Businessman and former pastor, Richard Beals met with three area pastors, Jack Smith from Mildred Bible Chapel, Dr. Paul Hendricks from First Presbyterian in Brainerd, and Lowell Holmgren from Nisswa Community church about the possibility of having a Christian radio station in the Brainerd Lakes Area. They began to pray for open doors. Richard Beals had worked for Northwestern College in Minneapolis prior to moving back to the lakes area and understood the longing of other Twin Cities summer residents to have Christian radio here as well as at home. Interested Businessmen met in November of that year for an organizational meeting and to file with the FCC for a Class A FM radio frequency and elect the first Board of Directors.

There was much prayer that went into asking God to provide direction and funding to bring this dream into reality. Early in 1975 Minnesota Christian Broadcasters, Inc. was incorporated as a 501(c) 3 non-profit corporation and by March of 1977 an application was filed with the FCC for the radio frequency. A construction permit was granted in December of that year. Richard Beals along with his wife, Mildred, traveled to area churches and met in homes of interested individuals and many gave in order to pay for the start-up cost of the radio ministry. 

In March of 1978, Mike Heuberger was hired as General Manager and moved his young family to Pequot Lakes and began the preparation for sign-on. His previous broadcast experience of the beginning days of radio station WBCL in Fort Wayne, Indiana, helped as programming was established and staff hired for KTIG. Businessmen and founding Board Members, Gilroy Arvig and Jim Brunes made studio space available in the Arvig Telephone Company building and tower space on the tower. This helped during the early years until listeners were able to fully support this new ministry. Sign-on day was April 30, 1978 for 3,000 watt KTIG which broadcast from 6 a.m. until midnight.

In February, 1980 a translator was added to extend the signal into Walker and in 1982 translators were added in Little Falls and Wadena and later in Park Rapids and Pierz. Land was purchased and the current MCBI office and studio building was constructed with the dedication of the new facility in March of 1983. The broadcast hours were extended to 24 hours in December of 1985. In June of 1990 KTIG increased the signal strength to 6,000 watts and then a change in frequency from 100.1 to 102.7 allowed for power to be increased to a 50,000 watt signal.

In November of 1997, Minnesota Christian Broadcasters purchased the studios, equipment and frequency of 91.5, a 800 watt station KCFB FM in St Cloud. The building was later sold and broadcasting operations were moved to Pequot Lakes which provided for the expansion of KCFB to 15,000 watts in November of 1999.

The Board of Directors and station personnel have changed from time to time through the years, but the vision and purpose has remained the same: “To provide programming based on God’s Word that will cultivate within each Central Minnesota listener a desire to know and follow Jesus Christ.”