Morgan Murphy and the former Marks Stations

[tyrannical bastard 3933]

Thought I'd check in on the former Marks stations (WBKP/WBUP in Marquette and WBKB in Alpena) now under the management of Morgan Murphy.

 

The Marquette stations are an odd bird in themselves.  Being a larger market than Alpena (which basically is the smallest market in the country with its own functioning news department), this station does some strange things with its newscasts.  The station uses a virtual set and instead of shooting video for their stories (aside from their bureau reporter) they rely on a lot of still pictures, and even obvious stock footage to fill out the VO of local stories.  NewsNet provides their weather and sports coverage.  When the local news runs out, the national packages take over.

 

Down in Alpena, it's a more traditional newscast, They once again have their own meteorologist (after relying on NewsNet to fill in the gap).  At one time, Alpena actually did the weather for Marquette.  Being Alpena, and the third smallest market in existence, This is an obvious starter's market where people don't last long and move on quickly.  Unlike Marquette, WBKB is the only game in town and as of last year, holds every major affiliation (Big 4) for the Alpena market.

 

I wonder if Morgan Murphy (Queen Bees Knees LLC) has any plans to standardize the stations like they have with their others.

 

And the $64,000 question.... How much longer will the Marks estate hold on to the Montana stations, including Glendive?

[jjj 17]

  On 2/8/2024 at 10:02 AM, tyrannical bastard said:

And the $64,000 question.... How much longer will the Marks estate hold on to the Montana stations, including Glendive?

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Until they find a buyer willing to pay what Marks think the stations are worth.   Unfortunately for Marks though, the two TV stations are practically worthless.

[tyrannical bastard 3933]

  On 2/9/2024 at 8:34 AM, jjj said:

 

Until they find a buyer willing to pay what Marks think the stations are worth.   Unfortunately for Marks though, the two TV stations are practically worthless.

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Seeing as what's happening with the stations Marquee just picked up, it's a tall order to bring local TV service here.  Could it come to the market just merging into the Billings market?

 

Glendive is a small fraction of households compared to even the Alpena market.

Edited February 9, 2024 by tyrannical bastard

[plzstandby 31]

MMM made a deal with Sinclair WPBN 

[LTSC1980 112]

  On 6/3/2024 at 4:38 AM, plzstandby said:

MMM made a deal with Sinclair WPBN 

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It had been about a month ago, and the Up North Live news with Alpena feed had already launched. Feel bad for WBKB but it’s a small market

[tyrannical bastard 3933]

  On 6/3/2024 at 5:42 AM, LTSC1980 said:

It had been about a month ago, and the Up North Live news with Alpena feed had already launched. Feel bad for WBKB but it’s a small market

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Do these WPBN/WTOM newscasts supplement the existing WBKB ones, or are they completely replacing them?

 

At one time, WGTU/WGTQ was also owned by Tom Scanlan, but they were absorbed into WPBN/WTOM prior to Sinclair's purchase of Barrington.

[tyrannical bastard 3933]

Finally had a a chance to catch one of these newscasts. 

Basically it's a WPBN/WTOM newscast with an Alpena segment in the first part of the "B" block leading up to weather in each show.  It basically amounts to a news package with the time allotted.

They still use the WBKB set but now integrate the Sinclair graphics and "Queen Bee's Knee"s" copyright using Sinclair's L3.

[Thor10 14]

  On 8/19/2024 at 6:46 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

Finally had a a chance to catch one of these newscasts. 

Basically it's a WPBN/WTOM newscast with an Alpena segment in the first part of the "B" block leading up to weather in each show.  It basically amounts to a news package with the time allotted.

They still use the WBKB set but now integrate the Sinclair graphics and "Queen Bee's Knee"s" copyright using Sinclair's L3.

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I'm surprised WBUP/WBKP isn't already simulcasting WJMN's news. Since NewsNet shuttered, WJMN's meteorologist has been recording the weather segments for WBUP/WBKP. Sports is now just a package from ABC or something similar.

[tyrannical bastard 3933]

  On 8/19/2024 at 10:05 PM, Thor10 said:

I'm surprised WBUP/WBKP isn't already simulcasting WJMN's news. Since NewsNet shuttered, WJMN's meteorologist has been recording the weather segments for WBUP/WBKP. Sports is now just a package from ABC or something similar.

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Same here.  Even WBKB seemed to put more effort into their news (pre-MM) than WBUP does.  Instead of local b-roll, you have still pictures and obvious stock footage used as filler. 

 

It's borderline unethical because the pictures don't accurately describe the story being told.

 

If WJMN is operating as it always was then they should have put the current WBUP operation out of its misery once the sale closed.

[Thor10 14]

  On 8/20/2024 at 3:11 AM, tyrannical bastard said:

Same here.  Even WBKB seemed to put more effort into their news (pre-MM) than WBUP does.  Instead of local b-roll, you have still pictures and obvious stock footage used as filler. 

 

It's borderline unethical because the pictures don't accurately describe the story being told.

 

If WJMN is operating as it always was then they should have put the current WBUP operation out of its misery once the sale closed.

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Looks like it's now official. WJMN and WBUP are becoming My UP News. It also expands the station's news to mornings and eventually weekends, and viewers will see some over-the-air signal improvements.

[TheRolyPoly 2362]

  On 8/26/2024 at 6:10 PM, Thor10 said:

Looks like it's now official. WJMN and WBUP are becoming My UP News. It also expands the station's news to mornings and eventually weekends, and viewers will see some over-the-air signal improvements.

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Mornings are being expanded from just a half-hour (6:30am on WBUP) to a full two hours, 5:30 on WBUP goes away in favor of WJMN's hour-long offering at 6:00, and the 10:00pm gets shortened to a half-hour (compared to the current hour-long format) on WJMN. It also sounds like the news on WJMN on weekends 6:00, 6:30, and 10:30pm also goes away.

[Thor10 14]

  On 8/26/2024 at 10:41 PM, TheRolyPoly said:

 

Mornings are being expanded from just a half-hour (6:30am on WBUP) to a full two hours, 5:30 on WBUP goes away in favor of WJMN's hour-long offering at 6:00, and the 10:00pm gets shortened to a half-hour (compared to the current hour-long format) on WJMN. It also sounds like the news on WJMN on weekends 6:00, 6:30, and 10:30pm also goes away.

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As someone who has seen the morning news on WBUP, it has simply been a replay of the 11 p.m. news, so this is actually something more than an expansion, putting the station in direct competition with TV6. That makes WZMQ 19 the only station without a morning show. No Marquette DMA stations do any midday/noon news. The four-station news race in that market now becomes three.

[TheRolyPoly 2362]

  On 8/26/2024 at 11:11 PM, Thor10 said:

As someone who has seen the morning news on WBUP, it has simply been a replay of the 11 p.m. news, so this is actually something more than an expansion, putting the station in direct competition with TV6. That makes WZMQ 19 the only station without a morning show. No Marquette DMA stations do any midday/noon news. The four-station news race in that market now becomes three.

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Oh really? I didn't know that.

[Thor10 14]

WBUP and WJMN have launched their new news product, My UP News, and website, MyUPNow.com. The old websites - abc10up.com and upmatters.com - still don't redirect to the new website.

 

Here are the details on the talent lineups and changes.

 

I'm assuming the "My" part of the news brand refers to the My Network TV programming that WJMN has carried since losing CBS to WZMQ.

 

Between the graphics and website, it now looks like your typical Morgan Murphy station. WBUP's old news operation was hanging on by a thread and has now been put out of its misery.

[tyrannical bastard 3933]

The combined MyUP News operation launched today with the Morgan Murphy graphics package originating off a renovated WJMN set.

 

As evidenced by the final ABC 10 newscast, it really was a bare bones operation in the end. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hn1clTwcVk

 

At least no one lost their jobs and everyone still has a role in the combined operation.

 

In the end, this is a positive since WJMN can expand their news department over to WBUP/WBKP, especially since it was sidelined by losing CBS. 

You lose a voice in the process, but that voice was stretched too thin to begin with.  Now that WZMQ has a functioning news department, the market now has 3 viable news operations.

Edited September 9, 2024 by tyrannical bastard

[mre29 1513]

  On 9/9/2024 at 11:51 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

As evidenced by the final ABC 10 newscast, it really was a bare bones operation in the end. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hn1clTwcVk

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That's putting it mildly. That clip feels like a few minutes of some public access station....twenty years ago.

 

(On the other hand, I know which on-screen talent I'd want to see more of... )

 

[nathannah 2402]

  On 9/9/2024 at 11:51 PM, tyrannical bastard said:

The combined MyUP News operation launched today with the Morgan Murphy graphics package originating off a renovated WJMN set.

 

As evidenced by the final ABC 10 newscast, it really was a bare bones operation in the end. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Hn1clTwcVk

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Seeing their actual building in the open (which apparently is part of a drug store/antique mall but I can't tell because Google hasn't been by it since the blurry old days), it's a massive improvement to move into a facility constructed specifically for digital television. I'm sure that's why they were losing their staff.

[Thor10 14]

You can check out the 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. half-hours from WBUP on Zeam. For some reason, they haven't added the morning show to the stream.

 

The AM show is done at a round table with a monitor instead of the desk. Tom Kippen has been doing weather for all of the newscasts so far.

 

It doesn't look like they've really added any staff at this point, other than merging teams, based on the meet the team page.

 

The old website from Nexstar - UPmatters.com - still doesn't redirect to MyUPNow.com. ABC10UP.com throws a SSL error.

[Viper550 290]

Morgan Murphy did one more thing last week, moving WJMN's MNTV schedule to 3.3 in favor of mirroring WBUP's ABC and The CW (itself simulcast from WBKP) on 3.1 and 3.2

Edited September 25, 2024 by Viper550

[Thor10 14]

  On 9/25/2024 at 7:16 PM, Viper550 said:

Morgan Murphy did one more thing last week, moving WJMN's MNTV schedule to 3.3 in favor of mirroring WBUP's ABC and The CW (itself simulcast from WBKP) on 3.1 and 3.2

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Excellent catch. They mentioned some signal changes/upgrades during the My UP News announcement but didn't specify.

 

I'm sure WJMN provides a much better signal on UHF compared to the VHF signals of WBUP and WBKP. Also, WJMN is positioned closer to Escanaba and toward the eastern end of the Upper Peninsula, so it definitely helps with over-the-air coverage. I'm told Marquette itself can be tricky, which is why WLUC has a translator there. WZMQ is the only station in the market not doing any simulcasting or using translators, from what I can tell.

[Thor10 14]

I just noticed WBKB in Alpena switched to the Morgan Murphy website design on BLOX Digital CMS.

 

In Marquette, it looks like they finally redirected ABC10up.com and UPmatters.com to MyUPnow.com, although you see a quick flash of the old ABC 10 site, if you use that URL.