It returned that fall under new call letters, WRLU, but saw no change in its fortunes and was forced off the air for good in 1975 due to an unpaid power bill.

[2] This, along with the passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act, prompted another group, Roanoke Telecasting Corporation—headed by Frank Tirico—to apply for a construction permit to build a new station on channel 27, which was granted on July 2, 1965.

These proposed changes would increase the station's coverage area and signal strength, though it still would operate at fairly modest power for a network affiliate on the UHF band.

However, they also would have pitted southwest Virginia's two ABC affiliates against one another, as channel 27's footprint would have a roughly 25 percent overlap with that of WLVA-TV's main transmitter.

[11] The move to Poor Mountain took place in 1971; citing the designation of the site as an antenna farm, WRFT-TV sought and obtained an injunction against WSLS-TV after lease negotiations broke down.

[12] While WRFT-TV won the fight for equal technical footing with the other stations on the western side of the market, it still had the problem of increasingly desperate financial straits.

The station's financial troubles came to a head in late April 1974, when Apostolou fired general manager Andy Peterson in a dispute over pay and new equipment.

One of its production directors claimed the station was being "held together by chewing gum and rubber bands"; its chief engineer said it was still on the air "with the aid of a 15-watt Christmas bulb and baling wire".

When Roanoke Telecasting missed a deadline to pay the electric bill, Apco shut off power to the station at 8:53 a.m. on the morning of February 11, 1975, right before the end of AM America.

[17] On December 16, FCC lawyers gave Apostolou an ultimatum: unless channel 27 could find a new source of financing by the Christmas holidays, they would recommend that the commission revoke the license.