After meeting its fundraising deadline and modifying its application to specify a tower owned by WFBM-TV, thereby bypassing the WISH tower dispute, the logjam finally broke at the end of June. The FCC granted the construction permit on June 26, and a federal facility grant was approved days later. By October, there were call letters—WFYI—and facilities, but no fund drive had yet been slated to raise $350,000 needed to finance the first year of operational expenses, raising the prospect that nothing would come of all the effort. When Sesame Street began airing that fall, WLWI aired the series until WFYI could begin broadcasting.
