On June 6, 1957, Dakota Broadcasters—a consortium of Walter Nelskog, Paul Crain, Delbert Bertholf and D. Gene Williams—obtained a construction permit for a new radio station to serve Bismarck on 1350 kHz, with 500 watts during the day.

[2] From a tower near the Corral Drive-In in Bismarck and studios above a drug store on Fifth Street,[3] KQDI signed on August 15, 1958.

[5] One of the station's first disc jockeys was Mandan native Tony Dean, who later hosted a regional outdoors program on television and radio.

MDU objected to the ability of Capital to serve the customer, who was not part of the cooperative, and started a series of legal battles over the regulation of such rural associations in the state.

[8] Disputes of this kind resulted in a state law intending to restrict the territory of utilities and electric cooperatives in 1965.

[12] An even bigger change was on the horizon for the AM: in 1971, the FCC approved a power increase from 500 to 10,000 watts on a new frequency, 1130 kHz; the boost gave KBMR the highest wattage of any AM station in North Dakota.

[17] Anderson had planned as early as 1990 to move KBMR to a new license and frequency, 710 kHz, which would enable nighttime service.