Northern Michigan dual TV channel ID

[kager]

WTOM tower was just upgraded almost 3 years ago.

There aren't alot of specifics in the article below, but it looks like it was quite the project. There is a nice 20-pic slide-show (mostly of the giant 1968 Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane helicopter involved) also included in the story (just click the link to VIEW ALL PHOTOS in the lower right of the first pic); last slide may be contour map(?) here:

https://upnorthlive.com/news/local/wtom ... n-michigan

Alot of this is probably already known to most of you. I was looking for pictures of the old WTOM-TV studios (still haven't found them) when I came across the above article...

[organman95]

I didn't have any knowledge of that. Wonder how I missed it.

Please share if you do find a picture of the WTOM set. I've been looking off and on for years.

[MWmetalhead]

Ben did a better job than me explaining the shortcomings of the current site. It's in a low lying area and signal propagation is definitely hampered by terrain shadowing. As mentioned in another post, there is a lot of signal overlap with WGTQ as well.

Usage of a site closer to Petoskey would make more sense if the station actually cares about maximizing OTA signal coverage. They likely do not, since they profit from cable & sat subscriber numbers.

[organman95]

The fun thing in the analog days living in Cheboygan, you didn't need an antenna to pick up WTOM. Came in relatively clear within two miles line-of-sight.

I can agree, MW. Having the site closer to Petoskey would be better. Frankly, I never understood why Les didn't do that in '59. Unless it had to do with overlapping with WPBN back in the day. Heck, even moving the site to Hebron Township and sharing the WYPV (WSBX?) tower would've been better than South US23.

[Tipomitt]

Well, if memory serves correctly, the Black Bear (strip club) was very nearby the WTOM-TV studios back in the 60/70's...

The old Black Bear is now known as 'Thirsty's'...and it is the very definition of a dive bar

[Ben Zonia]

There are all kinds of illustrations of satellite TV stations overlap situations in this volume from The TV Factbook 1962-1963. WPBN had already moved from West of Traverse City to the Harrietta tower, and other annual issues are missing. It appears that the overlap areas could be reduced by other propagation studies, or argue that overlap was de minimis, a Legal Latin term for negligible. By perusing World Radio History, a site owned surprisingly by early WCCW alumnus David Gleason, all kinds of early History can be found. This issue demonstrates de minimus overlap of 7 & 4.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-B ... -IA-OH.pdf

This issue of the Broadcasting companion publication Telecasting shows that in the 1957-1958 Edition, WPBN was 53.7 kW from 462 feet AGL, 760 feet HAAT from the tower west of Traverse City. The phone number was shown as WIndsor 7-7675, or 947-7675, still the number for then coowned WTCM.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-B ... 957-58.pdf

[edj]

Unrelated to this section, but the TV Factbook lists the very short lived WJMY Allen Park as on the air, says transmitter is at Southfield and Wabash Hwy. Where is/was Wabash Hwy? Allen Road’s old name?

[ftballfan]

Ben did a better job than me explaining the shortcomings of the current site. It's in a low lying area and signal propagation is definitely hampered by terrain shadowing. As mentioned in another post, there is a lot of signal overlap with WGTQ as well.

Usage of a site closer to Petoskey would make more sense if the station actually cares about maximizing OTA signal coverage. They likely do not, since they profit from cable & sat subscriber numbers.

Speaking of maximizing OTA signal coverage, if they actually cared about that, WPBN would have likely returned to Harrietta or moved to the WTCM-FM tower between Mesick and Buckley (even if they would have had to move to VHF Low as I think any of the VHF High channels would've been short-spaced to another full power station).

[Ben Zonia]

Unrelated to this section, but the TV Factbook lists the very short lived WJMY Allen Park as on the air, says transmitter is at Southfield and Wabash Hwy. Where is/was Wabash Hwy? Allen Road’s old name?

When WXON 62 took over Channel 20, it was still actually WJMY.

The Studio is shown as 16850 Southfield Allen Park, MI on the History Card, near where M-39 crosses I-94 on the History Card. Probably the TL also. Wabash was probably removed for the City Hall.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/ ... r_id=87055

[Ben Zonia]

Ben did a better job than me explaining the shortcomings of the current site. It's in a low lying area and signal propagation is definitely hampered by terrain shadowing. As mentioned in another post, there is a lot of signal overlap with WGTQ as well.

Usage of a site closer to Petoskey would make more sense if the station actually cares about maximizing OTA signal coverage. They likely do not, since they profit from cable & sat subscriber numbers.

Speaking of maximizing OTA signal coverage, if they actually cared about that, WPBN would have likely returned to Harrietta or moved to the WTCM-FM tower between Mesick and Buckley (even if they would have had to move to VHF Low as I think any of the VHF High channels would've been short-spaced to another full power station).

Keep in mind that WPBN 7 was on the tower West of Traverse City, and couldn't overlap WTOM significantly when it came on. Even Emmet Heights was probably too close for significant ERP, and a DA would have been required to serve Cheboygan, the COL, something not used much at the time. And Emmet Heights tower height would be restricted by the Pellston Airport.

[edj]

Unrelated to this section, but the TV Factbook lists the very short lived WJMY Allen Park as on the air, says transmitter is at Southfield and Wabash Hwy. Where is/was Wabash Hwy? Allen Road’s old name?

When WXON 62 took over Channel 20, it was still actually WJMY.

The Studio is shown as 16850 Southfield Allen Park, MI on the History Card, near where M-39 crosses I-94 on the History Card. Probably the TL also. Wabash was probably removed for the City Hall.

https://licensing.fcc.gov/cgi-bin/prod/ ... r_id=87055

Found some old maps of the area from 1940s and 50s. Wabash has been renamed Pinecrest. It never went east of Southfield.

[Ben Zonia]

It's very possible that we're both right about the TL of WJMY Channel 20 near Allen Park.

FCC descriptions on the History Cards are kind of sketchy on this, before they used geographical coordinates, and got even more picky by using NAD 83 vs. NAD 27, which usually is no more than a few meters difference around this part of the country, and using decimal seconds coordinates in tower registrations. Probably what was meant on the History Cards was that it was near the intersection of Southfield and what is now Pinecrest, regardless of the fact that Pinecrest dead ends at Southfield. I've seen a lot of descriptions like this.

[Taco]

Everything would be so much simpler just having 1 channel number instead of the stations having 2. For the vastness of the DMA, they should just break apart the stations to serve those specific areas. I mean I doubt people in Big Rapids or Mt Pleasant cares what goes on in SSM or Cheboygan.

[BirdieKingBobo]

Flipping thru the channels waiting for the Michigan game to start and Georgia was at a break.... flipped to 29 and 8.... and the weather report from Last weekend was on with that male weekend meteorologist who isn't on the website..... what a massive cluster fuck at Joe and Mark's 7 and 4... OUI..... Northern michigan local news at its best.

[TC Talks]

Who cares?