It was majority-owned by the General Media Corporation of Rockford, Illinois, and the second of three new independent stations to begin broadcasting in Oklahoma City over a twelve-month period.

During this time, an attempt to consolidate Oklahoma City's independent stations fell through, with proposals for two separate buyers for channel 34 failing to materialize.

[3] General Media and Oklahoma City Broadcasting reached a settlement agreement, under which the former owned 80 percent of the combined group, and won the construction permit in March 1979.

[13] As a result, the market was suddenly saturated in its boom years, and unlike in other Oklahoma industries, the number of stations did not decrease through the state's economic downturn.

[15] That December,[16] Oklahoma City Broadcasting bought out General Media's share of channel 34 in a deal that valued KGMC at $7 million and was finalized in April 1983.

[17] Four months later, Baze agreed to sell an 85-percent interest in the station to the Beverly Hills Hotel Corporation (owned by New York City financier Ivan Boesky) for $7 million,[18] a transaction the FCC approved in December 1983.

[24] The Boesky family began to pursue a buyer for channel 34 under the FCC's distress sale policy,[25] which permitted a station facing possible revocation of its license to a group that was minority-controlled.

[27] KGMC's distress sale attempt was rolled into a much larger package that proposed sweeping changes to independent television in Oklahoma City.

It would buy KOKH-TV, KGMC, and KAUT-TV; consolidate their programs onto channel 25; and then sell the latter two stations to the Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) and a religious organization, respectively, removing them as competitors to KOKH.

As the OETA Foundation, the charitable fundraising arm of the educational authority, sought funds for the KGMC purchase in addition to a $1 million conditional grant from Pappas,[28] others did not have a favorable reaction.

The National Black Media Coalition objected, while Bellmon noted that the OETA Foundation did not qualify as a minority broadcaster under distress sale provisions.

[27] In light of these objections, Pappas changed tack and announced in October that KAUT, not KGMC, would be the station sold to the OETA,[30] a plan approved by the authority's board.

[37] The entire transaction fell through on February 3, when Busse formally terminated the purchase agreement with Pappas;[38] three days earlier, the FCC had dismissed the respective transfer applications for KGMC and KAUT.

Baze later told The Daily Oklahoman that, with a purchase close at hand, the station had ceased competing as vigorously, and KAUT pushed past it in the ratings.

The bankruptcy case became tortuous after NCNB Texas objected to Oklahoma City Broadcasting's reorganization plan, which had already received the support of the official committee of unsecured creditors.

[45] After an attempt to attract outside investment failed due to the pending proceedings and poor local market, Oklahoma City Broadcasting filed a new reorganization plan in November 1990.

[49] The $11 million transaction[50] received FCC approval in October and closed on January 28, 1994; Baze stepped down as general manager and was replaced by Sook.

[13][51] Under Sook and Superior, the station revamped its on-air look, upgraded its syndicated programming inventory, and acquired telecast rights to Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball.

[80] During Sinclair's attempted purchase of Tribune Media, by then the owner of KFOR and KAUT,[81] Sinclair intended to retain KFOR and KOCB, divest KOKH to Standard Media, and sell KAUT to Howard Stirk Holdings;[82] this and all related transactions were nullified in July 2018 after increased scrutiny by the FCC of the original deal, which Tribune terminated.