About Detroit Public TV
Who is DPTV?
Detroit Public TV – WTVS is the viewer-supported PBS member station serving Southeast Michigan. Our vision is for a community in which people trust public TV to help them discover new ideas, make informed decisions, and enjoy enriched lives.
Our headquarters is located in Wixom, MI. In addition to our TV station, we also operate a radio station, 90.9 WRCJ licensed to Detroit Classical and Jazz Educational Radio, LLC., and managed by Detroit Public TV and the Detroit Educational Television Foundation Board of Trustees.
DPTV has earned the 2021 GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency for non-profits.
Check here for a list of door-to-door donation canvassers who may be in your neighborhood.
The History of Detroit Public TV
Detroit Public TV (DPTV) began broadcasting in 1955 as WTVS Channel 56, a non-commercial, educational TV station licensed to the Detroit Educational Television Foundation. As a community licensee, DPTV now operates five digital broadcast television channels. The digital service was launched in October 2000. The former analog Channel 56 service ended in 2009 when all broadcast television completed the changeover to digital.
Detroit Public TV is governed by a Board of Trustees. The board is composed of representatives from the local, business, civic, and cultural communities. A separate Community Advisory Panel reviews the station’s content (programming, productions) and connects the station to people and organizations in Southeast Michigan. Rich Homberg is the Station’s President and CEO.
DPTV is the only public television station in the Detroit market and Michigan’s most-watched public station, regularly viewed by some nearly 2 million people in Southeast Michigan and throughout Canada.
Channels
Main Channel
The primary schedule of Detroit Public TV, with the full variety of our programs.
Detroit PBS KIDS
Quality, educational children’s programming with your favorite Detroit PBS KIDS characters.
Create
Popular how-to shows from cooking to crafting, to home improvement to travel shows.
The WORLD Channel
Signature documentary, science and news programming and original content.
Michigan Learning Channel
A statewide partnership providing educational content to support students, families and teachers.
Institute for Nonprofit News
DISCLOSING FUNDERS
Funders of Great Lakes Now and Detroit Public Television content cannot be anonymous. Federal law requires that broadcasters “fully and fairly disclose the true identity” of all funders. The purpose of this requirement is to be fully transparent with the audience. While this legal requirement is limited to broadcast programming, Great Lakes Now, One Detroit and Detroit Public Television ensure transparency by requiring that funders be disclosed for content distributed on all platforms, including online videos, mobile applications, and websites.
We define a funder as any third-party donor (e.g., corporation, foundation, or private individual) that has made a financial contribution to support: (1) the production or acquisition of specific content distributed by Great Lakes Now, One Detroit and/or Detroit Public Television; (2) the research and development for that content; (3) the packaging or repackaging of that content; or (4) the program service through which that content is distributed.
EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE
Editorial independence is essential to serving the public interest and preserving the public’s trust. Content distributed by Great Lakes Now, One Detroit and Detroit Public Television must be free of undue influence from third-party funders, political interests, and other outside forces. Great Lakes Now, One Detroit and Detroit Public Television must remain unwavering in a commitment to distributing content that exemplifies ethical and journalistic integrity rather than advancing commercial interests. This obligation is achieved through the good-faith professional judgment of producers and staff and by carefully listening to the public. Detroit Public Television/Great Lakes Now/One Detroit partnerships and collaborations with outside academic, research, and/or other media outlets are also held to the same standard of journalistic and ethical integrity. Editorial independence gives producers the intellectual freedom to achieve and demonstrate a commitment to accuracy, fairness, inclusiveness, accountability and transparency.