WKMG-TV

WKMG-TV, virtual channel 6 (UHF digital channel 26), is a CBS-affiliated television station located in Orlando, Florida. The station is owned by the Graham Media Group subsidiary of Graham Holdings Company. WKMG's studios are located on John Young Parkway (SR 423) in Orlando, and its transmitter is located in unincorporated Bithlo, Florida.

History

The station first signed on the air on July 1, 1954 under the callsign WDBO-TV (which stood for "Daytona Beach Orlando", but referred to by locals as "Way Down By 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 (AM 580 and FM 92.3, 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 (channel 2) expanded its signal to cover all of Central Florida in November 1957, and ABC when WLOF-TV (channel 9, now WFTV) signed on in February 1958.