Media General announced on January 27, 2016, that it was terminating the Meredith deal, and also announced that it was being acquired by Nexstar Broadcasting Group with the new company named Nexstar Media Group. As Nexstar already owns WHBF-TV, and since both WHBF and KWQC rank among the top four stations by daily ratings in the market, in order to comply with FCC ownership rules as well as planned changes to rules regarding same-market television stations which would prohibit future joint sales agreements, the company was required to sell either KWQC or WHBF to another company. WHBF's sister station KGCW was not affected, and could have either remained in its duopoly with WHBF or created a new duopoly with KWQC, as its ratings are below the top-four threshold. On June 3, 2016, it was announced that Nexstar would keep its existing assets and sell KWQC to Gray Television for $270 million. It represents a reunion of sorts as Gray previously managed the station when Young was encountering financial difficulties, but this time Gray acquired the station outright. That makes KWQC a sister station to KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, WIFR in Rockford and fellow NBC affiliate WMTV in Madison. The sale was completed on January 17, 2017.