Burke Broadcasting sold KYCU to Stauffer Communications in 1986, who changed its call sign to the current KGWN-TV on New Year's Day 1987. Later in 1987, channel 5 dropped NBC altogether when KKTU (now KQCK) signed on as a satellite of KTWO-TV in Casper. The station had been one of the few in the country that still "cherry-picked" programming from all three networks. ABC programming disappeared from the schedule by 1988. When Stauffer merged with Morris Communications in 1996, KGWN and most of the rest of Stauffer's television holdings went to Benedek Broadcasting. That company went bankrupt in 2001 (it merged with Gray Television a year later) and KGWN was sold to Chelsey Broadcasting. In 2003, the station was acquired by SagamoreHill Broadcasting.
