WMVT
 | |
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin United States | |
|---|---|
| Branding | Milwaukee Public Television, Channel 36 or MPTV-36.1 HD |
| Slogan | Opening Your World |
| Channels |
Digital: 35 (UHF) Virtual: 36 (PSIP) |
| Affiliations |
|
| Owner | Milwaukee Area Technical College |
| First air date | January 29, 1963 |
| Call letters' meaning | Milwaukee Vocational and Technical Schools |
| Sister station(s) | WMVS |
| Former channel number(s) |
Analog: 36 (UHF, 1963–2009) |
| Transmitter power | 500 kW |
| Height | 354.9 m |
| Facility ID | 42665 |
| Transmitter coordinates | 43°5′45.7″N 87°54′15.3″W / 43.096028°N 87.904250°WCoordinates: 43°5′45.7″N 87°54′15.3″W / 43.096028°N 87.904250°W |
| Licensing authority | FCC |
| Public license information: |
Profile CDBS |
| Website |
www |
WMVT, virtual channel 36 (UHF digital channel 35), is a PBS member television station located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The station is owned by the Milwaukee Area Technical College, which also owns sister PBS member station WMVS (channel 10). The two stations are collectively branded as "Milwaukee Public Television". WMVT and WMVS share studio facilities located at the Continuing Education Center on the Milwaukee Area Technical College campus on North 8th Street in downtown Milwaukee, and its transmitter is located on North Humboldt Boulevard in Milwaukee's Estabrook Park neighborhood.
WMVT and WMVS operate separately from the Wisconsin Public Television state network that is owned by the University of Wisconsin Extension and serves the rest of the state; however Milwaukee Area Technical College/Milwaukee Public Television coordinate instructional television efforts for their broadcast area. The station's programming is also available on the video on demand service, Wisconsin On Demand 1111, on Time Warner Cable systems across southeastern Wisconsin.
History
The station first signed on the air on January 28, 1963. Upon a September 2010 realignment of its digital signal, the station's changed its on-air branding to "MPTV-36.1 HD".
Digital television
WMVT's digital signal, which broadcasts on UHF channel 35, is multiplexed into six different digital subchannels, with virtual channel 36.1 broadcasting high definition programming in the 720p format and its five additional subchannel services broadcasting in 480i standard definition.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WMVT shut down its analog signal, over UHF channel 36, at 9 a.m. on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 35.[1] Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former UHF analog channel 36.
WMVT formerly did not have a digital broadcast signal, and the station's channel slot was used to broadcast a full-quality high definition digital signal of WMVS, due to the limitations of the VHF channel 8 signal within the area. WMVS-DT had to operate on limited power until the digital switchover in order to protect the analog channel 8 signal of NBC affiliate WOOD-TV across Lake Michigan in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which regularly propagated over the lake and into Wisconsin. Another shuffle occurred on September 1, 2010 which brought over three of WMVT's subchannel services onto WMVS's bandwidth, along with a standard definition simulcast of WMVS's 10.1 feed over digital channel 36.2 in 480i widescreen standard definition to address viewer complaints about reception of VHF channels post-transition. This shuffle also enabled 36.1 to eventually air programming in high definition beginning on February 7, 2011, a move that was delayed by budget concerns.[2]
Programming
While WMVS is billed as the area's mainstream PBS station, WMVT maintains a more educational and news format. The station's schedule is heavy on documentary, instructional, DIY, and news programming. Until October 2014 when the state's instructional programming efforts moved online-only, WMVT functioned as Milwaukee member for Wisconsin Educational Communications Board's instructional telecourse programs for students and teachers and most Wisconsin Badgers sports coverage from Wisconsin Public Television; British drama and comedy programming, along with encores of MPTV and PBS programming has now replaced the instructional programming in the overnight, weekend and morning timeslots. When WMVS holds its annual auction and pledge drives, WMVT takes on the responsibility of running PBS primetime programming normally seen on channel 10. The station also previously PBS NewsHour on a half-hour delay in lieu of WMVS for a ten-year period until September 5, 2016, when MPTV's locally-based programming was switched to airing on WMVT.
WMVT also has a "Student Operations Day" that is held annually on the first Saturday in May, in which students from Milwaukee Area Technical College's broadcasting department use the MPTV facilities to produce their own shows to air on channel 36, which vary from serious educational and history programs to comedy shows.
See also
References
- ↑ "DTV Tentative Channel Designations for the First and Second Rounds" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-03-24.
- ↑ Changes are Many for MPTV in September, Milwaukee Public Television, August 31, 2010.