The station first signed on the air on October 28, 1957, as the 28th educational television station in the United States and the second in Wisconsin. It was a service of the Milwaukee Vocational School, forerunner of MATC–hence its call letters. Among the strongest and earliest backers of the creation of Milwaukee Public Television was Frank Zeidler, who served as the mayor of Milwaukee from 1948 to 1960. In 2007, WMVS celebrated its 50th anniversary of broadcasting. Upon a September 2010 realignment of its digital signal, the station's changed its on-air branding to "Milwaukee Public Television, Channel 10-HD". Another switch in branding occurred in December 2016, when MPTV was re-branded to Milwaukee PBS. The two Milwaukee PBS stations, WMVS and WMVT, have the unique distinction of their studio's address number incorporating the channel numbers for both of the stations, which is in Milwaukee's street numbering system. The studios are in the Continuing Education Center of the MATC Downtown Campus, at 1036 North 8th Street.
Digital television
WMVS' digital signal on VHF channel 8 broadcasts its main channel, on virtual channel 10.1, in the 720phigh definition format.
Analog-to-digital conversion
WMVS' digital signal was previously carried on digital channel 35, which is the designated digital channel of WMVT, due to interference issues with the analog channel 8 signal of WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids until a channel realignment on September 1, 2008. WMVS shut down its analog signal, over VHF channel 10, 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 continued to broadcasts on its pre-transition VHF channel 8. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 10. On September 1, 2010, another channel realignment took place which added three of MPTV's digital subchannels to WMVS' signal bandwidth, while a standard definitionsimulcast of WMVS' 10.1 feed was added to digital subchannel 36.2 for over-the-air viewers who were unable to receive WMVS' VHF signal since the conversion, an issue that has plagued many stations continuing to broadcast on VHF post-transition. The picture format on 10.1 was also reduced from 1080i to 720p to enable multicasting on WMVS' bandwidth. A secondary translator station for WMVS, broadcasting on UHF channel 36, was launched on August 14, 2012 from the MPTV Tower to better serve the main portion of WMVS' service area with UHF-only antennas, along with a boost in power to the main WMVS signal courtesy of a Public Telecommunications Facilities Program award. The secondary translator carried WMVS' main feed and all three of its subchannels, but identified each channel via PSIP as "10.1X" to reduce confusion with the main channel and allow viewers to choose which signal serves their needs better. The translator service was ended in mid-June 2020 as another after-effect of the spectrum auction where it was required to end service, as 36 is the last channel in the new UHF bandplan.
Programming
Local programming
The station's annual fundraising auction in May has been broadcast in high definition since 2003. In 1970, WMVS created its first series that would be distributed to PBS member stations, the physical fitness program Hathayoga, which ran until 1975 and hosted by Kathleen Hitchcock, which would go on to be a favorite among viewers. Since then, WMVS has produced or created a wide range of all of the station's weekly local programs, which include Black Nouveau, ¡Adelante!, I Remember, Outdoor Wisconsin and Interchange. Tracks Ahead, which premiered in 1990, also is produced in HD, and was previously syndicated by Milwaukee PBS for broadcast on the HDNet cable channel.
