the station joined fox in august 1989. for the network's first three years of existence, cable subscribers watched fox through chicago's wfld, madison's wmsn-tv, or milwaukee's wcgv-tv, depending on the location. within four years of joining fox, wqrf ranked as one of the network's highest-rated stations. on september 12 of that year, family group sold the station to petracom broadcasting. petracom in turn sold it to quorum broadcasting in 1998.