WPBN-TV

WPBN-TV and WTOM-TV
Channels for WPBN-TV
Channels for WTOM-TV
Branding
  • TV 7&4 (general)
  • UpNorthLive News on TV 7&4 (newscasts)
  • ABC 29&8 (7.2/4.2)
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
WGTU/WGTQ
History
First air date
  • WPBN-TV: September 13, 1954 (1954-09-13)
  • WTOM-TV: May 16, 1959 (1959-05-16)
Former call signs
  • WTOM-TV: WBDG-TV (CP, 1958–1959)
Former channel numbers
  • WPBN-TV:
    • Analog: 7 (VHF, 1954–2009)
    • Digital: 47 (UHF, until 2019)
  • WTOM-TV:
    • Analog: 4 (VHF, 1959–2009)
    • Digital: 35 (UHF, until 2019)
  • WPBN-TV: ABC (secondary, 1954–1971)
  • WTOM-TV: ABC (secondary, 1959–1971)
Call sign meaning
Technical information
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID
  • WPBN-TV: 21253
  • WTOM-TV: 21254
ERP
  • WPBN-TV: 850 kW
  • WTOM-TV: 250 kW
HAAT
  • WPBN-TV: 393 m (1,289 ft)
  • WTOM-TV: 194 m (636 ft)
Transmitter coordinates
Translator(s)
Links
Public license information
Websiteupnorthlive.com

WPBN-TV (channel 7) and WTOM-TV (channel 4) are television stations licensed respectively to Traverse City and Cheboygan, Michigan, United States, serving as the NBC affiliates for the northern Lower and eastern Upper peninsulas of Michigan. They are owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to regional ABC affiliates WGTU and WGTQ 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, and WTOM-TV's transmitter is on US 23 east of Cheboygan, in addition to simulcasts on WGTU and WGTQ's transmitters.

The two stations, known as "TV 7&4" and together with WGTU/WGTQ as "UpNorthLive", carry the same programming and one of the largest television markets 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 second 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.