The first regular broadcast by WDBO-TV at 7:55 a.m. on that July 1, 1954, was the culmination of a more than three-year effort to bring local TV to Central Florida.
WDBO-TV
Comedian Bill Dana passes, helped launch short-lived United Network on Channel 6
Comedian Bill Dana, whose death at age 92 was announced Monday, was best known for his “Jose Jimenez” character in the 1960s. But he also had a small role in Orlando TV history.
Greed, movies and soda: How Channel 6 became WCPX-TV in 1982
Thirty-five years ago this month, there was a big change in Orlando television. You can blame a greedy, lazy station owner as well as the FCC, a movie company and even a soft-drink maker.
Orlando’s first TV signal broadcast 63 years ago
It was at 11:16 p.m. on Friday, June 4, that Channel 6 turned on its transmitter for the first time and sent out its first broadcast, a test pattern. The signal came from an 80-foot antenna atop the station’s new 500-foot tower on Texas Avenue, just north of West Colonial Drive.