transition WAGT back to its own control. As previously planned, Gray launched a separate news production for WAGT after it re-assumed control of the station. As a result of its conduct, the FCC fined Media General $700,000. In the auction, WAGT's broadcast spectrum was sold for $40,763,036. The FCC stated that WAGT planned to go off-air, and not share spectrum with another channel. Gray had indicated on the station's website that WAGT-CD would assume the channel 26 designation and its subchannels on May 31, 2017, when the full-power WAGT license was returned to the FCC. The FCC license was cancelled on June 1, 2017. News operation For at least the first quarter of a century on the air, WAGT aired virtually no local newscasts apart from brief news and weather cut-ins during Today on weekday mornings and the early evenings and late evenings on weeknights. On September 21, 1995, the station finally established its first ever news department with broadcasts under the name 26 News. Initially included in the launch was a nightly show at 11. Soon after, a nightly newscast at 6 and a weekday morning show were added to the schedule. The latter program was expanded in June 2003 to a full two-hours (from 5 until 7) in the morning resulting in WAGT being the first outlet in the market to make such a launch. In addition, there was also a thirty-minute news and lifestyle show weekdays at noon called Top 'o the Day. Although that program would eventually be dropped, the station added a new midday newscast at 11 on September 10, 2007 that aired for a half-hour. For the most part over the years, WAGT was a distant third place among Augusta's big three affiliates. The station changed its branding several times in attempts to improve ratings and increase viewership by adopting variations including 26 Action News. It finally re-branded in 2003 as WAGT News. Between 2003 and 2005, Action News was completely phased out along with the "3D Weather" (a.k.a. "3 Degree Guarantee") weather segments. In 2005, its newscasts were branded as NBC 26 News phasing out the call letters "WAGT" in most but not all station graphics and logos. This was due to the fact that the graphics package produced by Television By Design was less than a year old and still carried the WAGT News moniker. Along with this re-brand came other changes