The firm's television stations were sold to investment company Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), which instituted cost cuts and management changes that prompted Renick to exit in 1985, months after his evening newscast fell to second place for the first time.

Though NBC made a significant investment in the news department and its coverage of Hurricane Andrew won industry acclaim, WTVJ's local newscasts remained mired in third place.

Another round of television affiliation realignment, this time affecting markets nationwide, led to a September 10, 1995, channel switch with WCIX as part of an asset trade between NBC and CBS.

Despite this, WTVJ found a news identity under general manager Don Browne, who led the station to its best newscast ratings performance since the Renick years in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

[18] FCC vice chairman Paul A. Walker, who had led the hearings,[16] issued an initial decision in January 1949 that recommended rescinding the revocation and approving WTVJ's sale to Wometco.

[37] One of the first forecasters to be certified by the American Meteorological Society, Weaver was also a ventriloquist, often delivering light jokes alongside weather reports with puppet sidekick "Weavie the Weatherbird".

[47] The other Fort Lauderdale station, WITV on channel 17, started on December 1, 1953;[48] it had a similar secondary arrangement with ABC and DuMont, though WTVJ retained first call rights to their programs.

[69] Zink was the first local children's show host to racially integrate his program, with Wolfson's support;[64][69] the sponsor, the hamburger restaurant Royal Castle,[70] pulled out and was replaced with the little-known Burger King chain.

He rejected recommendations it had made to WTVJ, including instituting a co-anchor format for the early and late newscasts, replacing the weatherman, de-emphasizing Broward County news, and airing more, shorter stories.

[88] After approving several measures in a shareholders meeting designed to prevent a hostile takeover,[87] the Wolfson family and Wometco board sold the company to a merchant banker, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), on September 21, 1983, in a $1 billion leveraged buyout.

[98] In late April 1985, KKR acquired Storer Communications in another leveraged buyout engineered to thwart a liquidation of that company by dissatisfied shareholders[99] and to prevent a hostile takeover by Comcast.

[106] Television and film production and syndication company Lorimar-Telepictures emerged as the buyer of WTVJ—along with Storer stations WAGA-TV, WITI, WJBK, WJW-TV, WSBK-TV and KCST—in a $1.85 billion group deal announced on May 21, 1986.

[106] Lorimar-Telepictures already owned five television stations inherited from predecessor Telepictures[109] and concurrently with the Storer transaction had made offers to purchase WPGH-TV in Pittsburgh and WTTV in Bloomington, Indiana, serving Indianapolis.

[110] The deal faced opposition from the Cleveland chapter of NABET and a group of minority Wometco shareholders, but Lorimar-Telepictures president Alan Bell expressed confidence those disputes would be resolved.

[103] This was initially attributed to Lorimar having issues financing the deal,[117] a weak advertising climate in Miami, and reduced cash flow estimates for WTVJ[118] that would have made it impossible to cover interest serviced on $2 billion in high-yield bonds raised by Adelson.

[121] The inquiry ended when Laurence Tisch, who had recently taken over as network chairman,[122][123] expressed worry that a station switch would depress the already slumping national ratings of the CBS Evening News.

[120][124] WTVJ general manager Alan Perris later claimed Tisch objected to Lorimar, who produced Dallas, Knots Landing and Falcon Crest for the network,[119] wanting to purchase a significant portion of the affiliate base.

[129] KKR then offered WTVJ to both Capital Cities/ABC Inc. and NBC parent company General Electric (GE),[120] under the belief a competing network would not have their bids affected by a CBS disaffiliation threat,[125] internally referred to as "that Channel 6 card".

Notified shortly before noon,[54] Timothy recounted that Ansin said "You Expletive Deleted" at the news but honored a prior invite to lunch at a seafood restaurant on the 79th Street Causeway, picking up the tab.

[120] After returning to the WSVN studios, Ansin pointed at a satellite dish used to receive NBC programming and deadpanned to Timothy and Mapes, "Why don't you take it home on the airplane?

[147] WCIX owner TVX found itself under increasing pressure to sell assets by Salomon Brothers—who financed the purchase of the Taft independent stations and held 60 percent ownership in the company[148]—after a bond payment to the banker in early 1988 was missed.

[154] The FCC approved the WCIX sale was on October 31, 1988,[139][155] but CBS had to legally wait at least 40 days before assuming operations[139] and did not fully take over until January 3, 1989, preventing them from making a significant on-air promotional campaign.

This included outreach at local malls, a bilingual 24-hour hotline, Spanish-language print and radio advertising (to attract the Cuban yuppie market), and television ads featuring a custom version of the recent hit song "Don't Worry, Be Happy" by Bobby McFerrin.

Meteorologist Bryan Norcross spent most of 22 hours on the air and led the coverage, which Hal Boedeker of The Miami Herald described as the "class of the field" and a "tour de force on many levels".

Despite the hurricane coverage, WTVJ continued to suffer problems stemming from low-rated NBC daytime programming, turnover in anchor personnel, and a news style that aped WSVN.

[216] In April 1998, the station closed on an $11.6 million sale of the property to the federal government, which planned to raze the old theater and construct new courthouses and offices; WTVJ had two years to vacate the premises.

[225] Miramar served as a hub for master control and commercial insertion operations for the stations NBC owned in the Southeast, including WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama; KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, Texas; and WNCN in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Shortly after, on December 23, the transaction was called off entirely, with both parties agreeing to abandon the sale citing "the current economic environment and the delay in receiving the necessary regulatory approval".

Mayer had joined WTVJ in 1969 as an intern under Renick before becoming a feature reporter and anchor and—aside from a stint in the early 1980s in Hartford, Connecticut, and the CNN bureau in Miami[253][254]—had spent the majority of his career at the station.

[261] Roy Firestone, who had worked as a sportscaster at the station until 1975,[262] wrote a letter to the general manager criticizing him for letting news director Migdalia Figueroa make such deep cuts to sports coverage.