WLUC-TV

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WLUC-TV
Marquette, Michigan
Branding	TV-6/TV-6 News
Slogan	Someplace Special
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 35 (UHF) digital
Translators	7 W07DB Marquette 14 W14CE Escanaba
Affiliations	NBC (secondary 1956-68 and 1983-95, sole affiliate since 1995)
Owner	Barrington Broadcasting
Founded	April 29, 1956
Call letters meaning	W-LUCky Six
Former callsigns	WDMJ-TV (1956-64)
Former affiliations	CBS (1956-92), ABC (1956-95, secondary until 1992), Fox (secondary, 1992-1995)
Transmitter Power	100 kW
Website	www.wluctv6.com

WLUC-TV is the NBC station in Marquette, Michigan. It broadcasts on channel 6 from studios in the nearby suburb of Negaunee. Its transmitter is located in Republic. WLUC broadcasts its signal from an antenna 980 feet in height. As of Aug. 11, 2006, the station is owned by Barrington Broadcasting, of Barrington, Illinois, which bought the station as part of a multi-station deal from Montgomery, Alabama-based Raycom Media.

It signed on as WDMJ-TV in 1956 as the Upper Peninsula's first television station. It carried programming from all three networks, but was a primary CBS affiliate. It was owned by the Daily Mining Journal along with WDMJ-AM 1320. The studios were located on the top floor of the Mining Journal building on Washington Street in downtown Marquette.

In 1964, the station was sold to Post Corporation, the owners of WLUK-TV in Green Bay, who changed the calls to WLUC, to match its moniker at the time, "Lucky 6" (though some locals would say it meant "With Luck You "C" TV) . The station quickly outgrew its facilities in downtown Marquette. in 1959, the station moved into its current facilities on US-41 in Negaunee, near its original transmitter. WLUC first broadcast network programs in color in 1963 and with the purchase of color video tape equipment, WLUC began broadcasting all of its locally produced programs in color in 1969.

WLUC has been affected several times by television shakeups in Green Bay since rival station WJMN-TV in Escanaba is a satellite of WFRV-TV in Green Bay. For example, it dropped NBC programming in 1968 when WJMN signed on. When CBS bought WFRV in 1992 and switched it from ABC, WLUC became a primary ABC affiliate with a secondary NBC affiliation. It became solely NBC in 1995. It also carried some Fox programs in the early 1990s before WLUK switched to Fox and opened a low-power repeater in Marquette.

In late-2005, following Raycom's purchase of The Liberty Corporation, Raycom announced that WLUC would be sold, along with the other NBC affiliate in the Upper Peninsula, WPBN-TV & WTOM-TV (7&4) in Traverse City. The sale was necessary to help meet federal restrictions on station ownership.

On March 27, 2006, Raycom announced that Barrington Broadcasting will be acquiring 12 Raycom stations, including WLUC. The FCC approved the deal in June 2006 and it became final Aug. 11. Upon finalization, WLUC joined 7&4, Saginaw's WEYI-TV and, to a degree, Toledo's WNWO-TV as part of Barrington's family of stations in Michigan.

WLUC is also seen on translators W14CE in Escanaba and W07DB in Marquette -- the latter is for areas of Marquette that get a poor reception from WLUC's main Republic transmitter. It used to operate a network of translators serving communities including Calumet, Iron Mountain, L'Anse, Pewabic, and White Pine.

[edit] Finland Calling

With 16% of the area's population of Finnish descent -- down from about 25% in the 1960s -- WLUC produces the only Finnish-language program in the United States, "Finland Calling" ("Suomi kutsuu" in Finnish). The station started the show March 27, 1964 at the suggestion of a local travel agent who sought to boost travel to Scandinavian countries. Since its beginning, the show has been hosted by Carl Pellonpaa, then a newsman at the station. Pellonpaa has retired from the station but still hosts the show. Early programs were produced live and featured books, photographs and Finnish music. Camera operators had to learn a few words of Finnish just to be able to follow the show. The one-hour weekly Sunday morning program regularly features Finnish visitors to the region including two Presidents of Finland, the Prime Minister of Finland, a number of Ambassadors, Consul Generals of Finland, members of the Finnish Parliament, numerous entertainers, choirs, teachers, students, and many, many others. Pellonpaa has hosted 22 tours to Finland and dozens of dances featuring Finnish music. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of the White Rose in 1988 from then President Mauno Koivisto for hosting the program and for the number of tourists that the program inspired to visit Finland.

[edit] The Logo

WLUC has used the same multicolored "6" logo for many years, probably as early as sometime in the early 1990's. From about 1989 to about 1992 a similar metallic-looking "6" was used, with a rainbow slash underneath. The rainbow, while used with on-air promos and the news open, was never used on mic flags during this time. From the time TV6 went on the air in 1956, network logos, CBS/ABC, CBS/NBC, were always separate from the TV6 logo. That changed in 1992, when the ABC ball was added to the now rainbow six logo. When WLUC switched to NBC primary in 1995 it simply replaced the ABC logo with the letters "NBC" rather than place NBC's peacock alongside the 6 (as many NBC affiliates do). Unless one has a good eye, a stranger to the Marquette market may accidentally think WLUC is an ABC affiliate.

Above: WLUC's previous logo, known by some as the "NASCAR 6", from a TV Guide ad in June 1988. Sometime afterward, they switched to the first version of their current "rainbow 6" logo.

[edit] External link

• Query the FCC's TV station database for WLUC
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W14CE
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W07DB
• Northpine.com: WLUC screengrabs