News footage from the smallest market in Michigan (Alpena)

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

The Alpena, Michigan market is so small that it could only support one broadcast network, a CBS affiliate known as WBKB-TV 11. The station's set and graphics are low budget.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE-oJijaYaw

[TheFugitive]

That video is 22 years old.  It does not look that bad for a small-market of that period.

Michigan has a lot of small markets for TV.  Cadillac, Escanaba, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette.

[Retail Fan+ (Justin Hill)]

That video is 22 years old.  It does not look that bad for a small-market of that period.

Michigan has a lot of small markets for TV.  Cadillac, Escanaba, Sault Ste. Marie, Marquette.

What I meant to say, is that Alpena was smaller than those markets, in fact, it it is the smallest market in Michigan, according to the FCC. They only had one commercial TV station, a CBS affiliate plus a PBS member station.

Today, that CBS station now has two digital subchannels, one for FOX/MyNetworkTV programming and another for ABC programming. It still is a small station today, serving the small town of Alpena.

[TheFugitive]

What I remember most about Alpena was the time Bruce Willis & Co. came to town to shoot Die Hard 2 in 1990.  It was an unusually mild winter and for the first time in decades Alpena had little snow.  Many scenes had to be shot at a closed Air Force base in the Upper Peninsula.