[6] The Ernsts successfully fought efforts to provide signals by microwave to local cable systems on the grounds that they would adversely impact KWRB-TV's financial condition.

[6] A November 1959 storm shattered a large window at the transmitter building, filling it with snow and rocks, while winds lifted part of the roof off.

[8] In 1961, an engineer returning to the mountain after having dental work performed in town went missing and was found by police, his station wagon having skidded into a snowbank.

However, a petition to deny filing from Associated Christian Broadcasters[4] delayed approval of the sale; having not been concluded in a year, the Ernsts canceled the contract and sought another buyer.

In 1979, an engineer living at the Boysen Peak site was attempting to repair equipment when he was electrocuted; the station did not find out until it failed to sign on the next morning.

[14] In early 1980, the Ernsts found a buyer in Hi Ho Broadcasting, which purchased KWRB-TV for $700,000 in March 1980 and also bought WDHN-TV in Dothan, Alabama, at the same time.

The call letters were changed to KTNW on June 1, 1980;[4] plans were made to move the main studios from Thermopolis to Riverton and double the station's power;[16] and a channel 20 translator at Casper was activated on August 12, 1980.

[22] When that station began operations on October 31, 1984, as KXWY-TV,[23] it merged with Hi Ho, which had changed channel 10's call letters to KFWY-TV that June.

[27] 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.

The deal would have created a duopoly between KFNB and KTWO-TV, which Legacy would have concurrently acquired from Silverton Broadcasting Company; in its filing with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Legacy stated that the duopoly was permissible because KFNB was the fifth-ranked station in the Casper–Riverton market, trailing sister station KWYF-LD as well as KTWO, KCWY-DT, and KGWC-TV.