As a satellite of KXWY-TV/KFNB
Catherine Malatesta, one of the part-owners of KTNW, was also part-owner of Casper Channel 20, Inc., which held a construction permit for a new channel 20 station at Casper.[20] When that station began operations on October 31, 1984, as KXWY-TV,[21] it merged with Hi Ho, which had changed channel 10's call letters to KFWY-TV that June.[22] (The KTNW call letters have since been used by the PBS member station in Richland, Washington.) KXWY-TV became the main station, with KFWY-TV as a full-time satellite.
In 1986, KXWY-TV became the exclusive ABC affiliate for the Casper market.[23] In time for the network change, and evidently reflecting the station's planned future ownership by First National Broadcasting, a subsidiary of film and television producer First National Entertainment[24]—KXWY-TV and its satellite stations became KFNB, KFNE (in Riverton) and KFNR (in Rawlins) in August 1986.[25]
The First National sale collapsed in April 1989 when the company defaulted on a loan secured with the station's equipment, leaving KFNB and its satellites off air for nine months.[26][27] While the company never acquired KFNB itself, First National ended up with new licenses to replace those held by Casper Channel 20. Wyomedia Corporation, which had owned KFNB since 1990, acquired the pair in 2007 for $30,000 in total debt forgiveness.[28]
KFNB became a secondary affiliate of Fox in 1994, airing prime time programming in off hours and its Sunday football games.[29] As the result of an affiliation shuffle in Casper, KFNB and its satellites became a full-time Fox affiliate on March 8, 2004.[30]
