A Local TV News Merger, NMU Enrollment Steady, Hope for More Delta Flights, Barrel and Beam Growth, YMCA Potholes, and Politics Heating Up
The Latest from Marquette, MI by Brian Cabell
A MAJOR SHAKE-UP in local TV…WBUP (ABC 10 and CW5) and WJMN (Local 3) are combining newsrooms with a new brand—“My UP News”. The new newscasts will launch on September 9th…
“Everyone on the news staffs of the two stations is being offered a new role,” says Mark Overstreet, the GM of WBUP and WJMN, “and we are now actively expanding our news staff.” The news director for both stations is Ben Raymond, who’s been the news director at WJMN…The anchor line-up? “We’ll have some answers for you on that in the next few days,” says Overstreet…
The newscast schedule: WBUP will run a morning show from 5-7 am weekdays, and evening newscasts from 6-6:30 pm and 11-11:30 pm…WJMN will air weekday newscasts from 6-7 pm, and from 10-10:30 pm…No weekend newscasts for either station, at least not yet…
Other programming for the two stations will remain what it’s been. For now, the two stations are operating out of separate buildings. It seems likely that eventually they’ll have to move into a single building…
Both stations are owned by Morgan Murphy Media, a company that operates several small and medium market TV and radio stations across the nation…The challenge for the new, combined news operation is to chip away at TV6’s overwhelming domination of the UP news market…WZMQ, the CBS affiliate, has been working at it for a couple of years now, but with limited success…It’s a daunting task.
AFTER AN ENCOURAGING jump in NMU’s enrollment last Fall, it looks like the numbers have flattened out this year…“We think we’ll be even with last Fall or maybe a little bit above,” says Derek Hall, the Chief Marketing Officer for NMU… Official numbers won’t come in for a few more weeks…Last year’s enrollment of 7197 had reversed a depressing downward trend over the previous few years…It’s important to view NMU’s numbers in context. Nationwide, college enrollment has dropped over the last several years as prospective students and their parents have raised questions about the value and cost of a college education…
A further breakdown of the numbers: Roughly 60% of NMU’s students are female, about 90% are undergrads, and about 80% are full-time students.
“WE’RE IN TALKS with Delta and Skywest. We’re taking concrete steps to move forward and add a flight.” That’s Duane Duray, the Director of Operations for Marquette Sawyer Regional Airport…He carries with him the best wishes of the Marquette community who’ve seen Delta cut its schedule to Marquette to a measly one round-trip flight daily—in late afternoon, no less! American Airlines operates two flights. Still not enough…One encouraging note: Marquette County recently received a $750,000 grant from the state—that money can be used as a revenue guarantee for Delta. In other words, add a flight or two to Marquette, and we’ll make sure you don’t lose money…We’ll see how Delta responds.
A CLOSE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST ahead, along with equally tight races to determine which party will control the Senate and the House. And Michigan and the UP are smack-dab in the middle of it…In the Senate race, Democrat Elissa Slotkin takes on Republican Mike Rogers. If Slotkin loses, the Democrats will almost certainly lose their slight majority in the Senate. Right now, the race is considered a toss-up…
In the House race, Republican incumbent Jack Bergman is trying to fend off a challenge from Democrat Callie Barr, a political newcomer. If Barr were to pull off an upset in the race—although incumbents rarely lose their re-election bids—then that could help switch the House back into Democrat hands…So, the November elections, up and down the ballot, are kind of important.
BARREL AND BEAM, the farmhouse and barrel-aged brewery in the Township, continues to grow after six and a half years. “I’d say we’re up at least 20% in the last year,” says Nick VanCourt, the President and co-Founder (with his wife) of Barrel and Beam. About 60% of their beer is now being drunk away from the brewery—they self-deliver it to locations around Michigan and Wisconsin…At the brewery itself, VanCourt estimates that now, more than half of their revenue comes from events and meetings—Barrel and Beam is one of the most attractive meeting venues in the Marquette area…
It’s become much more than a brewery. It also offers European-style lagers, wine from downstate, mead, and ciders. And its “Test Kitchen” (a strange name, merely reflecting that the menu can and does change) is now serving, on various days, Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwiches), pizza, tacos, and soup.
HALLELUJAH!…THE YMCA parking lot has a new, patched-up look and feel. No more gaping potholes that posed a serious threat to your vehicle’s shock absorbers…“The city fixed it,” City Manager Karen Kovacs reports to us. “We had some extra millings that we used for the potholes, but this is just a temporary fix.” Temporary, until the YMCA is able to build its new, hoped-for field house, when the Y’s entire parking lot would be entirely re-surfaced…The city of Marquette owns the property which the Y leases for the bargain-basement price of $1 a year.
FEELING LONELY? YOU’RE not the only one. And if you don’t have a college education, you’re even more likely to feel lonely. According to a survey conducted by the Survey Center on American Life, nearly a quarter of US adults with a high school education or less report having no close friends. Not a one. For college-educated adults, the number was better—10% said they had no close friends. Still kinda sad…
Back in 1990, by comparison, only 2-3% of adults reported having no close friends…We’ve changed. We’re more connected technologically than ever, but we’re lonelier and more personally isolated than we used to be…To make things worse, the US Surgeon General has said loneliness can be scientifically linked to heart disease, stroke, dementia, and premature death…
Solution? Put down your device, turn off the TV, and find someone to talk to. Someone to care about, and someone who cares about you.
POEM OF THE WEEK
The Kiss
I hoped that he would love me,
And he has kissed my mouth,
But I am like a stricken bird
That cannot reach the south.
For though I know he loves me,
To-night my heart is sad;
His kiss was not so wonderful
As all the dreams I had.
—Sara Teasdale.