WNMU (channel 13) is a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

member

television station A television station is a set of equipment managed by a business, organisation or other entity, such as an amateur television (ATV) operator, that transmits video content and audio content via radio waves directly from a transmitter on the eart ...

licensed to

Marquette, Michigan Marquette ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 20,629 at the 2020 United States Census, which makes it the largest city in the Upper Peninsula. Marquette serves as the seat of government of Marquett ...

, United States, serving the Central and Western

Upper Peninsula of Michigan The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

. It is owned by

Northern Michigan University Northern Michigan University (Northern Michigan, Northern or NMU) is a public university in Marquette, Michigan. It was established in 1899 by the Michigan Legislature as Northern State Normal School. In 1963, the state designated Northern a uni ...

alongside

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

member

WNMU-FM WNMU-FM is a radio station in the United States, broadcasting at FM 90.1 in Marquette, Michigan. The station, owned by Northern Michigan University, is a National Public Radio member station, airing a large amount of classical and jazz music alo ...

(90.1). Both outlets share studios at the Edgar L. Harden Learning Resource Center on the university's campus in Marquette; the television station's transmitter is located in Ely Township southwest of

Ishpeming Ishpeming ( ) is a city in Marquette County in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,470 at the 2010 census, less than it was in the 1950s and 1960s when the iron ore mines employed more workers. A statue of a ...

Overview

WNMU first went on the air in 1972, under

call sign In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally assign ...

WNPB. The call signs of WNPB and what had been WNMR-FM were changed to WNMU in December 1975, two weeks apart. WNMU serves all communities in the UP, over the air on channel 13 in the central UP, and on cable regionwide, including portions of northern Wisconsin not served by

PBS Wisconsin PBS Wisconsin (formerly Wisconsin Public Television or WPT) is a state network of non-commercial educational television stations operated primarily by the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin–Madison. It c ...

stations WPNE-TV or WLEF-TV. It is also seen on

Charter Spectrum Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company. The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these ser ...

cable in

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Sault Ste. Marie ( ') is the only city in, and county seat of, Chippewa County in the U.S. state of Michigan. With a population of 13,337 at the 2020 census, it is the second-most populated city in the Upper Peninsula after Marquette. It i ...

, instead of

WCMU-TV WCMU-TV (channel 14) is a PBS member television station in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, United States, owned by Central Michigan University. The station's studios are located on the CMU campus in Mount Pleasant, and its transmitter is located west ...

, which the rest of the market receives via transmitters throughout the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. In most of the Eastern UP, cable or satellite are required to receive any PBS service; when the digital conversion took place in 2009, the Eastern UP lost terrestrial PBS service when WCMU satellite WCML in Alpena lowered its transmitter power for its digital broadcasts. Neither WCMU nor WNMU currently have plans to expand into the Eastern UP to fill the void left by the departure of WCML from the Eastern UP airwaves. WNMU was part of the Shaw line-up on its

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Sault Ste. Marie ( ) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is at the St. Mary's River on the Canada–US border. It is the third largest city in Northern Ontario, after Sudbury and Thunder Bay. The Ojibwe, the indigenous Anishinaabe inhabitants ...

, system until 2002, when it was replaced with

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

WTVS WTVS (channel 56) is a PBS member television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, owned by the Detroit Educational Television Foundation. Its main studios are located at the Riley Broadcast Center and HD Studios in Wixom, with an addi ...

. The transmitter for WNMU-TV is located just outside

in Ely Township. The antenna is tall. The future of WNMU radio and TV was threatened in recent years, as budget cuts led to a proposed sale or closure of the stations. However, new funding was approved, keeping the station on the air.

Programming

WNMU produces a number of shows directly from their studios. * '' High School Bowl'', hosted by Jim Koski * ''Media Meet'', a weekly public affairs program focused on issues important to residents of Michigan's Upper Peninsula * ''Ask The...'', a live call-in series hosted by a panel of experts where viewers may call and have their question discussed on air. There are several shows including ''Ask The Doctors'', ''Ask The DNR'', ''Ask The Lawyers'', and more. * ''What's Up?'', a brief community calendar interview program. * ''Public Eye News'', a 15-minute news broadcast run by students at NMU. In 2012 a broadcast titled ''Mauvais Sort: Spellbound'' won a Good News Award for uplifting and excellent journalism.

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is

multiplexed In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource - a ...

Analog-to-digital conversion

WNMU discontinued regular programming on its analog signal, over VHF channel 13, on June 12, 2009, the official date in which full-power television stations in the United States transitioned from analog to digital broadcasts under federal mandate. The station's digital signal relocated from its pre-transition UHF channel 33 to VHF channel 13.

References

External links

WNMU-TV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wnmu (Tv) PBS member stations Television channels and stations established in 1972 Northern Michigan University NMU (TV) 1972 establishments in Michigan