In 1964, KFJZ-TV moved its transmitter facilities to a tower at the antenna farm in Cedar Hill, which provided a signal that covered the Dallas–Fort Worth market.

[9] The split-station arrangement frustrated NBC to the point where in early 1957, it threatened to terminate its affiliation contract with WBAP-TV if it did not agree to move its transmitter eastward to provide a signal that covered Dallas and Fort Worth.

Neither station won out, as the Carter heirs would reluctantly agree to NBC's demands to retain the affiliation and move the WBAP-TV transmitter to an existing 1,500-foot (457 m) candelabra tower shared by WFAA and KRLD-TV, operating it at a higher effective radiated power strong enough to adequately cover central and eastern Dallas County and adjacent areas that had only rimshot signal coverage of the station.

In May 1960, the Texas State Network sold Channel 11 to the NAFI Telecasting Corporation (which was also the parent company of Chris-Craft Industries at the time) for $4 million; the two radio stations were not included in the transaction, which was completed on August 1 of that year.

[13] The transaction made KTVT the largest television station by market size to be owned by the media company, which OPUBCO would later rename Gaylord Broadcasting.

KTVT gained its first major competitor in February 1968, when Doubleday Broadcasting signed on KMEC (channel 39), which featured a broad mix of general entertainment and sports programs.

KTVT's popularity also spread outside of the Metroplex beginning in the late 1970s, when the station began making its signal available to cable television providers throughout Texas and in surrounding states.

This attained it a new status as a superstation along the lines of WTBS (now WPCH-TV) in Atlanta, WGN-TV in Chicago and WOR-TV in New York City (now MyNetworkTV owned-and-operated station WWOR-TV and licensed to Secaucus, New Jersey); its signal was transmitted to about 400 cable systems and to C-band satellite subscribers across the country, mainly in the Southwestern U.S. At its height, the station was available on nearly every cable provider in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as large swaths of Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico.

National Business Network Inc. returned channel 33 to the air as KNBN-TV (now CW affiliate KDAF) on September 29, 1980; however, that station did not begin to make any real headway against KTVT in the ratings during its tenure under local ownership.

KTVT was one of the few long-tenured major market independents that did not align with the fledgling Fox Broadcasting Company in the run-up to the network's launch in October 1986.

[20] As KTVT gained regional exposure, the station became vulnerable in the Dallas–Fort Worth area and underestimated the ability of UHF competitor KTXA to acquire top-rated syndicated programs.

Not to stay outdone, after Gaylord appointed KSTW general manager Charles L. Edwards as KTVT's executive vice president and general manager (as well as the group's corporate programming director) in 1984, the station began making its own moves in acquiring stronger first-run and off-network syndicated programming, gaining the rights to series such as The Cosby Show, Night Court and Cheers.

[21][22][23] Gaylord was not willing to create a dedicated feed that included substitute programs that would replace shows aired on KTVT locally in certain time slots that could not air outside of its primary viewing area due to market exclusivity claims by various stations (as WGN-TV and WWOR-TV did at the time the law became official); as such, when the law went into effect on January 1, 1990, cable providers in some areas throughout the South Central U.S. chose to drop KTVT from their lineups.

Gaylord had not yet signed the proposed agreement when another planned affiliation transaction took place that resulted in the shift of two existing networks from their longtime station partners.

[a][25][26] On May 23, 1994, as part of a broad deal that also saw News Corporation acquire a 20% equity interest in the company, New World Communications signed a long-term agreement to affiliate its nine CBS-, ABC- or NBC-affiliated television stations with Fox, which sought to strengthen its affiliate portfolio after the National Football League (NFL) accepted the network's $1.58 billion bid for the television rights to the National Football Conference (NFC)—a four-year contract that began with the 1994 NFL season—on December 18, 1993.

On the evening of July 1, 1995, at the end of their late-night newscast, anchors Jerry Jenkins and Beth McKay told viewers that KTVT would officially become a CBS affiliate, and at 10 p.m., during a break within the station's telecast of a Major League Baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners, Ed Trimble—KTVT's vice president and general manager at the time—delivered an on-air message informing viewers of the forthcoming network changes (David Whitaker, then the vice president and general manager at KDFW, also conducted a segment on the network switch that aired concurrently on channel 4; KTVT had aired a half-hour special detailing network affiliation changes involving channel 11, KDFW and KDAF, Are You Ready for This?, preceding the game earlier that evening, among multiple other airings of the special during the weeks of June 25 and July 2).

[35] Even though it was now a "Big Three" affiliate, during its first year with CBS, KTVT's lineup of syndicated shows that aired outside of local newscasts and network programs—consisting mainly of off-network sitcoms held over from its existence as an independent (such as The Cosby Show, Full House, Matlock and Roseanne) and first-run newsmagazines (such as Extra and the short-lived Day & Date)—more closely resembled an inventory normally offered by an independent or minor network-affiliated station.

Much of the syndicated sitcoms, drama series and cartoons that KTVT was forced to divest because of CBS' network-dominated programming schedule were acquired by KDAF and KTXA (which had become a UPN affiliate when that network launched in January 1995).

Gradually throughout the late 1990s, the station began taking on the look and format of a major network affiliate, expanding its local news programming and replacing the sitcoms that initially occupied its weekday schedule with more first-run syndicated newsmagazines and game shows.

The station's primary studio facilities, and other technical and business operations remain at the Bridge Street facility in east Fort Worth;[49] the former 24,000 square feet (2,230 m2) Dallas offices on North Central were purchased by Avial Hotels (the real estate development subsidiary of North Carolina–based Blue Star Hospitality) in November 2015, which intended to redevelop the building as a hotel.

[50] On August 13, 2019, National Amusements announced that Viacom and CBS Corporation would recombine their assets into a singular entity to be named ViacomCBS in a deal valued at up to $15.4 billion.

Many of the MLB team owners were concerned that Gaylord would utilize his interest in the Rangers to expand KTVT into a national superstation along the lines of WTBS (which carried the Atlanta Braves), WGN-TV (which aired the Chicago Cubs and White Sox) and WWOR-TV (which held rights to the New York Mets).

[57][58][59][60][61][62] Gaylord was similarly stymied in his attempt to acquire Chiles's 58% interest in and majority control of the team, which instead went to a group led by eventual Texas Governor and U.S. President George W. Bush in conjunction with real estate developer H. Bert Mack and investor Frank L. Morsani in a $86-million deal struck in April 1989.

It has also broadcast college football and basketball events involving programs based around Texas; from 1984 until the conference folded after the 1995–96 season, the station aired football and men's basketball games from the now-defunct Southwestern Conference that were syndicated by Raycom Sports, including those involving the University of Texas Longhorns (it shared the broadcast rights to some of the game telecasts with KTXA).

[69] The newscast was moved to 9 p.m. five months later on January 7, 1991, with then-general manager Ed Trimble citing frequent preemptions caused by KTVT's Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks game telecasts.

By this time, Estill had left his position as sports director in 1992 and was replaced by Curt Menefee; Ken Malloy would take over as Hill's co-anchor following Hambrick's departure a few months after the program's title change.

[71] The Nine O'Clock News grew to become a strong ratings performer in the 9 p.m. timeslot, holding its own in the midst of competition from network drama series and newsmagazines that aired against it on the market's "Big Three" affiliates.

In turn, the station also increased its on-air and behind-the-scenes news staff from 40 to 80 employees, hiring among others Cameron Harper (who replaced Malloy, who was moved to the daytime newscasts, as weeknight co-anchor); Hill, Goosmann, McKay (who would shift to weekend sports anchor in 1997), Jenkins and Matthews were among a handful of on-air staffers that stayed with the news department following the CBS switch (Hill was fired by the station in November 1996 and was replaced as weeknight co-anchor by Karen Borta, who remained in that role until February 2015, when Borta was moved to the weekday morning newscast; Goosmann remained chief meteorologist until he left KTVT in 2001).

from its previous 4:30 p.m. timeslot to 11 a.m. (KTVT would eventually restore a midday news program, with the debut of a half-hour 11 a.m. newscast on August 12, 2013, which replaced Jeopardy!

[74] On September 24, 2007, KTVT became the third television station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market (after WFAA and KXAS) to begin broadcasting its local newscasts in high-definition.