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| Channels | |
| Branding | News 6 |
| Programming | |
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| Ownership | |
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| History | |
First air date | July 1, 1954 |
Former call signs |
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Former channel number(s) |
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Call sign meaning | Katharine Meyer Graham, publisher of The Washington Post |
| Technical information[1] | |
Licensing authority | FCC |
| Facility ID | 71293 |
| ERP | 1,000 kW |
| HAAT | 515.4 m (1,691 ft) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 28°36′36.4″N 81°3′34.6″W / 28.610111°N 81.059611°W |
| Translator(s) | WKMG-LD 21 (UHF) Ocala |
| Links | |
Public license information | |
| Website | www |
WKMG-TV (channel 6) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Graham Media Group. The station's studios are located on John Young Parkway (SR 423) in Orlando, and its transmitter is located on Brown Road near Christmas, Florida.
Channel 6 is the oldest TV station in Central Florida, signing on as WDBO-TV in July 1954. It was built and owned by the Orlando Broadcasting Company alongside Orlando radio station WDBO (580 AM). WDBO-TV aired local programming as well as shows from all major networks of the era; it became a sole CBS affiliate in 1958, by which time the market had three commercial stations. It was owned by Rhode Island interests, first the Cherry Broadcasting Company and later The Outlet Company, from 1957 to 1986; late in the latter's ownership, it changed its call sign to WCPX-TV, an artifact of an attempted merger with Columbia Pictures that ultimately never transpired, and moved to its present studio facilities.
Channel 6 led local news ratings until its tower in Bithlo collapsed during construction work in June 1973, killing two workers. The station was not at full-power until the mast was replaced more than two years later; its ratings fell, and in the late 1970s WFTV moved from worst to a dominant first. The slide was aggravated after Outlet sold WCPX-TV to First Media for $200 million, a then-record price for an Orlando TV station, at a peak of broadcast station valuations. For most of its ownership, First Media shied away from making major investments, in part crimped by the high purchase price. The newscasts struggled despite multiple changes in format, anchors, and presentation; meanwhile, First Media used WCPX-TV as a springboard to produce programming for national syndication.
First Media put its television stations on the market in 1996. They were purchased by the Meredith Corporation; as it owned WOFL at the time, it traded WCPX-TV to Post-Newsweek Stations. WCPX-TV became WKMG-TV in January 1998 in honor of Katharine Meyer Graham, the longtime publisher of The Washington Post. High turnover continued in the news department, but the station on the whole became more competitive, particularly in late news ratings, against WFTV and WESH.
- ^ "Facility Technical Data for WKMG-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.