On April 3, 1986, ABC terminated its affiliation agreement with KDEB and moved it to KSPR. Woods later successfully sued the network for fraud, but ultimately lost the case on appeal. KDEB briefly became an independent station, then opted to become a charter affiliate of Fox, which launched on October 9, 1986. In 1993, Woods sold the station to Banam Broadcasting, a subsidiary of BankAmerica. Banam sold KDEB along with three of its stations (WTVW in Evansville, Indiana, KARD in West Monroe, Louisiana and KLBK-TV in Lubbock, Texas) to Petracom Broadcasting in 1995. In 1998, Petracom sold KDEB-TV to Quorum Broadcasting. On November 30, 2001, the station's -tall broadcast tower (which it shared with KTXR (101.3 FM) collapsed as a result of overnight ice accumulation. A replacement transmitter was installed on the tower used by KOLR and KSPR, adjacent from the channel 27 tower site. The transmitter facility had been sold to the American Tower Corporation, which also owns the current tower.