wisconsin is also available on most satellite and cable television outlets. WHA-TV, along with Chicago-based WTTW, serve the Rockford, Illinois, television market exclusively through cable and satellite, as Rockford is one of a few television markets in the United States that lacks a PBS station of its own.
Until the gradual move of instructional broadcasting to IPTV services, the network, as Wisconsin Public Television, was the main conduit of educational television, GED preparation and instructional television programming produced by the WECB, which aired through PBS, Annenberg Media, those stations serving portions of Wisconsin without a WPT station, and other educational television distributors. As of October 2014, the WECB now distributes this programming exclusively online, allowing the over-the-air network to carry PBS programming full-time.

## History

WHA-TV signed on the air on May 3, 1954, as the first educational station in Wisconsin and the seventh in the United States. WHA-TV is the only public television station in the country that maintains a three-letter callsign, and one of only three analog-era UHF stations altogether (along with WHP-TV in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and WWJ-TV in Detroit) with a three-letter callsign.
Wisconsin was a relative latecomer to educational television, despite its earlier leading role in educational radio. Channel 21's radio sister, WHA-AM, is one of the oldest educational radio stations in the world. By the time channel 21 signed on, UW had already launched a radio network that evolved into today's Wisconsin Public Radio. However, for most of the time from the 1950s through the 1970s, it was one of only three stations in the state that was a member of National Educational Television (NET) and its successor, PBS. The others were WMVS (channel 10) and WMVT (channel 36) in Milwaukee. The only other areas of the state outside of Milwaukee and Madison that had a clear signal from an NET/PBS member station were the northwest (from Duluth, Minnesota's WDSE-TV) and the southwest (from the Twin Cities' KTCA-TV). During the late 60s and into the early 70s, commercial station KFIZ-TV in Fond du Lac was contracted by the UW-Madison Board of Regents to simulcast portions of WHA-TV's broadcast day, bringing WHA's programming into the Green Bay and Milwaukee markets.
In 1971, the state legislature created the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board, activating five stations as semi-satellites of WHA-TV during the 1970s; the network launched using new studio facilities located within Vilas Hall on the UW–Madison campus, along with WHA-TV and WHA radio. The first was WPNE-TV in Green Bay in 1972, ending KFIZ-TV's part-time affiliation with WHA (and hastening its demise only two months after WPNE went on the air). This was followed by WHWC-TV in Menomonie and WHLA-TV in La Crosse in 1973; WHRM-TV in Wausau in 1975 and WLEF in Park Falls in 1977, most taking call signs that originated from their co-owned radio counterparts. Originally, programming origination was split between WHA-TV and WPNE-TV. The stations adopted the on-air name of "Wisconsin Public Television" in 1986, and by then WHA-TV had become the sole originating station. Transmission and station identification is based out of ECB's Madison facility; all stations still maintain studios at their respective universities but have generally been deprecated with the evolution of public broadcasting and technology.
From 1960 to 2007, WHA-TV/WPT aired same-day tape-delayed coverage of some Wisconsin Badgers football and men's basketball home games, which was produced in association with UW-Madison's athletic department. This ended in 2007 with the Big Ten Conference's new media rights deals (including the new Big Ten Network cable channel). The state network offers tape-delayed broadcasts of Badgers men's and women's hockey, women's basketball and volleyball throughout the year over the secondary Wisconsin Channel.
In 2018, Wisconsin Public Television collaborated with the American Archive of Public Broadcasting to preserve digitized items in the WPT collection.
On November 4, 2019, Wisconsin Public Television was renamed PBS Wisconsin, aligning itself with the new national PBS brand identity unveiled the same day.

## Stations
### Full-power stations

There are six full-power stations in the state network, each located in major cities throughout the state, and all are broadcast on the UHF band. On April 5, 2009, the state network ended analog service for all stations, which map to their former analog channel location; WLEF's analog signal was terminated on February 3, 2009. All digital facilities and channels in the network except for WLEF were designed for pre- and post-transition use.
WPNE moved its physical channel from 42 to 25 on July 1, 2018, and WHLA moved its physical channel from 30 to 15 on September 7, 2018, both as part of the FCC's spectrum repacking, but both stations continue to use their virtual channel mappings.
| Station | City of license | ChannelTV (RF) | Call sign meaning | ERP | HAAT | Transmitter coordinates | First air date | Public license info | Facility ID |
| WHA-TV | Madison | 21 (20) | From sister station WHA radio | 200 kW | 454 m (1,490 ft) | 43°3′21″N 89°32′6″W﻿ / ﻿43.05583°N 89.53500°W﻿ / 43.05583; -89.53500﻿ (WHA-TV) | May 3, 1954 | Public fileLMS | 6096 |
| WHLA-TV | La Crosse | 31 (15) | WHA - La Crosse | 400 kW | 345.5 m (1,133.5 ft) | 43°48′18.3″N 91°22′5.1″W﻿ / ﻿43.805083°N 91.368083°W﻿ / 43.805083; -91.368083﻿ (WHLA-TV) | March 17, 1975 | Public fileLMS | 18780 |
| WHRM-TV | Wausau | 20 (24) | WHA - Rib Mountain | 400 kW | 387 m (1,270 ft) | 44°55′14.2″N 89°41′28.7″W﻿ / ﻿44.920611°N 89.691306°W﻿ / 44.920611; -89.691306﻿ (WHRM-TV) | January 20, 1976 | Public fileLMS | 73036 |
| WHWC-TV | Menomonie | 28 (27) | WHA - West Central | 400 kW | 350 m (1,148 ft) | 45°2′48.9″N 91°51′47.6″W﻿ / ﻿45.046917°N 91.863222°W﻿ / 45.046917; -91.863222﻿ (WHWC-TV) | November 19, 1973 | Public fileLMS | 18793 |
| WLEF-TV | Park Falls | 36 (36) | Lee E. Franks (former WECB executive director) | 400 kW | 445 m (1,460 ft) | 45°56′42.5″N 90°16′22.5″W﻿ / ﻿45.945139°N 90.272917°W﻿ / 45.945139; -90.272917﻿ (WLEF-TV) | December 15, 1977 | Public fileLMS | 63046 |
| WPNE-TV | Green Bay | 38 (25) | Public Broadcasting Northeast | 400 kW | 375 m (1,230 ft) | 44°24′34.6″N 88°0′6.7″W﻿ / ﻿44.409611°N 88.001861°W﻿ / 44.409611; -88.001861﻿ (WPNE) | September 12, 1972 | Public fileLMS | 18798 |