Wikipedia
WPBN-TV is the NBC-affiliated television station for the Northern Lower and Eastern Upper Peninsulas of Michigan that is licensed to Traverse City. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 47 ( virtual channel 7) from a transmitter east of Kalkaska. There is also a low-powered digital fill-in translator on UHF channel 50 from a transmitter south of Harrietta in the Manistee National Forest. Owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, the station operates ABC affiliate WGTU and its full-time satellite WGTQ (owned by Cunningham Broadcasting) through a local marketing agreement (LMA). The two share studios on M-72 just west of Traverse City.
Like other network affiliates in this vast and rural area, it operates a full-time low power satellite, WTOM-TV. Licensed to Cheboygan, this station broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 35 (virtual channel 4) from a transmitter on US 23 east of the city. It reaches as far as Petoskey, Cedarville, Indian River, and Brevort. It was originally intended to serve Sault Sainte Marie and the Eastern Upper Peninsula as well, but the current digital signal does not cover this area. To make up for this shortfall in coverage, WPBN is carried on the digital subcarriers of WGTU and Sault Sainte Marie satellite WGTQ.
Together, the two stations are known on-air as TV 7&4 and serve the largest television market east of the Mississippi River: 23 counties in the Northern Lower Peninsula, three counties in the Eastern Upper Peninsula, and portions of Northern Ontario including Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. However, WTOM has not been available in Canada on cable since the early-2000s when Shaw Communications replaced it with Detroit's WDIV. WTOM also serves as the default NBC affiliate for Alpena as that area does not have an affiliate of its own.