The programming and CW affiliation of WLWC's main channel was purchased by Nexstar in 2017 after WLWC's owner, OTA Broadcasting, sold their spectrum in the FCC's 2016 incentive auction. On October 2, 2017 at 12:30 p.m., The CW Providence vacated its old channel 28.1 location (which was converted into an Ion Life affiliate, per an agreement to share channel 17 with Ion owned-and-operated station WPXQ-TV), relocating WLWC's CW and syndicated programming to channel 64.2. That day, MyRITV was moved to WPRI's second subchannel, to balance bandwidth among all four of Nexstar's major network affiliations in Providence.