Milwaukee PBS getting into storyteller mode
His first week at Milwaukee's public television stations, Bohdan Zachary got off on the wrong floor, and walked into a culinary arts class at Milwaukee Area Technical College.
What he saw was a roomful of students focused on learning. And, he said, he saw a story worth telling.
"That image of those young students … riveted … just captured my heart," Zachary, general manager of Milwaukee PBS, said in a recent interview.
Taken a year ago, that wrong turn turned into a work in progress for Milwaukee PBS: a 10- to 13-episode series following students in MATC's culinary arts program over a two-year period. The journey-style reality show is expected to air on WMVS-TV (Channel 10) next fall.
Zachary, who began as general manager in November 2015, believes the future of public television in Milwaukee will be finding stories that resonate with the community.
"Telling stories of the local community helps define us," he said.
Milwaukee PBS, which changed its name from Milwaukee Public Television last month, serves a variety of Milwaukee-area communities, much like MATC, which holds the licenses for WMVS and WMVT-TV (Channel 36).
A core audience for public television is children and parents. On Jan. 16, PBS is launching its new PBS Kids channel, which Milwaukee PBS will pick up from day one. The new kids' channel will run over the air on Channel 10.3 (Channel 975 on Time Warner Cable), replacing the Spanish-language channel V-me.
Milwaukee PBS plans its own parent-centric effort, one inspired by a project at Zachary's previous employer, KCET, the former Los Angeles PBS station, now an independent public TV station.
To help close the learning gap that confronted many Los Angeles kids as they first started school, KCET created a community service program to educate parents and caregivers of pre-kindergartners so they could know what children need to know.
On Feb. 25, Milwaukee PBS is planning to hold a live event at MATC, inviting parents and caregivers to take part in a bilingual dialogue with experts on early childhood education. The event will be recorded and edited into a special to air in April, along with a series of short, tips-like programs to air between shows on the new PBS Kids channel.
Another outlet for telling stories about communities is Milwaukee PBS' new news magazine show "10thirtysix." Airing once a month — the next installment airs at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 16 — the show provides a vehicle to tell stories in more depth.
Because Milwaukee PBS doesn't have its own reporting staff, it's forming partnerships with other news-gathering organizations. This summer, it collaborated with WUWM-FM (89.7) on a special on Sherman Park, which aired five days after the unrest Aug. 13-14.
"We all want to tell the stories of the place we call home," he said.
At the same time, Zachary's aware of the loyalty of Milwaukee public television's existing audience.
WMVS has "consistently ranked in the top three" among most-viewed PBS stations in the country, he said. Although more viewers are targeting specific shows through apps like MPTV Passport — which, for people who give $60 or more to Milwaukee PBS, provides on-demand access to a range of public TV programming — "there's a lot of the audience that likes to sit back" and watch whatever's on TV, Zachary said.
In recent years, Milwaukee PBS has done more to connect with those traditional viewers, such as holding preview events for highly anticipated shows. A free advance screening for "Victoria," a new "Masterpiece" on young Queen Victoria starring Jenna Coleman and premiering Jan. 15 on PBS, will be held at 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at Homestead High School, 5000 W. Mequon Road. (Seating is limited; RSVP at mptv.org.)
Still, Zachary is eager to add more new local programming — but not without funding in place.
"I'm a pragmatic guy," he said. "We have to focus on our mission and what we do."
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Los Angeles-based KCET as a PBS station.