In December 1991, MT Communications moved to sell three of its four stations—WMTU, WLMT, and WEMT—to former Virginia lieutenant governor Dick Davis. Max Media—a Virginia company founded by three former officers of TVX—then would manage the stations for Davis.[36] Morrie Beitch, who had been general manager of WMKW-TV under TVX from 1987 to 1989 and had stayed with the company after it sold channel 30, returned to lead the station, telling The Commercial Appeal, "I worked for [TVX executive] John Trinder for 6 1/2 years and I jumped at the chance to go to work for him in this city again."[37]
Max Media's involvement with WLMT–WMTU operations was comparatively brief, as in August 1993, the two stations were leased to WPTY-TV owner Clear Channel Communications, which also purchased their physical assets. Five WLMT employees, including general manager Beitch, were laid off, as all three stations now shared a general manager.[38] The deal was seen to give the unprofitable WLMT the resources it needed to adequately promote itself.[39] (Clear Channel would move to acquire WLMT and WMTU in 1999, when duopolies were legalized.[40]) Even though WPTY had renewed its rights to Memphis State basketball in 1992,[41] University of Memphis basketball moved to WLMT by 1994.[42]
With two new networks starting in 1995, both—UPN and The WB—wooed WLMT as an affiliate. Clear Channel affiliated WLMT and another station it managed in Tulsa with UPN.[44] The station's operations were consolidated in the same building with WPTY-TV in 1995 when that station moved to new studios as part of its affiliation switch to ABC and startup of a news department.[45] The WB never scored a full-time affiliate in Memphis in its eleven-year history; the then-superstation feed of Chicago station WGN-TV served as the de facto Memphis home of WB programming until 1999, when WPTY-TV took on a secondary affiliation with the network and began airing its prime time programs in late night slots,[46] and it moved to a slightly earlier time slot at WLMT in 2003.[47] However, UPN's programming lineup, targeted at Black audiences, resonated in Memphis, where they represented about 40 percent of TV households; in 2004, WLMT was one of the highest-rated UPN affiliates in the United States, and the station was fourth in revenue, ahead of one major network affiliate.
WLMT debuted an in-studio wrestling program from Memphis Wrestling in 2003, two years after WMC-TV canceled its long-running wrestling show.[51]
