KDNL, along with Cox's other two independent stations WKBD in Detroit and KTVU in Oakland officially joined as one of the original charter Fox affiliates on October 9, 1986.
KDNL-TV became an ABC affiliate on August 7, 1995, swapping its Fox affiliation with longtime ABC affiliate KTVI, as part of a groupwide affiliation deal between New World Communications (which acquired KTVI from Argyle Television two years prior) and Fox. The station also expanded its local news programming at that time; its in-house news department, which launched under its Fox affiliation in January 1995 with the debut of a 9:00 p.m. newscast (though the station had run news updates as early as 1981 while an independent station), began producing a nightly 10:00 p.m. newscast upon switching to ABC and added 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. broadcasts in early 1996.
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