Friendly then sold both KODE and WRGP (now WRCB) in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Massachusetts-based United Printers & Publishers in 1961.

He predicted only light flurries for the next day and it ended up snowing over 20 inches (51 cm) at the Joplin Regional Airport.

Subsequently, KODE then entered into a shared services agreement with Nexstar Broadcasting, which owns NBC affiliate KSNF.

The same year, it was announced KSNF and KODE would merge, with KSN's studios expanded to accommodate the combined operation.

Both stations moved to a rebuilt KSNF building in April 2010 making it the next-to-last Nexstar duopoly to do so (as Nexstar formed a virtual duopoly in Evansville, Indiana, in December 2011 with the purchase of that market's ABC affiliate WEHT and transfer of its existing Evansville independent station (now CW affiliate) WTVW to Mission Broadcasting, and Nexstar almost immediately moved WTVW's operations to the WEHT facility).