WHRS was launched by South Florida Public Telecommunications on 8th July 1982, serving the Palm Beach area of Miami, also covered by WPBT. It was renamed as WXEL in 1985. It was sold to Barry University in 1997 and eventually became independent to the university in 2012. In 2016 it merged with WPBT become the South Florida PBS.

The channel showed Tom Baker stories from 1984, with Jon Pertwee arriving in 1986, and continued to show episodes over the course of the next decade or so, including Sylvester McCoy on a pledge evening in 1996, until its last broadcast of the 'classic' series in 1998.