divesting FM stations in both cities. The sale price was considered unprecedented given the short period of operation of the stations. Gulf had scarcely owned the stations when it sold its entire stations group for $755 million to Taft Broadcasting in 1985. At the same time Taft acquired a Fort Worth television station, it attracted the attention of an activist investor from the city who increased his stake over the course of 1985 and 1986: Robert Bass, who sought to raise his ownership in the company to 25 percent. Meanwhile, in addition to a worsening regional economy, the independent television market nationally was softening; by this time, many believed that Taft had overpaid for KTXA and that Dallas–Fort Worth had become one of the worst markets for independent stations in the United States. Bill Castleman, KTXA's general manager, believed that the station's programming costs—estimated at $30 million a year—had been deliberately increased as part of a strategy by Grant to pump the station up for a buyer by expanding its programming inventory, a situation which Taft had not anticipated discovering prior to the acquisition. Taft put its broadcast group up for sale in August 1986 due to agitation by Bass, and while it asked $500 million for five independent stations, the winning bidder—TVX Broadcast Group—only paid $240 million, and Taft estimated its after-tax loss for the sale at $45 to $50 million. (One source believed that the buyers begrudgingly purchased KTXA in order to acquire the other four outlets.) TVX implemented budget cuts, laying off about 15 percent of the staff at the acquisitions, and renegotiated programming costs, though Tim McDonald, the president of TVX, noted that KTXA was among the better operations Taft had sold. Through the 1980s, KTXA continued to air local sports programming. The NBA's Dallas Mavericks moved to KTXA in 1984 after their previous station, KXAS-TV, came under pressure to stop preempting NBC network shows; channel 21 carried 10 games and WFAA-TV another five. However, the next year, the team signed a three-year deal with KTVT, citing disappointing ratings on KTXA, that station's sale to Taft, and the opportunity to air all of their telecasts on one station. In 1985, KTXA entered into a three-year agreement for football and basketball telecasts of the SMU Mustangs. However, disciplinary problems involving SMU's football team resulted first in a probation that prevented KTXA from airing football games live and