Surface protrusions have been attached on a cylinder surface to reduce the flow-induced structural vibration by controlling the wake flow. Wind tunnel tests on the near wake of a circular cylinder with surface protrusions were carried out to investigate the flow characteristics of the controlled wake. Three experimental models were used in this experiment; one plain cylinder of diameter D and two cylinders wrapped helically by three small wires of diameter d=0.075D with pitches of 5D and 10D, respectively. Free stream velocity was ranged to have Reynolds number from 5000 to 50,000. Streamwise and vertical velocity components of the wake were measured by a hot-wire anemometry. The spanwise velocity component measured by a one-component fiber optic LDV revealed that time-averaged wake field has a nearly two-dimensional structure. It was found that the surface protrusions elongate the vortex formation region, which decrease the vortex shedding frequency. The suppression of vortices caused by the surface protrusions increases the velocity deficit in the center of wake region.