WKMG-TV

Encyclopedia : W : WK : WKM : WKMG-TV

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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.

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 committments until 1956; at that point, DuMont disappeared from the schdeule. 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 contrinue 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 on Friday evenings. WCPX also pre-empted some CBS sports programs as well. In 1994, WCPX hired a new general manager, Brooke Spectorsky, from 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 same day feeds of Guiding Light to its stations (one at 10 a.m. and the other at 3 p.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 Lauren Rowe.

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.

Newscasts

Weekdays

• Local6 First News Early Edition - 5 a.m.-6 a.m.
• Local6 Early Edition - 6 a.m.-7 a.m.
• Local6 News at Noon - NOON-12:30 p.m.
• Local6 News First at Four - 4 p.m.-5 p.m.
• Local6 News at Five - 5 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
• Local6 News at 5:30 - 5:30 p.m.-6 p.m.
• Local6 News at Six - 6 p.m.-6:30 p.m.
• Local6 News at Eleven - 11 p.m.-11:35 p.m.

Weekends

• Local6 News at Six - 6 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Saturdays only
• Local6 News at 6:30 - 6:30 p.m.-7 p.m. Sundays only
• Local6 News at Eleven - 11 p.m.-11:35 p.m.

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]

Broadcast television in the Orlando / Daytona Beach / Melbourne market  [(Nielsen DMA #20)]
WESH 2 (NBC) - WKMG 6 (CBS) - WFTV 9 (ABC) - WTMO 15 (TEL) - WCEU 15 (PBS) - WKCF 18 (The WB/The CW) - W21AU 21 (AZA) - WMFE 24 (PBS) - WVEN 26 (UNI) - WRDQ 27 (Ind) - WRCF 29 (A1) - WOFL 35 (Fox) - WZXZ 36 (MTV2) - WOTF 43 (TFU) - WLCB 45 (Ind) - WOGX 51 (Fox) - WTGL 52 (Ind) - WOPX 56 (i) - WRBW 65 (UPN/MNTV) - WBCC 68 (PBS)
Local digital television channels
WACX 40 (TBN)
channels serving Ocala, part of the Orlando market
WUFT 5 (PBS) - WCJB 20 (ABC)
Local cable television channels
Central Florida News 13

 

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