Establishment as WFRV-TV satellite
As early as 1960, WFRV-TV began to analyze ways to extend its reach in the Upper Peninsula. The station had applied for channel 8 at Iron Mountain, Michigan, which was abandoned after WFRV-TV was sold that year alongside an application for channel 9 in Wausau, Wisconsin.[3] Seven years later, Orion Broadcasting renewed the push by filing for channel 3 at Escanaba on June 20, 1967.[4] A push by Northern Michigan University to use channel 3 instead of 13 for educational television use in the Upper Peninsula delayed approval until April 1969.[5] From a transmitter site and new 1252 ft tower near Trenary, WJMN-TV—so designated in honor of Jane Morton Norton, chairwoman of the board of Orion Broadcasting and a part of the Norton family that founded the company[6]—began broadcasting October 7, bringing a full NBC lineup and WFRV-TV's signal to a further 50,000 households.[7]
Orion Broadcasting reached a deal to merge with Cosmos Broadcasting, a subsidiary of the Liberty Corporation, in 1980. The merger would put the combined company over the limit for the number of VHF television stations it could own, prompting it to immediately announce that it would divest WFRV-WJMN.[8] In January 1981, Cosmos found a buyer: Midwest Radio-Television, owners of WCCO radio and television in Minneapolis.[9] The transaction closed in October.[10]
WJMN's connection to WFRV meant that affiliation switches in Green Bay twice affected viewers in Marquette. In 1983, the two stations switched from NBC to ABC;[11] this prompted the other established station in Marquette, WLUC-TV, to drop its ABC programming for NBC. The two stations then changed network affiliations one more time in 1992, after CBS purchased Midwest Radio-Television. This led to both stations joining CBS, but not at the same time. In Green Bay, WFRV became a CBS affiliate on March 15.[12] However, the Marquette station brought its flip forward several weeks because WLUC-TV was upset at the short notice it received that CBS was disaffiliating. WJMN thus joined CBS on February 23, which required a special feed of WFRV with CBS programming to be sent from Green Bay for transmission.[13]
On April 16, 2007, Liberty Media completed an exchange transaction with CBS Corporation pursuant to which Liberty exchanged 7.6 million shares of CBS Class B common stock valued at $239 million for a subsidiary of CBS that held WFRV and WJMN and approximately $170 million in cash.[14] WFRV and WJMN became the only two over-the-air television stations to be owned by the company.[15]
Nexstar ownership, partial separation from WFRV and loss of CBS
Nexstar Broadcasting Group announced it would acquire WFRV and WJMN from Liberty Media on April 7, 2011;[16] the $20 million deal was both approved by the FCC and completed the week of July 1, 2011.[17] Nexstar sought and received approval to continue operating WJMN-TV as a satellite station from Green Bay due to a weak regional economy.[18]
On January 23, 2012, WFRV was rebranded to "Local 5".[19] WJMN continued as "Channel 3" until 2014, when the station established its own news service and studios west of Marquette. WJMN lost its CBS affiliation on January 21, 2022, because of Nexstar's affiliation agreement with CBS (which had been day-to-day since the last agreement ended on New Year's Day) being renewed without WJMN. CBS then moved to the second digital subchannel of WZMQ (channel 19), owned by Lilly Broadcasting.[20]
Acquisition by Sullivans Landing and merger into WBUP
On April 10, 2024, Nexstar Media Group sold WJMN to Quincy, Illinois–based broadcaster Sullivans Landing, LLC, while retaining ownership of WFRV. Subsequent with the transaction, Sullivans Landing entered into joint sales and shared services agreements with Morgan Murphy Media, which had acquired ABC affiliate WBUP (channel 10) and CW+ affiliate WBKP (channel 5) from The Marks Group in late 2023.[22][23]
WJMN-TV and WBUP would merge their news departments in September 2024 under the new My UP News banner. On September 16, 2024, to improve the station's coverage, WBUP's ABC and CW subchannels began to be simulcast on WJMN's digital subchannels 3.1 and 3.2 respectively, and MyNetworkTV, along with non-prime syndicated programming moving to 3.3.[24]
