KCEN-TV signed on the air for the first time on November 1, 1953, originally owned by Frank W. Mayborn, publisher of the "Temple Daily Telegram" and owner of KTEM radio (1400 AM) in Temple. Early on, Mayborn realized that Temple/Killeen and Waco were going to be a single television market (although, then as now, they are separate radio markets). To signify that his new station would serve all of Central Texas, Mayborn decided on the call letters KCEN-TV (for "CENtral Texas"), rather than KTEM-TV (for TEMple), after his radio station property. He also built his studio near Eddy, roughly halfway between Temple and Waco.