CBS-TV Affiliation Makes Quick Move in Marquette

On Friday morning, viewers who tuned to the Upper Peninsula’s longtime CBS affiliate looking for “CBS Mornings” instead found “The Jack Benny Show.”

Nexstar’s WJMN-TV/3.1 (Escanaba-Marquette) announced Thursday, Jan. 20 that it would no longer be a CBS affiliate effective Friday, Jan. 21. It is now instead a My Network TV affiliate.

Lilly Broadcasting’s WZMQ (Marquette) announced a short time later that its channel 19.2 would become a CBS affiliate on Friday. WZMQ says its CBS channel is carried on Spectrum Cable channel 3, DISH Network channel 5, and DirecTV channel 20.

WZMQ’s announcement indicated that it will add newscasts called “19 News, This is Home” at 6 and 11 p.m. weeknights.

Meanwhile, WJMN continues to produce local evening newscasts, which have aired on the station since 2014 at 6 and 11 p.m. A new schedule posted on the station’s website shows the newscasts now air for an hour at 6 and 10 p.m.

WJMN runs the two-hour My Network TV prime time block and continues to carry its existing syndicated programming, which includes Family Feud, Access Hollywood, Inside Edition, and several daytime talk shows.

Programming from Antenna TV airs in the overnight and early morning hours on WJMN, resulting in Jack Benny appearing at 7 a.m.

WJMN signed on in 1969 as a semi-satellite of Green Bay NBC affiliate WFRV/5 and switched to ABC along with WFRV in 1983. It then became a CBS affiliate when WJMN and WFRV were sold to the network in 1992; CBS sold the stations 15 years later.

Meanwhile, WZMQ signed on as FOX affiliate WMQF in 2001. It lost the FOX affiliation in 2009 to the DT2 channel of WLUC/6, which is now owned by Gray TV and is a primary NBC affiliate.

WLUC and Marks ABC affiliate WBUP/10 also produce local news.

Lilly Broadcasting, which bought WZMQ in 2017, owns CBS affiliates in Erie, Penn., Elmira, NY, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

WZMQ will continue to carry MeTV on channel 19.1. It also airs numerous other subchannels.