As a primary Fox affiliate
Unable to find a buyer that would operate KYLE as a standalone station, in 1996 Silent Minority Group sold the station to the Lafayette, Louisiana–based Communications Corporation of America (ComCorp), after ComCorp was granted a satellite waiver by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).[4] ComCorp already owned Fox affiliate KWKT,[4] whose signal was unable to reach across central Texas due to signal interference issues experienced by UHF stations operating in areas composed of rugged terrain. Before KYLE's launch, channel 28 had been used for a translator station in College Station, K28AK, that carried KWKT's programming;[5] in most of the market, KWKT was only viewable on cable. Following the purchase, KYLE became a satellite of KWKT, while WB programming moved to a secondary clearance on UPN affiliate KAKW (channel 62).[6][7] KYLE served the eastern portion of the market, while KWKT served the western portion.
Like its sister station did at the time, KYLE aired Fox Kids programming one hour earlier than many affiliates on weekday afternoons from 1 to 4 p.m. until the weekday block was discontinued by the network in December 2001,[8] in addition to carrying its successor Saturday morning children's blocks known as Fox Box and later 4KidsTV until the latter block ended nationally in December 2008, when 4Kids Entertainment and Fox parted ways due to a contract dispute.
WB programming returned to KYLE in July 2002, when it and KWKT took on a secondary affiliation with the network; this was The WB's second station change in the market during that year, as its programming had aired on ABC affiliates KXXV (channel 25) and KRHD-LP (channel 34, now channel 40) after KAKW became a Univision station that January.[3] With this, The WB's prime time schedule aired on KWKT/KYLE on a six-hour delay from 1 to 3 a.m., with Fox network programming running in pattern from 7 to 9 p.m. At this time, the station also added The WB's children's program block Kids' WB in the time slot formerly occupied by Fox Kids—which KWKT/KYLE replaced with syndicated programs following the discontinuance of the Fox Kids weekday block, lasting until Kids' WB's weekday block was replaced in January 2006 by the Daytime WB rerun block; the station also carried the block's Saturday morning lineup airing a day behind on Sunday mornings.
On February 22, 2006, News Corporation announced the launch of a new network called MyNetworkTV, which would be operated by the Fox network's sister companies Fox Television Stations and Twentieth Television. MyNetworkTV was created to compete against another upstart network that would launch at the same time that September, The CW (an amalgamated network that originally consisted primarily of The WB and UPN's higher-rated programs) as well as to give UPN and WB stations that were not named as CW charter affiliates another option besides converting to independent stations.[9][10] When MyNetworkTV launched on September 5, 2006, the station carried the programming service as a secondary affiliation from 10 p.m. to midnight each weeknight. As the block became part of The CW's programming schedule with that network's launch on September 18, Kids' WB programming moved to a CW-affiliated digital subchannel of CBS affiliate KWTX-TV (channel 10).
On April 24, 2013, Communications Corporation of America announced the sale of its stations to Irving-based Nexstar Broadcasting Group for $270 million, in a deal that also included rights to the local marketing agreements involving stations owned by Comcorp partner company White Knight Broadcasting.[11] However, due to a later proposal by the FCC to restrict sharing agreements between two or more television stations within the same market, approval of the sale was delayed for 20 months—at which time Nexstar sold some of KWKT/KYLE's sister stations under Comcorp ownership to licensees run by female and ethnic minority owners (all but one of which would end up operated by Nexstar through outsourcing agreements)—before finally being completed on January 1, 2015.[12] The sale was completed on January 1, 2015.[13]
