World merged with Fox in 1997, WBRC was reunited with four of its sister stations from the Storer era: WJBK, WAGA-TV in Atlanta, WJW in Cleveland and WITI in Milwaukee. WBRC would become the only remaining station in the Birmingham–Tuscaloosa–Anniston market that was owned by a major commercial broadcast television network, after Media General completed its acquisition of WVTM from NBC Television Stations on June 26, 2006. However, on December 22, 2007, Fox announced that it had entered into an agreement to sell WBRC and seven other Fox owned-and-operated stations (WDAF-TV, WGHP, WJW, WITI, KTVI in St. Louis, KDVR in Denver and KSTU in Salt Lake City) to Local TV, a holding company operated by equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners that had earlier purchased The New York Times Company's television station division; the sale was finalized on July 14, 2008. On January 6, 2009, Local TV announced that it would trade WBRC to Raycom Media in exchange for acquiring CBS affiliate WTVR-TV in Richmond, Virginia from that group. Raycom – which is controlled by the Retirement Systems of Alabama – is headquartered in Montgomery (the market to the adjacent south of the Birmingham DMA), and also owns that market's NBC affiliate WSFA as well as Huntsville NBC affiliate WAFF. The transfer closed on March 31, 2009. On June 25, 2018, Atlanta-based Gray Television announced it had reached an agreement with Raycom to merge their respective broadcasting assets (consisting of Raycom's 63 existing owned-and/or-operated television stations, including WBRC), and Gray's 93 television stations) under the former's corporate umbrella. The cash-and-stock merger transaction valued at $3.6 billion – in which Gray shareholders would acquire preferred stock currently held by Raycom – will result in WBRC gaining new sister stations in adjacent markets, including ABC affiliate WTOK-TV in Meridian and CBS/NBC affiliates WTVY and WRGX-LD in Dothan (while separating it from WDFX), in addition to the current Raycom stations. The sale was approved on December 20 and completed on January 2, 2019. Subchannel history WBRC-DT2 In May 2011, WBRC launched a digital subchannel on virtual channel 6.2, which initially carried a standard definition simulcast of the station's main channel. The subchannel became affiliated with Bounce TV on September 26, 2011, as part of the network's affiliation agreement with WBRC owner Raycom Media. WBRC-DT3 In May 2014, WBRC added an additional subchannel on virtual channel 6.3, which served as a charter affiliate of