About WBUP/WBKP
WBUP (Channel 10) is a television station that serves the central and western Upper Peninsula. WBUP first went on the air in October, 1996 as WBKP from Calumet. WBUP was constructed in 2001 and the station moved from their original home in Calumet to their new home in Marquette. WBUP’s transmitter is located at WNMUs tower, 25 miles west of Marquette in Ely Township. WBKP channel 5 still remains in to serve the western U.P, simulcasting both ABC and CW programming.
The stations over the air signal can be received across Lake Superior in Thunder Bay, Ontario and the surrounding area.
History
Although WBUP signed on in January 2003, the station dates back to the original sign-on of WBKP on October 28, 1996, Monday Night Football was the first televised program. In 1997, the station began airing weekday newscasts at 6 and 11pm, with Dick Reynolds as news anchor. Shortly thereafter, in August 1997, the station set up a repeater station in Marquette, W28BX.
The low-power repeater’s over-the-air signal was very weak and could only be picked up in the city of Marquette and Negaunee. In 2001, the station moved its studios from their old home in Calumet, to the Marquette Mall. In January 2003, the station replaced its low-power repeater with WBUP, and the stations took the branding of ABC 5 & 10.
 In January 2004, original owner Tom Scanlan sold both WBKP and WBUP to Lake Superior Community Broadcasting, a company owned by Stephen Marks of Maryland. Shortly afterward, a new newscast, UGN News debuted, originating from WBUP and sister station WBKB-TV in Alpena, featuring news from the entire Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan regions.
Eventually the combined news cast was cancelled and WBUP began airing its own locally produced news again. In June of 2009, WBUP/WBKP relocated its facilities from the old Marquette Mall to a new location owned by the station in Ishpeming, in the former Miracle Mall building. A week later, WBUP and WBKP switched to all digital broadcasting. Through the major benefit of digital broadcasting, WBUP and WBKP was able to bring CW programming to the viewers of WBUP Channel 10, and ABC programming back to viewers of WBKP Channel 5.