Autry sued Chauncey, alleging that he had mismanaged the assets of KOOL Radio-Television, Inc., to the tune of millions of dollars and had diverted company funds to Arabian horses, cars, and airplanes. Chauncey then filed a countersuit, accusing Autry and Gulf of racketeering and trying to pressure longtime manager Homer Lane, who owned a small but pivotal stake in the firm, to sell. In the wake of the dueling lawsuits, and as early as November 1981, speculation began to circulate that Chauncey and Lane were nearing a sale of their stakes to Gulf. Gulf, Taft, and Great American On June 8, 1982, Tom Chauncey and Gulf United announced that the latter was buying out the remaining shares in KOOL-TV, with KOOL-FM to be retained by Chauncey and split from the firm; the dueling lawsuits would be dropped when the FCC approved the transaction. The sale closed on October 1, 1982, a month after receiving FCC approval, and major changes followed at channel 10. The first was a change in call sign, as the FM retained the KOOL designation. On October 4, KOOL-TV became KTSP-TV; while Gulf claimed that it stood for "Tempe, Scottsdale, Phoenix", the more likely reason was that it mirrored another channel 10 station owned by Gulf, WTSP in St. Petersburg, Florida. Homer Lane, the general manager and minority owner, was replaced by Jack Sander, hired from WTOL in Toledo, Ohio. Gulf also invested in new production equipment to give KTSP a more high-tech look, and it completed a project started under Chauncey to replace the transmitter and tower on South Mountain. In 1985, Taft Broadcasting acquired Gulf Broadcasting, which had been spun out of Gulf United two years prior. The deal included the entire chain, but so interested was Taft in Phoenix that it obtained an option to buy KTSP-TV alone for $250 million if the entire Gulf deal were to collapse, and KTSP-TV was the most expensive of the properties it purchased from Gulf. Not long after Taft acquired Gulf, however, a major management change occurred that would have long-term ramifications in Phoenix television. KTVK, which had until that time been a perennial third-place finisher in local news, poached Bill Miller, channel 10's news director, to be its station manager and hired Phil Alvidrez, the KTSP-TV assistant news director, to run its newsroom. The two hires by channel 3 were partly responsible for KTVK climbing to