ORLANDO, Fla. – WKMG-TV has hit a huge milestone, celebrating 70 years of broadcasting news in Central Florida.
WKMG was actually the first TV news station in Central Florida, but was known by the call letters WDBO.
The WKMG studio has moved over the years, but there’s a 100-year-old piece of history that sits inside the building to this day.
News 6 Insider Guide Crystal Moyer caught up with retired production manager Robert “Bob” Kotek to talk about a large piece of equipment that’s become a centerpiece of a WKMG hallway.
“This was one of our original transmitters. We, WKMG, went on the air in July of 1954. So we’re celebrating our 70th anniversary. That’s when we went on the air as WDBO,” Kotek said.
Kotek said some people assumed WDBO stood for “Way down by Orlando,’ but it actually stands for the city license with the Federal Communications Commission “Daytona Beach-Orlando.”
“Our call letters have changed a couple of times. We were WCPX and then we became WKMG. There’s a special meaning to the call letters ‘WKMG,’ (click HERE to learn more.) We’re the oldest television station in Orlando, so that said, there’s some great historical significance to that,” Kotek said.
WDBO started as a radio station in the 1920s using the transmitter. Most of it was designed and built by the WDBO staff, using their own facilities and those of a local machine shop.
The transmitter, about the size of a two vending machines, only powered one kilowatt. Keep in mind, a 1 kilowatt transmitter today is about the size of a small book. The large transmitter was used by WDBO from the 1920s to the mid-1970s.
“It’s non-operational now, but back in the day, all of these dials were meters for different functions of the transmitter. Our transmitter tower is actually in Christmas, Florida, out near Bithlo. But this is like a museum piece and we we keep it here because it’s a reminder of our beginnings,” Kotek said. “I am proud to have worked at WKMG for such a long time and take pride in this artifact.”
We’ll continue to celebrate 70 years of WKMG, taking you behind the scenes with old footage and photos. You can find a timeline of our station including the very first newscast script and old photos HERE.