KUOO was founded in the early 1980s by Paul Hedberg, owner of several radio stations in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa (including KBEW, KQAD, KEEZ, KLSS, and KRIB).
Hedberg recounts the impetus for KUOO in his autobiography, The Time of My Life: "Dickinson County, Iowa, had a resident population of 16,000 but during summer months that ballooned to 34,000 – and to as many as 80,000 on weekends.
"[3] A competing application with the FCC, coupled with difficulties finding a tower location that would satisfy the FAA, delayed the construction of KUOO for roughly two years.
The brothers had built a cottage industry selling all sorts of clothing and novelties with the seal of their fictitious University.
!”[5] The prevailing gimmick of “On-Campus Radio” originating from this spurious “Blue Water Alma Mater” proved a great success.