History
WPBN-TV began broadcasting on September 13, 1954, airing an analog signal on VHF channel 7. It was owned by the Biederman family and their company, Midwest Broadcasting, along with WTCM (1400 AM, now 580).[4] Company president Les Biederman had signed on WTCM, Northern Michigan's oldest radio station, in 1940. Over the next decade, he bought or signed-on several other AM stations throughout the area. These were known as the "Paul Bunyan Network," with WTCM as the flagship station. Since channel 7 covered much of the territory covered by the radio stations, Biederman decided not to call his new station WTCM-TV (for Traverse City, Michigan) but rather WPBN-TV (for Paul Bunyan Network).
In the 1950s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) collapsed the eastern half of the Upper Peninsula into the Traverse City–Cadillac market. At the time, the only television station in that area had been private CBC affiliate CJIC-TV. Since WPBN was already operating at the maximum power allowed, Biederman signed-on WTOM-TV in Cheboygan on May 16, 1959. WTOM was the first American television station that could be received in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, although Cheboygan is actually in the northernmost part of the Lower Peninsula. 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), which went to U.S. Tobacco.
U.S. Tobacco owned the station until 1986, at which time sold to Beam Communications. Beam owned the station until 1990, and then sold to Federal Broadcasting Company.
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 WPBN. 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. The combined operation was based at WPBN's studios, which were renovated over the summer to accommodate the change. 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, standard definition feeds of WPBN and WTOM were added to the digital subcarriers of WGTU and WGTQ respectively; these were later upgraded to high definition.
On February 28, 2013, Barrington Broadcasting announced the sale of its entire group, including WPBN/WTOM, to Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sinclair also acquired the LMA for WGTU/WGTQ, which was sold to Cunningham Broadcasting.[5] The sale was completed on November 25.[6] Nearly all of Cunningham's stock is held by trusts for the Smith family, founders and owners of Sinclair. Thus, for all intents and purposes, Sinclair owns both stations. Cunningham, previously known as Glencairn, has long been used as a shell corporation to allow Sinclair to operate duopolies where Sinclair cannot legally own them.[7][8]
