The station's announcer from 1973 to 2001, Ralph Menard, would identify channel 5 in station IDs with the catch-phrase "Henderson and Laaassss Vegas"; Menard died in 2003. Meredith Corporation bought the station from Carson Broadcasting in 1985. Upon Meredith taking control of the station, KVVU adopted a stylized "TV 5" logo borrowed from its new sister stations, KPHO-TV in Phoenix; WNEM-TV in Bay City, Michigan; KCTV in Kansas City, Missouri; and WTVH in Syracuse, New York. Channel 5 remained an independent station until October 9, 1986, when it became one of the charter affiliates of the newly launched Fox network (it was one of a very few handful of stations located on the VHF dial to align with the new network upon its startup). However, by the time Fox expanded its programming from late nights into evenings in April 1987, network primetime programming initially ran only two days a week (it was not until 1993 that Fox began providing programming on all seven days of the week), so KVVU continued to be essentially programmed as an independent station. In the 1980s, more talk shows were added to the schedule and movies were cut back slightly.