5, 1972. The new designation was chosen because the station had exhausted its preferred options, it was available, "Q2" (which became the station's moniker) was a branding option, and due to a since-repealed FCC regulation prohibiting TV and radio stations in the same market, but different ownership, from sharing the same call signs. In 1968, channel 2 picked up a secondary affiliation with NBC after KULR opted to take a primary affiliation with ABC. The two stations shared NBC programming. This was unusual for a two-station market. In most two-station markets, especially those as small as Billings, it was ABC that was relegated to off-hours clearances. However, KTVQ retained right of first refusal for NBC programming. In 1979, for instance, KTVQ aired 17 CBS prime time shows and 10 from NBC; ABC shows were all seen on KULR, which rounded out its schedule with five additional shows not cleared by KTVQ. In 1980, KTVQ became a primary CBS affiliate. KOUS (channel 4) launched late that year and immediately took all NBC programming that KTVQ did not clear; NBC fare aired by KTVQ at the time included The Today Show, The Tonight Show, and several prime time shows, and some of these programs lasted on channel 2 until KTVQ's NBC affiliation contract ended in 1982. After nearly 27 years owning KTVQ and feeling "burned out" with television, Sample sold the Montana Television Network in 1983 to SJL Broadcasting. Evening Post Industries (through its Cordillera Communications subsidiary) bought it in 1994 for $8.5 million; this reunited KTVQ with the rest of MTN, which it had purchased in 1986. Scripps closed on its purchase of the Cordillera broadcast properties, including MTN, in 2019. News operation In 1971, MTN instituted a hybrid local-regional newscast format. The network news was presented from Great Falls, as that was the only place that could receive feeds from all of the MTN stations at the same time; the Billings, Butte, and (from 1977) Missoula stations presented local news inserts into the statewide program. However, in Billings, KTVQ had long been the second-place news finisher behind KULR-TV. One of Sample's last acts as owner of MTN, at the same time he sold the network to Lilly, was to move production of MTN News from Great Falls to Billings in hopes that it would improve MTN's laggard position in the Billings news ratings. Ed Coghlan, who had been the lead