WDBO (AM)

WDBO (580 AM) is a commercial radio station broadcasting a news/talk radio format. Licensed to Orlando, Florida, the station is owned by Cox Media Group. The studios and offices are located on North John Young Parkway in Orlando.
WDBO is powered at 5,000 watts. At night, it uses a directional antenna to protect other stations on AM 580. The transmitter tower is off West Kennedy Boulevard in Maitland. Programming is also heard on FM translator W297BB at 107.3 MHz.
History.
Early years.
WDBO is Orlando's oldest radio station, signing on the air on May 24, 1924. It was first licensed to Rollins College in Winter Park, FL. In its early years, it used a number of frequencies, but by 1933, it settled on 580 kilocycles. In 1935, it got a boost in power from 250 watts to 1,000 watts. It was owned by the Orlando Broadcasting Company, and was a network affiliate of CBS Radio. WDBO carried the CBS line up of dramas, comedies, news, sports, soap operas, game shows and big band broadcasts during the "Golden Age of Radio."
In 1949, WDBO-FM (92.3) was added. Five years later, WDBO would sign on WDBO-TV, the first television station in Central Florida. In 1982, the firm that owned WDBO-AM-FM-TV, The Outlet Company, sold the radio stations to Katz Broadcasting. (The TV station eventually became WKMG-TV.) When the stations were sold, WDBO-FM was re-formatted as a country music station, "K92FM", with the call sign WWKA.
Middle of the Road to Talk.
As network programming moved from radio to television in the 1950s, WDBO switched to a full service middle of the road format of popular adult music, news and sports. By the 1980s, "58 WDBO" began to scale back on MOR music. It joined the ABC News Radio Network, and slowly added more talk radio programs.
By the 1990s, it had become "NewsTalk 580 WDBO", which for years had been Greater Orlando's highest-rated AM news/talk station. In 1997, WDBO and WWKA were acquired by Cox Radio. In August 2011, Cox ended the classic rock format on WHTQ, and gave it the call sign WDBO-FM, becoming a simulcast of WDBO. (WDBO was initially heard on that station's HD-2 subchannel beginning in late February 2008.) The news/talk station eventually re-branded, using the FM frequency, "NewsTalk 96-5 WDBO".
Switch to Sports.
On November 12, 2012, WDBO-AM-FM would split from the simulcast, when WDBO re-launched as a sports radio station affiliated with ESPN Radio, while WDBO-FM continued the news/talk programming on its own. The ESPN Radio Network had been dropped previously by WHOO, which switched its affiliation to NBC Sports Radio. WDBO carried the full ESPN Radio schedule, except for a local program weekday afternoons hosted by Scott Anez.
WDBO remained the flagship radio station of the Orlando Magic basketball team until WYGM became the home of the Orlando Magic at the start of the 2018–2019 season.
Return to Talk.
On June 24, 2020, Cox Radio announced that WDBO would drop its sports programming to return to news/talk; in addition, WDBO-FM flipped to a Spanish-language Contemporary hits format.
To give listeners in Orlando and its adjacent communities the option to hear WDBO programming on FM, Cox added an FM translator; on June 29, 107.3 W297BB began simulcasting WDBO. With the addition of the translator, the station rebranded as "WDBO 107.3 FM and 580 AM."
Programming.
Weekdays begin with "Orlando's Morning News with Joe Kelley". There are also hour-long local newsblocks at noon and 6 p.m. The rest of the weekday schedule is made up of nationally syndicated talk shows from Sean Hannity, Brian Kilmeade, Dana Loesch, Clark Howard, Chad Benson and "Markley, Van Camp & Robbins".
Weekends include shows on money, health, law, real estate, home improvement, gardening and cars. A technology show with Kim Komando is heard Sunday evenings. Some weekend hours are paid brokered programming. Most hours begin with world and national news from ABC News Radio.