WPBN TV 7-4 story on FireDennis.com
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- Duration: 0:56
- Published: 2009-02-09
- Uploaded: 2010-08-24
- Author: draincommissioner
Cheboygan Countys Drain Commissioner has nothing to do, so its time to fire him.
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WPBN-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Northern Lower and Eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan that is licensed to Traverse City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 (virtual channel 7) from a transmitter east of Kalkaska. There is also a low-powered digital fill-in translator on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter south of Harrietta in the Manistee National Forest. Owned by Barrington Broadcasting, the station operates ABC affiliate WGTU and its full-time satellite WGTQ (owned by Tucker Broadcasting of Traverse City) through a shared services agreement (SSA). The two share studios on M-72 just west of Traverse City.
Together, the two stations are known on-air as TV 7&4 and serve the largest television market east of the Mississippi River: 23 counties in the Northern Lower Peninsula, three counties in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, and portions of Northern Ontario including Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. However, WTOM has not been available in Canada on cable since the early-2000s when Shaw Communications replaced it with Detroit's WDIV. WTOM also serves as the default NBC affiliate for Alpena as that area does not have an affiliate of its own.
In the 1950s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula was part of the Traverse City/Cadillac market. At the time, the only television station in that area had been private CBC Television affiliate CJIC-TV. Since WPBN was already operating at the maximum power allowed, Biederman signed-on WTOM-TV in Cheboygan on May 16, 1959 bringing American television to the Eastern Upper Peninsula for the first time. Since then, the two stations have been known collectively as 7&4.
Until 1971, it shared ABC programming with CBS affiliates WWTV/WWUP. WPBN aired ABC's sports programming on the weekends while WWTV aired some of the network's game shows and soap operas. In 1971, WGTU signed-on and took the ABC affiliation. In 1980, Midwest Broadcasting wanted to expand its broadcast operations in Northern Michigan. However, the FCC told the family that they could do so only if they sold some stations to stay under ownership limits. One of the stations sold off was WPBN/WTOM (which count as one station for ratings and regulatory purposes) to U.S. Tobacco.
From 1999 to 2005, it was owned by Raycom Media. In late-2005, following that company's purchase of The Liberty Corporation, Raycom announced that WPBN would be sold along with another NBC affiliate in the Upper Peninsula, WLUC-TV in Marquette. The sale was necessary to help meet FCC restrictions on station ownership. On March 27, 2006, Raycom announced that Barrington Broadcasting would acquire twelve Raycom stations including this channel. The FCC approved the deal in June 2006 and the finalization took place on August 12. At that point, the station joined WLUC, Saginaw's NBC affiliate WEYI-TV and (to a degree) Toledo, Ohio's NBC affiliate WNWO-TV as part of Barrington's family of stations in and around Michigan.
On September 19, 2007 an application was filed to the FCC by Max Media to sell WGTU, its full-time satellite WGTQ, and CW cable station to Tucker Broadcasting for $10 million. After approval, that company entered into a shared services agreement with Barrington . According to the FCC filing, WPBN would sell advertising time and provides other programming for Tucker's stations. After this station renovated its studios over the summer, the two stations consolidated operations into the expanded facilities. WPBN and WGTU began to share a website as well. For the digital transition on June 12, 2009, WPBN filed a petition with the FCC move its Traverse City digital signal on UHF channel 50 to the analog tower in Harrietta to maintain coverage in that area. It then signed-on a new digital signal on UHF channel 47 from WGTU's tower in Kalkaska.
Unlike WPBN, WTOM-DT on UHF channel 35 did not initially offer NBC programming in full high definition. Instead, the signal was transmitted in an unconverted format. A true high definition signal for that station was included once WTOM shut down its analog signal on the transition date. Its new digital signal covers a fraction of the area once served by the VHF analog signal due to the rather low-powered 78 kW digital signal on UHF. To make up for this shortfall in coverage, WPBN and WTOM were added to the digital subcarriers of WGTU and WGTQ respectively.
When WTOM first began broadcasting, it had a separate news department based at its studios on U.S. 23 east of Cheboygan. However, this operation was closed down and the channel eventually became a full-time satellite of WPBN. For most of the last half-century, it has been second in the news ratings in the market behind WWTV according to Nielsen Media Research. Early on, the Biedermans devoted significant resources to WPBN's news operation utilizing the resources of the co-owned radio stations.
This has continued long after the television and radio stations went separate ways resulting in a higher-quality product than conventional wisdom would suggest for a station in the 116th market. In terms of coverage, WPBN has traditionally had more of a Traverse City focus compared with WWTV who has facilities southeast of Cadillac.
Station alumni include Christa Quinn and the immortal "Deputy" Don Melvoin who first hosted the Deputy Don kids show in the 1950s. After a stint in Hollywood that included roles on The Twilight Zone and a movie filmed on Mackinac Island called Somewhere in Time, Melvoin came back to WPBN to host Deputy Don Rides Again and the horror flick Count Zappula. Don Melvoin died in 2002. In addition to its main studios, there is a bureau in Gaylord on West Main Street. In the past, the station had also maintained newsrooms in Petoskey and Cadillac. The latter was closed in November 2008 after a reporter based there was laid-off.
On September 10, 2007, it began airing a midday broadcast weekdays at 11 after Today expanded to four hours. After WGTU consolidated its operations with WPBN, it became possible there would be full newscasts on that station. Since 1984, there had been virtually no local broadcasts except for weekday morning news, weather, and sports cut-ins at :25 and :55 past the hour during Good Morning America as well as a pre-recorded ten minute news and weather update seen weeknights at 11 known as ABC 29&8 News Break. The morning cut-ins were eventually dropped. Lori Puckett, WGTU's original only on-air personality who continues anchoring the weeknight update, appeared on WPBN in the local segments of the 2008 Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon.
This station airs its newscasts in 16x9 standard definition widescreen. Alhough not truly high definition, the broadcasts match the ratio of HD television screens. In January 2009, the station laid-off nine employees and canceled the weekday midday show. On September 13, 2010, WPBN finally took advantage of WGTU being housed in the same facility and launched a weeknight newscast at 6:30 on that channel. As a result, ABC World News with Diane Sawyer moved to 7. Known as UpNorthLive Tonight, the show features local news and weather but also goes into detail covering community events and various businesses. There is no sports report given in this broadcast. It originates from a secondary set.
7&4 News Storm Team Meteorologists
Sports (both seen on Hometown Highlights)
Reporters
Category:NBC network affiliates Category:Barrington Broadcasting Company Category:Television channels and stations established in 1954 WTOM-TV Category:Television stations in Traverse City, Michigan Category:Television stations in Michigan Category:Channel 47 digital TV stations in the United States WTOM-TV
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