Central Florida's first television station signed on the air as WDBO-TV on July 1, 1954. At the time, Orlando had a population of only 52,000 people. There were four movie theaters, the space program was in its infancy, and programs like "Gunsmoke", "I Love Lucy", "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "What's My Line" defined the Golden Age of Television. Hamburgers were less than 25-cents and it would be ten years before the station broadcast in color.

Now located at 4466 John Young Parkway in Orlando, the television station's first home was on Texas Avenue, just north of Highway 50. It was the only television station between Jacksonville and Miami covering Florida's east coast.

The original staff was 25 full-time and five part-time employees. These television industry newcomers kept the station on the air 56 hours a week. That changed in 1956 when WDBO-TV began broadcasting all day. The only exception was between nine and ten in the morning, when a test pattern was on-air. That allowed the under 100-thousand television sets in the viewing area to be set up correctly. By the end of the decade, over 250,000 homes had television sets.

Most of Channel 6's programming came from CBS. However, because there were so few television stations at the time, WDBO also carried programming from ABC, NBC, and Dumont, the original third network. Soap operas have long been a television staple. It was no different then. Fans tuned in to "Search for Tomorrow", "Guiding Light" and "As The World Turns".

Local programs were a part of the Channel 6 lineup from its first week on the air. Every Saturday night at 7 p.m., "Central Florida Showcase" highlighted topics of interest to Central Floridians. It even attracted national and international guests like Art Linkletter, actress Gloria Swanson and U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The program's sponsors were the Orlando Jaycees, the Orlando Optimist Club, and the North Orlando Kiwanis. It had a viewing audience of 144-thousand people by 1960.

Unlike today, Central Florida was primarily rural in the 1950's. Hunting and fishing were popular pastimes. So popular in fact, that the station devoted an entire program to them. "Hunting and Fishing" was hosted by sportscaster Don McAllister and "good old boys" Tom Denmark and Walter Hudson. It was "the" program for the latest gossip on who was catching what using what bait, and where the deer, hog, or turkey hunting was best.

"Digest" was another program that took viewers out of the studio. Hosted by Bill Berry, it brought the 1964 World's Fair from New York to Central Florida. Channel 6 filmed the extravaganza for "Digest".

Not one to leave out the kids, WDBO-TV gave children their daily dose of "Uncle Walt's Adventure Playhouse" every afternoon at 5p.m. hosted by Walt Sickles. Weekday mornings, Channel 6 reporter Nancy Stillwell was transformed into "Miss Nancy" of Romper Room.

Community Service has a part of the station's mission from the beginning. In 1954, WDBO-TV broadcast the first United Cerebral Palsy Telethon.

And then there was news! Fifty years ago the news was in black and white, was only 15 minutes long, with no film or videotape. When there were pictures, they aired on a rear-screen projector. There were two daily newscasts, at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m., and news anchors actually read commercials as part of the newscast!

The station didn't own a camera, so it spent about $350 for a 16mm camera with one of the first zoom lenses. The closest place film could be processed was Jacksonville. In 1960 Channel 6 installed its first black and white film-processing machine. That same year the station began using the first videotape machine in the market.

In 1961 Channel 6 started the first full-time news department in Central Florida. It's newscasts expanded from 15 minutes to 25 minutes. Russ Blair was the anchor, Ben Aycrigg was the first reporter hired, Frank Vaught did sports, and Charlie Greco was the only cameraman. Unlike the immediacy of today's video, processing film was quite an endeavor. Once shot, it had to be taken back to the station to be developed and edited. Images were viewed on a three-by-four inch screen, then the film was snipped with scissors and spliced or glued together. The shots were then timed.

A growing Central Florida meant expanding news coverage. WDBO-TV was the first local television station with a reporter in Tallahassee, the state capitol. Daily news coverage led to production of specials and half-hour programs covering topics of interest to Central Floridians.

The production of special programs led to specialized information within newscasts. One of the first was consumer news. Ellen MacFarlane was the station's first "in your face" consumer reporter. Consumer, health and investigative reports are now staples of Channel 6 newscasts.

Space has been one of the biggest stories to ever affect Central Florida. WDBO was there from the start. It produced "Assignment Canaveral", which aired just before John Glenn's first historic flight in 1962. Channel 6 had the first television news crew on the scene in 1967 when three Apollo astronauts died when their capsule caught fire on the launch pad. Years later, Channel 6 would bring Central Florida viewers "live" pictures of Apollo 11's moon landing, the launch of the first shuttle, and the tragic flight of Shuttle Challenger in 1986.

The station has gone through its own changes over the years, including changing ownership four times! First known as WDBO-TV, with fewer than 30 employees, Channel 6 now employees nearly 200 people who work in a state-of-the-art facility. WDBO-TV was owned by Harold Danforth and Orlando Broadcasting. In 1957 Danforth sold the station to Cherry Broadcasting for $3 million. Six years later, the station was sold again to the Outlet Company of Providence, Rhode Island for $5 million.

Outlet installed the station's first color film processor, added color studio cameras, and built a new, taller antenna in 1969. At the time, that 1500-foot tower, located 30 miles east of Orlando in Bithlo, was the tallest structure in Florida. it was 229 feet taller than the Empire State Building! The new tower added 75,000 homes to the Channel 6 viewing area. In 1970, the Orlando-Daytona Beach market became the 49th largest in the country.

Tragedy struck in 1973 when the tower came crashing to earth, killing two workers. It was the same day President Richard Nixon was addressing the graduating class at Florida Technological University (now the University of Central Florida). It would be two years before the station would broadcast at full power.

In 1982, WDBO radio, which shared the station's call letters, was sold. It was the original license holder and had rights to the call letters. In preparation for an anticipated sale to Columbia Pictures, Channel 6 changed its call letters to WCPX-TV on June 6, 1982. That sale never materialized. However, Rockefeller Center, Incorporated did buy Channel 6. Soon after that sale, construction began on a new building. The building, on John Young Parkway in Orlando, is still the station's home.

In 1997, Channel 6 was sold for the fourth time to Post-Newsweek Stations. A year after that sale, the call letters were changed to WKMG-TV in honor of Katharine Meyer Graham. Mrs. Graham was the Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Washington Post Company, the parent company of Post-Newsweek Stations.