Remember, they placed a condition in KYES transaction that it couldn't acquire another big-4 affiliate on KYES for two years (ending in mid-2018). If this condition was never made, I wouldn't been surprised if Gray would've tried to turn KYES into a Fox affiliate and would've probably kept Fox in Fairbanks. But the only issue is Gray doesn't have presence in the capital. And KYUR owners already had Fox in Juneau, so it seems that it was a great fit.
But for a big broadcaster in the state with massive national scale to lose the Fox affiliation in one of the markets, this is nothing more than a headscratcher nevertheless. Makes me wonder if they might lose Fox in North Platte, since Sinclair has Fox in most of the Cornhusker state.