Wisconsin Educational Communications Board
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The Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (ECB) is a state agency committed to ensuring that public radio and television programs and services are made available throughout Wisconsin, and that these programs and services reflect and respond to the educational and cultural needs of the state's residents.
ECB's televised telecourses from University of Wisconsin–Madison and programming aired for recording by teachers on video recorders for classroom and other educational use is broadcast over Wisconsin Public Television, along with stations in areas of the state which do not have a station owned by WPT/ECB, due to PBS member stations having been launched in those areas before that network's expansion in the 1970's. Milwaukee Public Television's WMVT (Channel 36) in Milwaukee, and WDSE (Channel 8) in Duluth-Superior carry the instructional programming of the ECB, including a 2pm-3pm block of Between the Lions and Reading Rainbow, with WMVT carrying the full ECB schedule. WDSE carries all shows except the 3am-6:30am block, other time periods where shows are broadcast for use by teachers on the Minnesota side of their broadcast area, and the early Saturday morning telecourse from UW-Madison; during overnights outside of these times, the station is off-the-air.
During summer vacation and school recesses, WMVT airs the Create network overnights, and a PBS Kids block during the daytime programmed by MPTV and called Vacation Station. MPTV and WDSE also coordinate the telecourse assistance with faculty and teachers in their area in lieu of ECB.
The ECB is also responsible for maintaining basic emergency communications within Wisconsin. The board operates the Emergency Alert System infrastructure and is responsible for maintence and upkeep of the NOAA's Weather Radio transmitters, along with operating the AMBER Alert child emergency system.
