the start of 1981, the FCC had not yet resolved KECC's licensing issues and had not approved the sale of the station, and in January 1981, the application to sell the station to Acton was dismissed. In March 1981, United Broadcasting requested to sell KECC-TV to Esquire, Inc. for $1.025 million. The sale was approved by the FCC in September and consummated in October. The new owners, operating under the subsidiary of Pacific Media Corporation, quickly began making changes at the station. In October, Pacific Media was granted permission to increase the station's power from 120 kW to 316 kW, the maximum allowed for an upper-band VHF station, changed the station's call letters from KECC-TV to KECY-TV in December 1981, and switched affiliation from CBS back to ABC on February 1, 1982, matching the affiliation of Pacific Media's other TV station, KESQ-TV. Nearly twenty years after first applying for a construction permit, and after more than thirteen years operating under Program Test Authority, KECY-TV was granted a license on June 30, 1982. Esquire began selling off its broadcast properties and in July 1983, announced the sale of both KECY-TV and KESQ-TV to Cimarron Broadcasting, headed by recording artist Harry Nilsson, for $4.5 million. Esquire and Cimarron were not able to complete the deal, and on July 23, 1984, Esquire sold Pacific Media Corporation and KECY to its former chairman of the board, John Smart, for $1.5 million. KECY announced in December 1984 its intention to return to being a CBS affiliate, as of March 3, 1985, ending three years as an ABC affiliate, and to broadcast on Mountain Time, instead of Pacific Time, as it had done with ABC. Smart sought to sell the station to First National Entertainment Corp. in September 1986 for $2.35 million, but the sale did not go through, and KECY was finally sold, along with Pacific Media Corporation, to Katherine R. and Robinson O. Everett, in February 1989 for $1.565 million. Robinson Everett assumed principal control of the station following the death of Katherine Everett in April 1992. Everett and CBS began to have differences of opinion on several issues, notably CBS opposition to Everett's desire to convert Palm Springs-area satellite station K40DB (now KDFX-CD), which he owned, to a full power station. In April 1994, KECY announced that it would be switching to Fox, who supported Everett's efforts to build a full power station