In May 1983, the sale of KCBD-TV to the KBIM-TV owners closed. KSWS-TV began to operate independently of KCBD, by way of an agreement with New Mexico public television station KENW in Portales, New Mexico. Where KCBD-TV operated as a Central Time Zone station unsuitable for broadcast in a Mountain Time market (one hour earlier than Central), KSWS began to use an NBC feed that came from KOB and was fed over NMPTV microwave to the Portales master control, and from there to the Caprock tower. According to listings from the New Mexico edition of "TV Guide" from this era, most NBC and selected syndicated and news programming originated from KOB-TV, with most of that station's syndicated and sports programming replaced with religious and selected PBS programming (though never popular PBS shows such as "Sesame Street" or "Masterpiece Theatre").