On June 17, 2016, the FCC approved the sale of the station to Gray, with the condition that the station would not enter (during two years post-consummation) into an affiliation agreement with a television network that would convert KYES into one of the top-four stations in audience share. The sale was completed on June 27, 2016. Prior to the sale, KYES was one of the few stand-alone, locally owned commercial television stations left in the United States. Immediately after, the station's logo was redesigned, and its MyNetworkTV affiliation was de-emphasized, as has become standard during MyNetworkTV's decline as solely a programming service with limited network imaging. Around the same time, KYES' translator in Juneau, KCBJ-LP (channel 15), took over for K17HC, which was retained by Fireweed, but went dark in 2017.