KDSU shares its coverage area with Moorhead, Minnesota-based Minnesota Public Radio outlets KCCD and KCCM, making Fargo/Moorhead one of the smallest markets with competing NPR member stations.
In 1952, students at the then-North Dakota Agricultural College signed on a very low-powered campus AM carrier current station.
It adopted the fictional call letters "KDSC""; since the station didn't need a license, this was never officially assigned by the Federal Communications Commission.
It returned in 1966 as a fully licensed FM station, now officially assigned the KDSU call letters.
By 1981, however, it had evolved into a more traditional public radio station, airing news and jazz during the week and specialty programming on weekends.