In March 1978, after 21 years as a primary NBC affiliate, ABC announced that KTWO-TV would become a primary affiliate effective September 5; this was around the same time that ABC became the nation's highest rated network. The station lost CBS to KCWY-TV (channel 14, now KGWC-TV) when it signed on in 1980. In 1984, another new station, KXWY-TV (channel 20), began carrying NBC programming not cleared by KTWO. In early 1986, KTWO agreed to once again become a primary NBC affiliate effective September 1; the ABC affiliation went to KXWY (now KFNB). Later that year, Harriscope Broadcasting sold KTWO-TV, along with KULR-TV in Billings, Montana, to Dix Communications for $12.2 million. On August 28, 1987, Dix signed on a KTWO satellite station in Cheyenne, KKTU (channel 33).