Finland Calling was a bilingual Sunday morning television program
targeting Finnish Americans and airing on WLUC-TV, a local commercial
station in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The show ran from 1962 to 2015,
just over 50 years. This article uses it as a case study to argue that
if we look beyond prime-time network programming, we can see that US
television has not always promoted a homogeneous national culture;
rather, it has at times been a resource for the development of
distinctive local and ethnic cultures. Based on an analysis of Finland Calling
episodes and written sources about the show, the article demonstrates
that while the show’s primary target audience was the local Finnish
American community, it also resonated with broader conceptions of Upper
Peninsula culture, participated in Finnish American cultural activities
at the North American level, and emphasized transnational connections
between the Upper Peninsula and Finland.