On Tuesday, February 14th, 2012, at 09:37:48h -0500, Arny Krueger wrote:

I have no information that seriously conflicts with published
authorities. I was just working off of memories of the day.

Well the fact that a lot of the early programs were co-productions
with Wayne State would tend to suggest to viewers that WTVS was
started by the Wayne State it-self.

I was not able to find anything else on the web of the history
of WTVS and I wonder if some of the first board members of
Detroit Public Television were perhaps linked to WSU.

On the radio dial, as you know, WSU owns and operates WDET,
but in fact WSU did not start the station. It was originally
WUAW and started and operated by the UAW in 1948 who sold it
to WSU for USD 1 in 1952. This is the reason why WDET, although
a public station, operates on a commercial frequency 101,9 MHz
and not in the reserved public broadcasting sub-band.

So perhaps unlike other larger and more prosperous universities,
WSU did not have the resources to launch a radio station its-self
and the even higher startup costs of a TV station were just out of
the question?

Maybe you could make some inquiries with local historians?