as the Muscular Dystrophy Association decided to move the telethon from syndication to ABC for the final two years of its existence (by then known as the MDA Show of Strength), effectively returning it to WSOC. From 1998 to 2000, WAXN aired many programs from Pax TV (later i: Independent Television, now Ion Television), although the station was never formally affiliated with the network. Until WJZY (channel 46) added Ion as a digital subchannel in 2016, Charlotte was the largest market in the United States that never had an owned-and-operated station or affiliate of Pax/i/Ion. WAXN later began airing repeated episodes of Dr. Phil and The Oprah Winfrey Show that were seen earlier in the day on WSOC in prime time. On August 5, 1999, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reversed its long standing regulations against duopoly ownerships in the same television market. As stipulated in the original joint sales agreement, Cox was now able to acquire the station outright, doing so for the purchase price of $3 million. The sale was officially approved by the FCC in 2000. In 2007, WAXN dropped the "Action" moniker and rebranded as "TV64". WAXN had been Charlotte's home to Southeastern Conference football and basketball games from Jefferson-Pilot/Raycom Sports from the SEC's addition of the University of South Carolina in 1991 until 2009, and SEC games syndicated through ESPN Plus-oriented SEC TV from 2009 to the end of the 2013–14 basketball season. This ended in 2014 due to those games being moved to the new SEC Network that launched on August 14, 2014, as a result of a new contract between the Southeastern Conference and ESPN to launch that new network. In February 2019, it was announced that Apollo Global Management would acquire Cox Media Group and Northwest Broadcasting's stations. Although the group planned to operate under the name Terrier Media, it was later announced in June 2019 that Apollo would also acquire Cox's radio and advertising businesses, and retain the Cox Media Group name. The sale was completed on December 17, 2019. Newscasts WSOC-TV produces 22 hours of locally produced newscasts each week for WAXN-TV (with four hours each weekday and a half-hour each on Saturdays and Sundays). Although WSOC had operated WAXN since the station's inception, it did not produce a newscast for channel 64 until 1999, when it began producing a nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast. The program launched shortly after WSOC