among advertisers and the public. When a major affiliate realignment caused WDAF-TV to switch affiliations from NBC to Fox in 1994, the displaced NBC network wooed KCTV as an affiliate. However, CBS was also courting Meredith and ultimately able to secure an affiliation agreement for KCTV, KPHO-TV in Phoenix, and WNEM-TV in Saginaw, Michigan, the latter two becoming new CBS affiliates. Meredith entered into a $26.8 million agreement to acquire the non-license assets of KSMO-TV (channel 62), then an affiliate of The WB owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, in November 2004, immediately assuming responsibility for KSMO's advertising sales and administrative operations under a joint sales agreement and moving its staff to the KCTV facility in Fairway. It also had an option to buy the station if FCC rules so approved for a further $6.7 million. Meredith then filed to buy KSMO-TV outright in January 2005, a transaction that required a failing station waiver from the FCC as there would be fewer than eight unique owners of TV stations in the market. On the grounds that KSMO-TV's revenue and market share had steadily declined in the preceding five years, the commission granted the waiver in September 2005, approving the transaction. It created the third duopoly in Kansas City, alongside KSHB-TV with KMCI-TV and, KMBC-TV with KCWE. KCTV was the CBS affiliate of record in St. Joseph, Missouri, from 1967—when local station KFEQ-TV switched from CBS to ABC—until June 1, 2017, when locally based KBJO-LD (channel 30, which concurrently became KCJO-LD) switched its primary affiliation from Telemundo to CBS. A month later, KCTV was removed from Suddenlink's St. Joseph cable system. Sale to Gray Television On May 3, 2021, after 68 years of Meredith ownership, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the Meredith Local Media division, including KCTV and KSMO, for $2.7 billion. The sale was completed on December 1. Local programming News operation From 1979 to 1994, the team of Wendall Anschutz and Anne Peterson—who both served as the main anchors of KCTV's weekday evening newscasts—led the station's newscasts to first place among the Kansas City market's three main local television news outlets of the time period. The pairing endured in some form through 2001, making it the longest-lasting in Kansas City television. In 1981, channel 5 had the first 10 p.m. newscast in the market to reach a 40 share—40 percent of homes watching TV at that time. However,