WKMG-TV
Orlando, Florida
Branding	Local 6 (general) Local 6 News (newscasts)
Slogan	Your Breaking News Station
Channels	Analog: 6 (VHF) Digital: 26 (UHF)
Translators	W29AB Ocala
Affiliations	CBS LATV (DT2) .2 Net Coming Spring 2009
Owner	Post-Newsweek Stations, Inc. (Post-Newsweek Stations, Orlando, Inc.)
First air date	July 1, 1954
Call letters’ meaning	Katharine Meyer Graham (in honor of the late widow of Phillip L. Graham, former president of the Washington Post Company)
Former callsigns	WDBO-TV (1954-1982) WCPX-TV (1982-1998)
Former affiliations	All secondary: NBC (1954-1957) ABC (1954-1958) DuMont (1954-1955)
Transmitter Power	100 kW (analog) 1000 kW (digital)
Height	445 m (analog) 516 m (digital)
Facility ID	71293
Transmitter Coordinates	28°36′8.5″N 81°5′36″W / 28.602361, -81.09333 (analog) 28°36′36.4″N 81°3′34.6″W / 28.610111, -81.059611 (digital)
Website	www.local6.com

WKMG-TV, channel 6, is the CBS network affiliate for Central Florida (the Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, Florida market). 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.

Digital subchannel 6.2 carries LATV.

[edit] History

The station first took to the air on July 1, 1954; as WDBO-TV, which stood for "Way Down By Orlando." It is the sixth-oldest station in Florida, and the oldest in Central Florida. It was originally owned by the Orlando Broadcasting Company along with WDBO radio (AM 580 and FM 92.3, now WWKA).

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"). While the deal fell through, channel 6 kept the WCPX calls for 16 years.

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

In the early 1990s 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: The Next Generation 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.

WKMG-TV logo from 1998

In 1997, First Media merged with Meredith Corporation, which already owned Fox affiliate WOFL. At the time, duopolies 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 in exchange for Hartford, Connecticut's WFSB (which at the time was Post-Newsweek's flagship).

In early 1998, the station changed its callsign to WKMG in honor of longtime Washington Post publisher, Katharine M. Graham.

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 had a number of GMs 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 5 News Directors taking the chair between 2000 and 2008. Sales Managers included Connie Albino for a short tenure before being replaced by Tom Calato. Internet Broadcasting Systems provided the Internet site named "myCFnow.com" by Sales and switched to "local.com." Currently, despite the strength of CBS prime-time programming, WKMG has been trading second and third place with WESH in the newscast ratings except at 11 pm, where it wages a spirited battle with WFTV for first.

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 five, six and eleven PM newscasts alongside Frier and the four PM newscast.

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.

With sister station Jacksonville's WJXT's decision to drop CBS in 2002, rumors abounded that WKMG would ditch CBS in favor of becoming an independent or joining another network. However, this was highly speculative at best, and WKMG signed a long-term contract extension with CBS in 2005.

As of recently, WKMG is the last "Big Six" affiliate in Orlando that is not part of any television duopoly (Fox/Newscorp's WOFL/WRBW, Cox's WFTV/WRDQ and Hearst-Argyle's WESH/WKCF).

WKMG, WFTV and WRDQ are the only three stations with studios located inside the Orlando city limits. In WKMG's case, studios are located on John Young Parkway.

In 2008, WKMG-TV began broadcasting its news in 16:9 widescreen format.

[edit] Digital television

The station's digital channel is multiplexed. After the analog television shutdown and digital conversion, which is tentatively scheduled to take place on February 17, 2009, WKMG-TV will move its digital broadcasts to channel 26. However, through the use of PSIP, digital television receivers will display the station's virtual channel as 6.

[edit] Personalities

[edit] News Anchors

• Bob Frier - Local 6 News at 5, 5:30, 6, and 11
• Jacqueline London - Local 6 News at 4, 5, 6, and 11
• Lauren Rowe - Local 6 Morning News
• Erick Weber - Local 6 Morning News, News at Noon.
• Laura Diaz - Local 6 News at 6 (Saturday) and 6:30 (Sunday) and 11

[edit] Meteorologists

• Tom Sorrells - Local 6 News at 4, 5, 5:30, 6, and 11 (Chief Meteorologist) (AMS-CBM/NWA)
• Eric Wilson - Local 6 First News and Local 6 News at Noon (AMS/NWA)
• Elizabeth Hart - Local 6 News at 6 (Saturday), 6:30 (Sunday)and 11
• Rob Eicher - Fill-in meteorologist/Weather Producer (AMS-CBM/NWA)
• Jerry Steffen - Fill-in weather anchor

[edit] Sportscasters

• David Pingalore (on-air stage name: Ping) - sports director - Local 6 News at 6 & 11
• Todd Romero - sports anchor/reporter - Local 6 News at 6 (Saturday) and 6:30 (Sunday)

[edit] Reporters

• Todd Jurkowski
• Erik von Ancken
• Mike DeForest
• Ramin Khalili
• JR Stone
• Louis Bolden
• Jessica D'Onofrio
• Tarik Minor - Flagler/Volusia County reporter
• Jessica Sanchez
• Adam Longo
• Kimberly Houk
• Charnel Wright
• Tiffany Tift
• Kim Sanders - morning traffic reporter
• Chris Trenkmann

[edit] Local 6 Problem Solvers

• Steven Cooper - consumer reports
• Donald Forbes - To Catch a Criminal reports
• Mike Holfeld - investigative reports
• Tony Pipitone - investigative reports

[edit] Other

• Henry Maldonado - General Manager/Editorials
• Mark McEwen - Good Neighbor 6

[edit] News/Station Presentation

[edit] Newscast Titles

[edit] As WDBO-TV

• The Esso Reporter (1954-1965)
• Channel 6 News (1965-1977)
• Newswatch 6 (1977-1982)

[edit] As WCPX-TV

• Channel 6 News (1982-1984)
• Newswatch 6 (1984-198?)
• Channel 6 News (1989?-1992)
• 6 News (1992-1995)
• Channel 6 News (1995-1998)

[edit] As WKMG-TV

• Newscenter 6 (1998-2001)
• Local 6 News (2001-Present)

[edit] Radio

WKMG's audio signal can be heard on 87.7 MHz on the FM dial around the Central Florida area, though at a slightly lower volume than other FM stations - due to technical reasons. This is because the audio signal of channel 6 is located at 87.75 MHz. This frequency assignment applies to all channel 6 television stations in countries using the NTSC-M standard.

[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
• BIAfn's Media Web Database -- Information on WKMG-TV