Originally housed on studios at the campus of Bradley University but separately owned, WTVP moved to its present facility in 2003.

However, borrowing costs from construction and insufficient pledge revenues led to a near-foreclosure and shutdown of the station in January 2008 by its lender.

[10] However, the financial cost of the move, particularly in borrowing, proved to be a major issue for the station, which had benefited for 32 years from rent-free space on the BU campus.

Other issues included the bond agreement, signed amid a recession, and an inability to secure federal grant monies to pay for the digital conversion that WTVP had already made out of pocket.

Chet Tomczyk, WTVP's president and CEO, was named interim general manager of Illinois Public Media's WILL stations.

[25] The dual leadership arrangement was a prelude to a possible merger, though WTVP ultimately sought to keep its local identity and ended the agreement in 2019 to seek its own executive while continuing programming and other collaborations with WILL.

[26] Also in 2014, WTVP began managing master control functions for WQPT, the public television station of Western Illinois University-Quad Cities in Moline.

[30] The next year, it acquired the assets of Peoria Magazine, a monthly publication that was being discontinued by its publisher, and the annual business events it organized.

[34] As a result, nine employees were laid off, and the station announced Peoria Magazine would cease publication "for the foreseeable future" with its November 2023 issue.

Eight new board members, including Republican state senator Win Stoller and former president and CEO Chet Tomczyk,[39] were elected to replace them.

[42] WTVP originated local television coverage of Bradley Braves men's basketball with its broadcasts of the opening three home games of the 1979–80 season, while the station was housed on the university's campus.