WSBE-TV's license was originally held by the Rhode Island State Board of Education (from which the call letters are derived).

In 1981, what had become the Board of Regents for Education transferred the station to the Rhode Island Public Telecommunications Authority, a quasi-state agency.

According to a release announcing the decision, the state budget extended funding to the station until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, 2013.

[9] WSBE airs well-known PBS series (Nature, Masterpiece, Antiques Roadshow) on a schedule typically delayed by eight or more days from full-carriage public television stations such as Boston's WGBH-TV.

WSBE co-produced the nationally distributed Italian cooking show, Ciao Italia, since 2002, with production on-site through 2015.