on the air July 11 as full-time ABC affiliates. KOTA ended its joint-primary affiliation with ABC and NBC, switching to a primary affiliation with NBC and a secondary affiliation with CBS until 1981, when K15AC (channel 15), a translator of KPLO-TV from Reliance (itself a satellite of KELO-TV), took on the CBS affiliation. K15AC was upgraded to full-power operations in 1988 as KCLO-TV, a semi-satellite of KELO. On June 24, 1984, KEVN took he NBC affiliation, while KOTA-TV took over KEVN's old ABC affiliation. NBC had finally lost patience with KOTA-TV's local preemptions (NBC had long been less tolerant of preemptions than the other networks). The swap brought KEVN in line with Sioux Falls sister station KDLT-TV; that station had been purchased by KEVN's owners in 1982 and made its own move from ABC to NBC in 1983. In 1985, Dakota Broadcasting sold KEVN/KIVV and KDLT to Heritage Communications for nearly $20 million. In 1987, following Tele-Communications Inc.'s purchase of a majority interest in Heritage Communications, the company spun off its television and radio stations to Heritage's management under the Heritage Media banner. From NBC to Fox Heritage Media announced in September 1995 that it would sell KEVN-TV and KIVV-TV to Blackstar, LLC, a minority-controlled company in which nonvoting equity interests were held by Fox Television Stations and Silver King Communications, for $14 million; the deal was completed on February 7, 1996. Blackstar immediately announced that KEVN would become a Fox affiliate; the affiliation change happened in July 1996. Prior to this, Fox programming was seen in the market primarily via cable carriage of Denver's KDVR or the national Foxnet service, while KOTA-TV had a secondary affiliation with Fox since 1994 to carry the network's coverage of the National Football League. NBC programming moved to a low-power station, KNBN-LP (initially on channel 24, now KKRA-LD; later on channel 27, now KWBH-LD); its owners would obtain a full-power license, KNBN (channel 21), in May 2000. USA Networks (the former Silver King Communications), through its USA Broadcasting subsidiary, acquired Blackstar, LLC outright in 1998 as part of a larger deal between USA and Paxson Communications that saw USA take control of Atlanta's WNGM-TV from Paxson and Paxson buying Portland's KBSP-TV from Blackstar. USA mainly acquired Blackstar in order to incorporate its Orlando station, WBSF, into its planned "CityVision" group of independent stations, and soon sold KEVN-TV and KIVV-TV to Mission TV, LLC,