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|---|---|
| City | Traverse City, Michigan |
| Channels | |
| Branding |
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| Programming | |
| Affiliations | |
| Ownership | |
| Owner |
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| WGTU/WGTQ | |
| History | |
First air date | September 13, 1954 |
Former channel number(s) |
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| ABC (secondary, 1954–1971) | |
Call sign meaning | Paul Bunyan Network |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 21253 |
| ERP | 850 kW |
| HAAT | 393 m (1,289 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 44°44′53″N 85°4′8″W / 44.74806°N 85.06889°W |
| Translator(s) |
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| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | upnorthlive |
| Satellite station | |
| WTOM-TV | |
| Channels | |
| Programming | |
| Affiliations |
|
| History | |
First air date | May 16, 1959 |
Former call signs | WBDG-TV (CP, 1958–1959)[2] |
Former channel number(s) |
|
| ABC (secondary, 1959–1971) | |
Call sign meaning | Top of Michigan |
| Technical information[3] | |
| Facility ID | 21254 |
| ERP | 250 kW |
| HAAT | 194 m (636 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 45°39′1″N 84°20′37″W / 45.65028°N 84.34361°W |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
WPBN-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to Traverse City, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliate for the northern Lower and eastern Upper peninsulas of Michigan. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to ABC affiliate WGTU (channel 29, also licensed to Traverse City) and Sault Ste. Marie–licensed full-time satellite WGTQ (channel 8) under a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Cunningham Broadcasting. However, Sinclair effectively owns WGTU/WGTQ as the majority of Cunningham's stock is owned by the family of deceased group founder Julian Smith. The stations share studios on M-72 just west of Traverse City; WPBN-TV's transmitter is located east of Kalkaska, Michigan. WPBN also operates a low-power digital fill-in translator on UHF channel 22 from a transmitter south of Harrietta in the Manistee National Forest.
Like other network affiliates in this vast and mainly rural area, WPBN-TV operates a full-time, full power satellite in Cheboygan, WTOM-TV (channel 4), whose transmitter is located on US 23 east of the city. Aside from its transmitter, WTOM does not maintain any physical presence in Cheboygan. WTOM's signal reaches as far as Petoskey, Cedarville, Indian River, and Brevort. It was originally intended to serve Sault Ste. Marie and the Eastern Upper Peninsula as well, but the current digital signal does not cover this area. To make up for this shortfall in coverage, WPBN/WTOM is simulcast in high definition on the second digital subchannel of WGTU/WGTQ.
Collectively known on-air as TV 7&4, the two stations serve the largest television market by land area 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-TV (channel 4). Until January 25, 2022, when CBS affiliate WBKB-TV affiliated its DT2 subchannel with NBC, WTOM also served as the default NBC affiliate for Alpena, and was dropped by Charter Spectrum systems in the Alpena market on May 1.[4][5]
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WPBN-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "FCC History Cards for WTOM-TV".
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WTOM-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
- ^ "IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR SPECTRUM TV LINEUP Communities Served: City of Alpena, Townships of Alcona, Alpena, Caldonia, Green, Hawes, Krakow, Long Rapids, Maple Ridge, Ossineke, Sanborn, Wilson, MI" (PDF) (Press release). Charter Communications. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
- ^ Welcoming NBC to WBKB! You will need to rescan your channels to receive FOX. Here's how.