Valley, Maryland. The Meredith years: consolidation with KCTV, affiliation with MyNetworkTV On November 12, 2004, the Meredith Corporation, owner of KCTV, announced that it would acquire the non-license assets of KSMO-TV from Sinclair for $26.8 million, immediately assuming responsibility for KSMO's advertising sales and administrative operations under a joint sales agreement. It also had an option to buy the station if FCC rules so approved for a further $6.7 million. Sinclair's decision to hand over sales and most other functions of KSMO-TV, with an option to sell it completely, was motivated by a corporate decision to focus on duopoly markets where it owned or could feasibly own two stations. It created the third such combination in Kansas City, alongside KSHB-TV with KMCI-TV and, indirectly, KMBC-TV with KCWE (the former KCWB). After the sale, KSMO-TV operations were moved to KCTV's offices in Fairway, Kansas. Meredith then filed to buy KSMO-TV outright in January 2005, a transaction that would require 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. On January 24, 2006, the respective parent companies of UPN and The WB—CBS Corporation and the Warner Bros. Entertainment division of Time Warner, announced that they would dissolve the two networks and create The CW Television Network, functionally a merger, beginning that fall. Even though KSMO-TV had placed fifth in total-day ratings at the time of the Meredith purchase, the company found that affiliation would not be financially viable and passed on The CW (which went to KCWE in early March); instead, the station affiliated with MyNetworkTV, set up by Fox Television Stations to serve former UPN and WB affiliates spurned in the merger. In the late 2000s and early 2010s, KSMO experimented with a variety of local programs, including TeenStar, a weekly teen show co-produced with The Kansas City Star; weekly public affairs show Your Kansas City; bilingual Hispanic program Qué Pasa KC; film showcase CinemaKC; and high school football and Missouri Valley Conference and Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association college sports. From 2011 to 2013, it was the television home of Sporting Kansas City soccer. Sale to Gray Television On May 3, 2021, Gray Television announced its intent to purchase the