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.
We operate our services from the Riley Broadcast Center in Wixom, Michigan, named for the lead donors to our Capital Campaign, George and Dolores Riley. We 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; a Midtown TV studio in Detroit in partnership with Wayne State University; and our Detroit Bureau is located within the Detroit Historical Museum.
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.
Detroit Public TV operates from the Riley Broadcast Center, named for lead donors Dolores and George Riley, at 1 Clover Court in Wixom, Michigan 48393. The Capital Campaign for the facility, its equipment, and the production truck reached a successful conclusion in 2009. DPTV completed building its new studios in 2010.
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.