 Mesa Broadcasting, owned by Randy Wayne of Brownwood, acquired the station in 1976 for $260,000 and relaunched it as KYXX with a country format.KYXX and sister station KKYN in Plainview were sold to Keith Adams and Jim Shelton of Amarillo in 1979.The format flip helped vault KYXX to the top of the Permian Basin radio ratings, where in 1981 it had a market share of 16.5 percent, but in 1982 it was supplanted by KUFO, an FM station.