In 1999, students at NDSU worked with professor Douglas Blanks Hindman to launch ThunderRadio, a Shoutcast web radio station, and apply for a low-power FM license.

After Hindman left NDSU for a position at a university in Washington, Cloy Tobola, who was a doctoral student and graduate assistant at the time, took up the cause.

In the summer of 2003, KNDS-LP was granted its original construction permit for a low power station by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Over the next year, Tobola worked with NDSU students and representatives of Radio Free Fargo to secure studio space, networking services, and equipment from the university, and to finalize operational roles for station managers.

[1] The station marked its first FM broadcast at 11 AM CDT, on October 11, 2004, under the direction of General Manager Matthew Langemo.

The station moved in April 2014 to the lower level of the High Plains Reader building at 124 8th St. North in Fargo.