In 1996, Ellis was sold to Retirement Systems of Alabama who merged it with AFLAC's former broadcasting division to form Raycom Media. Since AFLAC had owned rival WTOC, Raycom could not keep both stations due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations at the time forbidding common ownership of two stations in the same market; this rule would be partially repealed in 2000 when the FCC allowed common ownership of two stations in the same market provided that both of them are not the four highest-rated stations in a market with eight unique station owners. Savannah had only six full power stations at the time of the merger, which was too few to permit a duopoly in any case. As a result, Raycom opted to keep the higher-rated WTOC and sell WSAV. In early 1997, Raycom traded WSAV and two other stations to Media General in return for WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia.