Owned by Coastal Television Broadcasting Company, the station has studios on London Road in Duluth (along I-35), and its transmitter is located west of downtown in Hilltop Park.

On November 30, 2021, Forum Communications (owner of ABC affiliate WDAY-TV in Fargo) announced its intent to purchase KQDS, as well as KVRR and its satellites, from Red River Broadcasting for $24 million.

Forum had sought a waiver from the FCC allowing it to own a second top–four ranked full-power station in the Fargo–Grand Forks market, though it would not consolidate the newsrooms of WDAY and KVRR.

[5] On December 1, 2023, it was announced that Red River would sell the stations to the Coastal Television Broadcasting Group;[1] the sale was completed on April 5, 2024.

[6][7] In its early years as a Fox affiliate, KQDS entered into a news share agreement with NBC affiliate KBJR to produce a 9 p.m. newscast; the program was broadcast out of KBJR's studios on South Lake Avenue in Duluth, and was anchored by Mark Mallory with weather and sports segments respectively helmed by meteorologist Paul Heggen and sports anchor Tom Hansen.

KBJR would not produce a prime time newscast again until September 2002, when that station launched a UPN affiliate on its second digital subchannel.

[11] On April 24, 2015, it was announced that the conversion date for standard LPTVs and translators still broadcasting in analog had been suspended until further notice, due to economic problems that may arise from the then-upcoming spectrum auction.

It also was located in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul television market, which is claimed by KMSP-TV, and Fox has strictly enforced stations remaining in their DMA boundaries since the early 2010s in their affiliation agreements for ratings tabulation purposes.