In 1977, Kaiser sold its interest in the stations to Field for $42.625 million, making Field the sole owner of WLVI. In the late 1970s, Lucie Salhany—later the chair of Fox and one of the creators of UPN—worked as the station's program director. Gannett ownership In 1983, WLVI was sold to the Gannett Company—primarily an owner of network-affiliated stations—as part of a liquidation of Field's television assets. The $47 million winning bid beat out a $44 million offer from a group of investors that included channel 56's general manager. In order to purchase WLVI, Gannett had to divest itself of one of its two UHF stations; it ended up selling both WPTA in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and WLKY-TV in Louisville, Kentucky, to Pulitzer Publishing. Under Gannett, WLVI continued its general entertainment format. This included a running tradition of children's programming. In the 1970s and 1980s, "Uncle Dale" Dorman (also a popular Boston radio personality) hosted the cartoons via off-screen announcements. A WLVI Kids Club was established in January 1990; by that July, it had 65,000 members across New England and as far as Long Island. From 1985 to 1990, WLVI again became the carrier of the Boston Celtics road games after it made a five-year, $12.5 million deal with the team. Although it was one of the strongest independent stations in the country, it passed on the Fox affiliation when that network launched in 1986; Fox then purchased WXNE, which became WFXT. After a limited partnership including the Celtics acquired that station in 1989, the team's games moved to channel 25 in 1990. By 1993, with competition from WFXT and WSBK for news in the planning stages and no marquee sports programming, the station was seen as lacking an identity. WB affiliation and Tribune Company ownership In November 1993, Gannett sold the station to the Tribune Company's broadcasting division, which was finalized in early 1994. The day before the sale had been announced, Tribune had revealed the creation of WB Television Network, of which WLVI was announced as an affiliate; the network launched January 11, 1995. The station also served as the default WB affiliate for Providence, Rhode Island—where WLVI had been available on cable for decades—until WLWC signed on in 1997, remaining on Providence's cable system as late as 2003. WLVI's newscasts continued to air on Rhode Island cable as late as 2012. The station briefly went off the