radio station wjmn 94.5 in boston massachusetts . wjmn tv semi satellite of wfrv tv green bay wisconsin escanaba marquette michigan united states city escanaba michigan branding local 3 general local 3 news hd newscasts slogan keeping it local channels digital 48 uhf virtual 3 psip subchannels 3.1 cbs 3.2 escape 3.3 laff 3.4 bounce tv affiliations cbs 1992 present owner nexstar broadcasting group nexstar broadcasting inc. first air date october 7 1969 ; 47 years ago 1969 10 07 call letters meaning jane morton norton member of former ownership family sister station s wfrv tv wlax weux former channel number s analog 3 vhf 1969 2009 former affiliations nbc 1969 1983 abc 1983 1992 transmitter power 1000 kw height 355 m facility id 9630 transmitter coordinates 46 08 05 n 86 56 55 w 46.13472 n 86.94861 w 46.13472 ; 86.94861 coordinates 46 08 05 n 86 56 55 w 46.13472 n 86.94861 w 46.13472 ; 86.94861 licensing authority fcc public license information semi satellite of wfrv tv green bay wisconsin profile semi satellite of wfrv tv green bay wisconsin cdbs website www.upmatters.com wjmn tv virtual channel 3 uhf digital channel 48 is a cbs affiliated television station located in escanaba michigan united states . the station is owned by the nexstar broadcasting group . wjmn maintains studios off us 41 m 28 on wright street in marquette township . 1 and its transmitter is located in unincorporated northern delta county south of the alger county line which is shared with wglq 97.1 fm . the station can also be seen on charter communications channel 3 and in high definition on digital channel 788 . although identifying as a separate station in its own right it is considered a semi satellite of sister station wfrv tv channel 5 in green bay wisconsin . contents 1 digital television 1.1 digital channel 1.2 analog to digital conversion 2 history 3 programming 4 news operation 5 references 6 external links digital television edit digital channel edit the station s digital signal is multiplexed channel video aspect psip short name programming 2 3.1 1080i 16 9 wjmn hd main wjmn tv programming cbs 3.2 480i 4 3 escape 3.3 laff 3.4 bounce tv analog to digital conversion edit wjmn signed on its digital signal on uhf channel 48 in 2002 ; originally this signal operated at a very low power from a transmitter west of downtown escanaba and was only available in the immediate area . a construction permit in july 2009 allowed the station to increase its power to 1 megawatt and move the digital signal back to its analog transmitter site . however according to an engineer this would not happen until sometime in 2010 . 3 therefore the updated digital signal of 9.8 kilowatts still could only be received in the immediate escanaba and gladstone areas . wjmn tv discontinued regular programming on its analog signal over vhf channel 3 at around 1 a.m. occurring within a commercial break during the late late show with craig ferguson on february 17 2009 the original date in which full power television stations in the united states were to transition from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate which was later pushed back to june 12 . the station s digital signal remained on its pre transition uhf channel 48 4 using psip to display the station s virtual channel as its former vhf analog channel 3 . as part of the safer act 5 wjmn kept its analog signal on the air until march 3 to inform viewers of the digital television transition through a loop of public service announcements from the national association of broadcasters . wjmn upgraded its current transmitter in september 2010 and is now by far the most powerful digital television signal in the upper peninsula . history edit the station signed on the air on october 7 1969 as the second television station in the central upper peninsula of michigan and brought a second programming choice from wluc tv channel 6 . its analog antenna was 1 310 feet 400 m in height which made it the second tallest television transmitter in the state after the transmitter tower used by wwtv in cadillac upon its completion . the formation of wjmn is the result of an agreement between wfrv s then owner orion broadcasting controlled by the norton family of louisville kentucky then owners of wave television and the federal communications commission fcc . when wfrv applied to move its transmitter to glenmore wisconsin it had to address short spacing issues from wmaq tv in chicago . every channel allocation in the green bay and wausau television markets in the analog age was shared by a chicago television station 2 5 11 26 and 32 in green bay and 7 and 9 in wausau . as part of the agreement to transmit from glenmore wfrv launched wjmn to serve michigan s underserved upper peninsula which at that time only had wluc then sister to green bay s wluk tv as the only commercial outlet serving the area . on several occasions from being a semi satellite of wfrv wjmn has affected wluc s affiliations resulting from network television shakeups in green bay . upon commencing operations in 1969 it took the nbc affiliation from wluc reverting that station to primary cbs and secondary abc status . orion broadcasting merged with cosmos broadcasting a subsidiary of the liberty corporation in 1981 . however wjmn would continue to use the norton era 3 logo in the font style seen on other norton stations until 2001 . after wjmn joined abc in april 1983 wluc dropped abc and became a secondary nbc affiliate . later in the 1980s wjmn was sold to midwest radio and television owned by the murphy and mcnally families joining wcco am tv in minneapolis st. paul . by 1992 when new fcc rules allowed networks to own more stations the cbs corporation decided to acquire wjmn as part of its concurrent purchase of wfrv both were originally set to be sold off as cbs acquired midwest radio and television simply to acquire the wcco stations and convert it to cbs . an affiliation swap with wluc tv occurred on february 24 1992 with wjmn joining cbs and wluc adding a primary affiliation with abc alongside its secondary relationship with nbc . the move made wjmn among the few stations in the united states to have been with all of the big three networks along with wluc and be the lowest ranked network owned and operated station by market size . station affiliations in the market would finally stabilize in 1996 with the launch of abc affiliate wbkp channel 5 and later launch of sister station wbup channel 10 which eventually switched to abc with wbkp going with the cw and the eventual launch of a fox affiliated subchannel on wluc in 2009 . on april 16 2007 liberty media a media company unrelated to the liberty corporation completed an exchange transaction with the 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 wjmn and approximately 170 million in cash . 6 the sale was completed on april 18 however its website continued to be maintained by cbs television stations s digital media group until may 14 2008 when liberty launched a redesigned site powered by inergize digital media then a subsidiary of clear channel communications later a division of newport television and now operated by nexstar broadcasting group . 7 the updated site incorporated an expanded page on wfrv s website for wjmn to focus on upper peninsula specific weather and news . previously the page had only contained the michigan associated press wire service along with weather and was not highlighted on the cbs interactive version of wfrv s website . in the summer of 2007 following the sale to liberty wjmn slowly transitioned from branding as cbs 3 to channel 3 which had been previously used until 2003 . on april 7 2011 the nexstar broadcasting group announced it would acquire both wjmn and wfrv from liberty media ; 8 the 20 million deal was both approved by the fcc and completed the week of july 1 2011 . 9 in the fcc s approval of the wjmn purchase a waiver of section 73.1125 a of the fcc rules was included to allow nexstar to continue using wfrv s green bay studio as the main studio for wjmn with nexstar citing a population downturn and continued weak economy in central upper michigan that would prevent it from setting up a main studio in escanaba or marquette for wjmn . 10 once nexstar announced the completion of the wjmn wfrv acquisition it named joseph denk as become vice president and general manager of both stations ; 9 denk replaces robert perry kidder who announced his retirement shortly after the sale was announced kidder had spent 37 years with wfrv and wjmn . 11 the website url and operations of wfrv and wjmn also changed to nexstar s in house format they had been maintained by broadcast interactive media since april 2010 ; in the case of wjmn its web address changed from wjmntv.com to marquettehomepage.com . again however the page has seems to have been reduced to a placeholder only carrying stories from the ap michigan wire feed and press releases in regards to state and federal governments . on january 23 2012 wfrv was rebranded to local 5 a branding style which originated with post newsweek stations and which has since been adapted by several of nexstar s operations . however wjmn continued to be branded as channel 3 until the 2014 launch of its separate news operation as most stories in wfrv s newscasts aren t local to upper michigan . in fall 2013 wjmn s web address was changed from marquettehomepage.com to upmatters.com . the change reflects the expanded content available on the site including auto classifieds contests and directories . wjmn formerly operated its local operations on north third street in downtown marquette . 12 programming edit wjmn clears most local and network programming as provided through wfrv . for most of the day it airs a time shifted feed of wfrv in eastern time as opposed to central . an obvious example of this phenomenon was on weekday mornings when wjmn aired cbs this morning tape delayed by an hour from 8 to 10 a.m. as opposed to other stations normally showing the program from 7 to 9 a.m. eastern time ; however as of 2014 update the station now airs the program live replacing the second hour of wfrv s morning newscast . likewise wfrv s weekday morning newscast is seen an hour later as a result of the time zone difference this was also the case with the midday newscast until wjmn replaced it with an infomercial in 2014 while the young and the restless is seen a half hour earlier on wjmn than on other cbs affiliates in the eastern time zone . on weekends wjmn airs programming from cbs in traditional time slots . the station airs separate local commercials promotions and identifications from wfrv . wjmn also airs separate syndicated programming from wfrv on weekdays including rachael ray steve harvey family feud access hollywood and tmz wfrv s lone weekday syndicated program the ellen degeneres show is seen in the central upper peninsula on wluc tv rather than wjmn . in addition wjmn also airs some regional programming pertinent only to michigan viewers such as the michigan lottery game show make me rich and programming from the detroit lions television network which carries pre season games and weekly syndicated show the ford lions report during the regular season . wfrv is not part of the network since it is in the green bay packers television market