The stations are operated by the South Dakota Bureau of Information and Telecommunication, an agency of the state government which holds the licenses for all of the PBS and NPR member stations licensed in South Dakota except KRSD in Sioux Falls, which is owned and run by Minnesota Public Radio, and KAUR in Sioux Falls, which is owned by Augustana University and operated by MPR.

SDPB has studios and offices in Rapid City and Sioux Falls with headquarters being located in the Al Neuharth Media Center on the campus of the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

By 1952, the station settled at 690 AM at 1,000 watts, operating only during daylight hours to protect CBF in Montreal.

Until 2013, KCSD's license was held by the University of Sioux Falls and operated by the state network under a management agreement.

[2] While a judge ordered the suspect to pay $48,000,[3] the insurance settlement was not large enough to restore full operations, and KUSD (AM) went off the air for good in 1994.

To solve this problem, KCSD-TV signed on in 1995, significantly improving coverage in the state's largest city.