WKMG-TV
Channels
BrandingNews 6
Programming
Affiliations
Ownership
Owner
History
First air date
July 1, 1954 (1954-07-01)
Former call signs
  • WDBO-TV (1954–1982)
  • WCPX-TV (1982–1998)
Former channel number(s)
  • Analog: 6 (VHF, 1954–2009)
  • Digital: 58 (UHF, 1999–2009)
  • All secondary:
  • NBC (1954–1957)
  • ABC (1954–1958)
  • DuMont (1954–1955)
Call sign meaning
Katharine Meyer Graham (in honor of the late publisher of The Washington Post)
Technical information[1]
Licensing authority
FCC
Facility ID71293
ERP1,000 kW
HAAT515.4 m (1,691 ft)
Transmitter coordinates28°36′36.4″N 81°3′34.6″W / 28.610111°N 81.059611°W / 28.610111; -81.059611
Translator(s)WKMG-LD Ocala
Links
Public license information
Websitewww.clickorlando.com

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 in Bithlo, Florida.

History

The station first signed on the air on July 1, 1954, under the callsign WDBO-TV (short for "Way Down By Orlando" or "Daytona Beach–Orlando"). It is the sixth-oldest television station in Florida, and the oldest in Central Florida. It was originally owned by the Orlando Broadcasting Company, which also owned WDBO radio (580 AM and 92.3 FM, now WWKA). Its original studios were located on Texas Avenue, just north of Colonial Drive. 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 programming disappeared from the schedule. It lost NBC when Daytona Beach's WESH expanded its signal to cover all of Central Florida in November 1957, and ABC when WLOF-TV (now WFTV) signed on in February 1958.

Orlando Broadcasting merged with Cherry Broadcasting in 1957. In 1963, WDBO-AM-FM-TV were sold to The Outlet Company, marking that company's first major broadcasting acquisition outside of its homebase in Providence, Rhode Island. In 1982, the WDBO radio stations were 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 6 prematurely changed its call letters to WCPX-TV on June 6 (which stood for "Columbia Pix", shorthand for "Pictures"). While the deal fell through, channel 6 kept the WCPX calls for 16 years. WCPX moved into its current studios on John Young Parkway in 1984.

Outlet pared down its holdings in 1986, selling off three of its television stations to finance the $625 million buyout of the group by its management from the Rockefeller Group. At that point, WCPX was sold to First Media Corporation, a private company controlled by the Marriott family separately from the Marriott Corporation, for $200 million—at that time, the highest price paid for an Orlando television station.[2] It was the first television station to be acquired by First Media, which at the time owned 11 radio stations.[2][3] The radio group would be sold the following year to a partnership controlled by Cook Inlet Region, Inc., but WCPX-TV would remain with First Media.[4]

WKMG-TV's logo from 1998 to 2001.

The three First Media Television L.P. stations—WCPX-TV, WHNS in Asheville, North Carolina, and KPDX in Portland, Oregon—were put up for sale in October 1996.[5][6] The stations attracted suitors that included Gannett; the Meredith Corporation, owner of Orlando Fox affiliate WOFL; Post-Newsweek Stations; and Sunbeam Television.[7] On January 24, 1997, Meredith announced its acquisition of the First Media Television stations for $435 million.[8] At the time, duopolies were not allowed, and Meredith decided to keep WOFL (which was sold to Fox Television Stations in 2002), along with WHNS and KPDX. In June 1997, Meredith swapped WCPX to Post-Newsweek Stations in exchange for Hartford, Connecticut's WFSB (which at the time was Post-Newsweek's flagship station).[9] On January 30, 1998, the station changed its callsign to WKMG in honor of longtime Washington Post publisher, Katharine M. Graham,[10] with the WCPX call letters going to Chicago's Pax TV (now Ion Television) station in August of that same year.[11] Post-Newsweek Stations became Graham Media Group on July 28, 2014.[12]

Programming

In April 1993, WCPX decided to move the CBS program Picket Fences from Friday evenings to 11:30 p.m. on Sundays, instead airing the syndicated Star Trek: The Next Generation in prime time on Fridays.[13] In October 1994, WCPX hired a new general manager, Brooke Spectorsky, from WUAB in Cleveland[14] (Spectorsky later became general manager of that city's NBC affiliate WKYC). Under Spectorsky, WCPX put Picket Fences back at its normal time in April 1995,[15] and decreased the amount of preemptions of CBS network programming from 75–85 hours to 25–30 hours.[16] The station added stereo sound capability in July 1995.

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 network's recommended timeslot for the program. Under this arrangement, the program would air on a delay with episodes running one day behind (three days with the Friday editions). However, CBS soon discovered that several of its owned-and-operated stations were using the same scheduling for the program as WCPX. CBS then decided to provide two (eventually three) same-day feeds of Guiding Light to its stations (one each at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., and 3 p.m.). WKMG aired Guiding Light at 9 a.m., until the soap opera ended its run on September 18, 2009; the practice continued for its successor program, Let's Make a Deal, through the end of the 2015–16 season. In the fall of 2016, Let's Make a Deal was moved back to 3 p.m. as a lead-in to WKMG's 4 p.m. newscast.

News operation

WKMG-TV presently broadcasts 44 hours of locally produced newscasts each week (with 7½ hours each weekday, three hours on Saturdays and 3½ hours on Sundays). From the late 1980s 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 continued to do so into the early 2000s; however, in the past few years, WFTV has become the dominant station (though channel 6 claimed first place at 11 p.m. in the May 2006 ratings period). Management changes at WKMG had a number of general managers on the treadmill with Mike Schweitzer, Kathleen Keefe, Jeff Sales and Henry Maldonado all taking a turn at the top. News and sales departments had similar turnover, with at least five news directors taking the chair between 2000 and 2008.

Currently, despite the strength of CBS prime time programming, WKMG has been trading second and third place with WESH in the evening newscast ratings except at 11 p.m., where until recently it waged a spirited battle with WFTV for first. From late 2007 to March 2009, WKMG's 11 p.m. newscast was in second place behind WFTV. Continuing its ratings slide, the May 2009 sweeps found WKMG's newscasts finishing in third place in all timeslots, behind WFTV and WESH. In fact, despite being number one in prime time WKMG's late night newscast has failed to hold on to its lead-in audience for the most part. The siphoning off in news audience share appears to have held in the November 2009 sweeps period, when WKMG remained in a distant third place weekday evenings while its morning and late night newscasts improved slightly although still in a distant second place.

In 2008, WKMG-TV began broadcasting its local newscasts in widescreen standard definition. On May 1, 2009, the station's 4, 5 and 5:30 p.m. newscasts were dropped, with the 5-6 p.m. news block replaced by Dr. Phil, which had aired in the 5 p.m. slot to compete against newscasts on WFTV, WESH and WOFL, and a new hour-long newscast at 6:00 debuted. It was the market's first and only full hour of news at 6 p.m. and pushed the CBS Evening News to 7 p.m. However, on January 3, 2011, the Evening News returned to the 6:30 half-hour, and a new half-hour 7 p.m. newscast took its place. In September 2011, WKMG relaunched a half-hour 5 p.m. newscast, with syndicated entertainment newsmagazine The Insider following it at 5:30 p.m., replacing Dr. Phil which ended up moving to WOFL.[17]

For the February 2012 sweeps period, WKMG took first place in the 25-to-54 demographic at 11 p.m., beating WESH by 5,000 viewers and WFTV by 5,700 viewers.[18] On June 2, 2012, WKMG became the last major television station in the Orlando market, as well as the last Post-Newsweek owned station, to upgrade its newscasts to full high definition.

On August 28, 2015, WKMG dropped the "Local 6" branding, which had been used since 2001, and began calling themselves News 6.[19] On September 7, 2015, WKMG relaunched their 4 p.m. newscast with Julie Broughton as anchor.

On April 6, 2020, WKMG began its expanded weekday morning newscast with an extra half-hour starting at 4:30 a.m., thus becoming the last of the four major television stations in the market to start in that same time slot.

Notable former on-air staff

Technical information

Subchannels

The station's digital signal is multiplexed:

Subchannels of WKMG-TV[20]
Channel Res. Aspect Short name Programming
6.1 1080i16:9WKMG-DTMain WKMG-TV programming / CBS
6.2 480iDABLDabl
6.3 Cozi TVCozi TV
6.4 StartStart TV
6.5 DecadesCatchy Comedy
65.3 480i16:9HandIHeroes & Icons (WRBW-DT3)
  Broadcast on behalf of another station

WKMG's 6.2 subchannel was originally affiliated with LATV, and (along with three other Post-Newsweek stations) was among the network's launch affiliates on April 23, 2007.[21] In addition to LATV, during the Casey Anthony trial, the subchannel was used to carry CBS Daytime and syndicated programming from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., to accommodate trial coverage on WKMG's primary channel at the time;[22] it had earlier planned to air trial coverage in full on 6.2 to minimize disruption to WKMG's main schedule.[23] The LATV affiliation ended on April 2, 2012; at that time, the 6.2 subchannel became an affiliate of the Retro Television Network.[24] RTV was previously seen in Orlando on a subchannel of WRDQ. Live Well Network began airing on 6.3 on April 1, 2013.[25] The 6.2 subchannel again carried WKMG's daytime schedule during the station's coverage of the George Zimmerman trial.[26]

On January 26, 2014, Retro TV's sister network Heartland was added to 6.3 and Live Well Network moved to 6.2, with Retro TV entirely discontinued.[27]

On November 11, 2014, WKMG dropped Live Well in favor of Cozi TV. In December 2018, WKMG activated 6.4 to serve as Orlando's affiliate of Start TV. Later, WKMG added Dabl to 6.2, replacing Cozi TV, which moved to 6.3. Decades, which was on 6.3, moved to 6.5 at the same time.[28]

Analog-to-digital conversion

WKMG-TV shut down its analog signal, on VHF channel 6, on June 12, 2009, as part of the federally mandated transition from analog to digital television.[29] The station's digital signal remained on its pre-transition UHF channel 26. Through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers continues to display the station's virtual channel as its former VHF analog channel 6.1. WKMG's audio signal was formerly available at 87.75 MHz on the FM band in Orlando, Daytona Beach and surrounding areas, though at a slightly lower volume than FM radio stations due to TV modulation standards. The transition to digital broadcasting also ended reception of the station's audio signal at 87.75 MHz.

WKMG was one of three stations in the Orlando area (along with WKCF and WOFL) to participate in the "Analog Nightlight" program, until WKMG's analog transmitter was shut down permanently on July 12, 2009.[30]

Translator

WKMG-TV operates a translator station serving Ocala and northern parts of the broadcast market. Originally W29AB (channel 29), it operated as a translator for WTOG in St. Petersburg until 1995.[31] The station became W42DJ-D (channel 42) in 2010. On November 5, 2019, the translator changed its call sign for a third time to W21DX-D and started broadcasting on channel 21; it became WKMG-LD on July 23, 2020.[32]

City of license Callsign Channel ERP HAAT Former callsigns Facility ID Transmitter coordinates
Ocala WKMG-LD Digital:
21 (UHF)		 4.9 kW 124 m (407 ft) W29AB (1982–2010)
W42DJ-D (2010–2019)
W21DX-D (2019–2020)		 74118 29°16′06″N 82°04′50″W / 29.26833°N 82.08056°W / 29.26833; -82.08056 (W21DX-D)

References

  1. ↑ "Facility Technical Data for WKMG-TV". Licensing and Management System. Federal Communications Commission.
  2. 1 2 "WCPX gets a new owner in record $200 million deal". Orlando Sentinel. March 18, 1986. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  3. ↑ Schwinn, Beth (July 21, 1986). "Marriott Clan Is Expanding Sideline Firm". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  4. ↑ Yorke, Jeffrey (July 14, 1987). "First Media to sell its radio stations". Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  5. ↑ "For sale sign put on Channel 6". Orlando Sentinel. October 25, 1996. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  6. ↑ Stutzman, Rene (December 23, 1996). "A Prime Time to Be for Sale". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved August 6, 2021.
  7. ↑ "First Media affils drawing top bids". Variety. January 22, 1997. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  8. ↑ Segal, David (January 25, 1997). "Marriott-controlled firm to sell 4 TV stations to Meredith Corp". Washington Post. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  9. ↑ "Meredith trades for Connecticut TV station". AP. June 2, 1997. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  10. ↑ "New owner gives Channel 6 a new name, look". Orlando Sentinel. January 29, 1998. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  11. ↑ "Paxson acquires Chicago station". Archived from the original on October 7, 2013. Retrieved November 10, 2012.
  12. ↑ Boedeker, Hal (July 28, 2014). "WKMG's owner has new name". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  13. ↑ "Winner takes Emmys from bad to worse". Orlando Sentinel. September 22, 1993. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  14. ↑ "Spectorsky tries to send a signal". Orlando Sentinel. April 24, 1995. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Viewers' views of local news: It's a crime!". Orlando Sentinel. April 5, 1995. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Trying to get with the program". Orlando Sentinel. December 23, 1996. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  17. ↑ WKMG to start 5 p.m. newscast in early September Archived April 30, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Orlando Sentinel, April 27, 2011.
  18. ↑ February ratings: WKMG, WOFL win in late news; WFTV tops in other slots Archived April 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Orlando Sentinel, March 1, 2012.
  19. ↑ Boedeker, Hal (August 28, 2015). "WKMG: Local 6 gone; News 6 arrives". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved November 2, 2023.
  20. ↑ "Digital TV Market Listing for WKMG". RabbitEars.Info. Retrieved January 26, 2017.
  21. ↑ Ben-Yehuda, Ayala (January 16, 2007). "LATV To Enter New Markets This Spring". Billboard. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
  22. ↑ "Casey Anthony: WKMG decides to go wall to wall with trial". The Orlando Sentinel. June 3, 2011. Archived from the original on June 5, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
  23. ↑ "Casey Anthony: WFTV expands trial coverage, drops Oprah Winfrey – the TV Guy – Orlando Sentinel". Archived from the original on May 30, 2011. Retrieved May 28, 2011.
  24. ↑ "WKMG Orlando Adds RTV To Its Lineup". TVNewsCheck. March 26, 2012. Retrieved March 26, 2012.
  25. ↑ "WKMG to add Live Well Network in spring – the TV Guy – Orlando Sentinel". blogs.orlandosentinel.com. Archived from the original on February 16, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2022.
  26. ↑ Boedeker, Hal (June 21, 2013). "George Zimmerman trial to rearrange daytime lineup". The Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved June 26, 2013.
  27. ↑ Boedeker, Hal (January 28, 2014). "Retro TV gives way to Live Well Network". Orlando Sentinel. Archived from the original on February 22, 2014. Retrieved January 29, 2014.
  28. ↑ "RabbitEars.Info".
  29. ↑ "List of Digital Full-Power Stations" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on August 29, 2013. Retrieved June 15, 2013.
  30. ↑ http://www.fcc.gov/DA-09-1303A2.pdf
  31. ↑ Staff, Rene Stutzman of The Sentinel. "OCALA'S 29 MAY CARRY CHANNEL 6". OrlandoSentinel.com. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
  32. ↑ "Facility Details « Licensing and Management System Admin « FCC". enterpriseefiling.fcc.gov. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
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