Cowles exited broadcasting in 1984 and sold two of its stations, WESH and Des Moines' KCCI, to Houston-based H&C Communications, owned by the publishers of the "Houston Post", the Hobby family. Under H&C ownership, WESH closed its original Holly Hill studio in 1989, and relocated its operations to a temporary studio facility on Ridgewood Avenue (US 1), near International Speedway Boulevard (US 92) in Daytona Beach, which was eventually sold later, but the station maintains its Volusia County news bureau and a microwave tower at that facility. The station's primary operations then moved to a brand new studio in Winter Park in 1991, located on Wymore Road, alongside Interstate 4, equipped with "Super Doppler 2" atop the STL tower and a helipad. (The studios also currently serve as the graphics hub for all Hearst-owned TV stations.) The Hobbys decided to liquidate H&C in 1992; after an attempt to sell its entire TV station group to Young Broadcasting fell through, the company accepted an offer by Pulitzer Publishing to buy WESH and KCCI for $165 million in 1993. Pulitzer sold its entire broadcasting division, including WESH and KCCI, to Hearst-Argyle Television in 1999.