WKMG-TV

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WKMG-TV
Orlando, Florida
Branding	Local6
Slogan	Your Problem-Solvers Station
Channels	6 (VHF) analog, 58 (UHF) digital
Translators	W29AB (29, UHF) Ocala, Florida
Affiliations	CBS
Owner	Post-Newsweek Stations
Founded	July 1, 1954
Call letters meaning	W Katharine Meyer Graham (In honor of the late widow of Phillip L. Graham, former president of the Washington Post Company)
Former callsigns	WDBO-TV (1954-82) WCPX-TV (1982-98)
Former affiliations	NBC (secondary, 1954-57) ABC (secondary, 1954-58) DuMont (1954-55)
Transmitter Power	100 kW Analog 1,000 kW Digital
Website	www.local6.com

WKMG-TV, channel six, is the CBS network affiliate serving the entire Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Florida metropolitan area. WKMG is licensed to Orlando and is owned and operated by Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc., a subsidiary of the Washington Post Company. It is branded as "Local6", under the "Local Mandate," a station standardization adopted for all stations owned by Post-Newsweek. WKMG's transmitter is located in Bithlo, Florida.

WKMG also has a repeater in Ocala, W29AB channel 29. This station originally served as a repeater for Tampa Bay's WTOG during the 1980s and 1990s.

[edit] History

The station first took to the air on July 1, 1954. The original callsign for the station was WDBO-TV, which stood for "Way Down By Orlando." WDBO-TV was the first television station in Central Florida. It was originally owned by the Orlando Broadcasting Company along with WDBO-AM 580.

As the only station in the market at its inception, it originally carried programming from all four networks of the time — CBS, NBC, ABC and DuMont. DuMont would shut down most network operations in 1955, but honor network commitments until 1956; at that point, DuMont disappeared from the schedule. It lost NBC when Daytona Beach's WESH expanded its signal to cover all of Central Florida in 1957, and ABC when WLOF-TV (now WFTV) signed on in 1958.

Orlando Broadcasting merged with Cherry Broadcasting in 1957. In 1963, WDBO-AM-FM-TV were sold to The Outlet Company.

In 1982, WDBO AM-FM was sold to Katz Broadcasting, as Outlet decided to begin exiting radio. Outlet was nearly bought out by Columbia Pictures around the same time. In advance of this, channel six prematurely changed its call letters to WCPX-TV, which stood for "W Columbia PiX" (shorthand for "Pictures"). These call letters would remain with the station for 16 years, even though the deal did not materialize.

Outlet pared down its holdings after a buyout in 1986, selling off many stations. At that point, WCPX was sold to First Media, Inc.

From the late 1980's until 2001, the station was almost always in last place in the ratings. At the same time, WESH and WFTV battled for first place in the Orlando market, and basically continue to do so today; however, in recent months, WFTV has become the dominant station (though channel six claimed first place at 11 p.m. in the May 2006 ratings period).

In the early 90's WCPX decided to move the CBS program Picket Fences from Friday evening to 11:35 pm on Saturday so that it could air Star Trek: Deep Space Nine on Friday evenings. WCPX also pre-empted some CBS sports programs as well. In 1994, WCPX hired a new general manager, Brooke Spectorsky, from WUAB in Cleveland. (Spectorsky is now general manager of WKYC-TV in Cleveland.) Under Spectorsky, WCPX put Picket Fences back at its normal time.

In 1995, WCPX was one of the first CBS affiliates to air Guiding Light at 10 a.m. instead of 3 p.m., which was the normal time to air it. Under this arrangement, the program would air on a one day delay. However, CBS soon discovered that several of its O&O's were doing the same thing. CBS then decided to provide two (eventually three) same day feeds of Guiding Light to its stations (one at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., and 3 p.m.). WKMG currently airs Guiding Light at 9 a.m.

In 1997, First Media was purchaed by Meredith Corporation. After the merger was completed, WKMG was put on the market again, given Meredith's ownership of Fox affiliate WOFL. Duopolies, at the time, were not allowed, and Meredith decided to keep WOFL (which has since been sold to Fox). In mid-1997, Meredith swapped WCPX to Post-Newsweek Stations, and in exchange, they acquired Post-Newsweek's station in Hartford, Connecticut, WFSB (which at the time was Post-Newsweek's flagship).

In early 1998, the newly-launched Pax (now i) network wanted all callsigns with "PX" as possible for its stations across the country. With this in mind, channel six changed its callsign to WKMG. The new callsign was chosen in honor of longtime Washington Post publisher, Katharine M. Graham.

For some time in the wake of sister station WJXT in Jacksonville ending its CBS affiliation in the wake of a squabble between executives at CBS and Post-Newsweek, it was rumored that WKMG may ditch CBS for either becoming an independent or another network. With the signing of an affiliation extension in 2005 this rumor has become dead.

The main news anchors at WKMG currently are Bob Frier and Jacqueline London. Lauren Rowe recently moved to help co-anchor the early morning news, and now Jacqueline London does the six and eleven PM newscasts alongside Frier.

WKMG also can be found on Bright House Networks in Citrus County, although that county is part of the Tampa market.

Today WKMG clears all available CBS programs but sometimes will pre-empt programs. It also pushes back the Late Late Show by a half-hour as well.

Distinctively, among Florida's largest television markets, WKMG is the only original CBS affiliate to this day.

[edit] Newscasts

Weekdays

• Local6 First News Early Edition - 5 a.m.-6 a.m.
  • Anchors: Lauren Rowe and Jacquie Sosa
  • Weather: Larry Mowry
  • Traffic: Secily Wilson
• Local6 Early Edition - 6 a.m.-7 a.m.
  • Anchors: Lauren Rowe and Jacquie Sosa
  • Weather: Larry Mowry
  • Traffic: Secily Wilson
• Local6 News at Noon - NOON-12:30 p.m.
  • Anchors: Jacquie Sosa and Marla Weech
  • Weather: Larry Mowry
• Local6 News First at Four - 4 p.m.-5 p.m.
  • Anchors: Jacqueline London and Marla Weech
  • Weather: Tom Sorrells
• Local6 News at Five - 5 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
  • Anchors: Bob Frier and Jacqueline London
  • Weather: Tom Sorrells
• Local6 News at 5:30 - 5:30 p.m.-6 p.m.
  • Anchor: Marla Weech
  • Weather: Tom Sorrells
• Local6 News at Six - 6 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
  • Anchors: Bob Frier and Jacqueline London
  • Weather: Tom Sorrells
  • Sports: Todd Lewis
• Local6 News at Eleven - 11 p.m.-11:35 p.m.
  • Anchors: Bob Frier and Jacqueline London
  • Weather: Tom Sorrells
  • Sports: Todd Lewis

Weekends

• Local6 News at Six - 6 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Saturdays only
  • Anchor: Todd Jurowski
  • Weather: Michele Cimino
  • Sports: Lee Goldberg
• Local6 News at 6:30 - 6:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Sundays only
  • Anchor: Todd Jurowski
  • Weather: Michele Cimino
  • Sports: Lee Goldberg
• Local6 News at Eleven - 11 p.m.-11:35 p.m.
  • Anchor: Todd Jurowski
  • Weather: Michele Cimino
  • Sports: Lee Goldberg

[edit] External links

• WKMG Official Website
• WKMG History
• Query the FCC's TV station database for WKMG
• Query the FCC's TV station database for W29AB

CBS Network Affiliates in the state of Florida
WFOR 4 (Miami) - WCTV 6 (Tallahassee) - WKMG 6 (Orlando) - WTSP 10 (St. Petersburg) - WINK 11 (Fort Myers) - WPEC 12 (West Palm Beach) - WTEV 47 (Jacksonville) - WGFL 53 (High Springs / Gainesville)
See also: ABC, CW, Fox, MyNetworkTV, NBC, PBS, Religious, Spanish and Other stations in the state of Florida