Awesome. And unexpected.
Rice University’s popular student-run radio station, relegated to the Internet when the university sold it in 2010, is returning to the airwaves.
The Federal Communications Commission on Monday approved the construction of a low-power FM broadcast station at Rice, signaling a return of the station that long highlighted local artists and other musicians rarely heard on the radio.
[…]
“KTRU is making its return to the FM airwaves!” station manager Sal Tijerina wrote in an email to station supporters. “By the end of this year, you can expect to tune into KTRU through an FM radio.”
The signal will cover about a five mile radius around Rice, Tijerina wrote.
The station is to be broadcast on 96.1 FM, the former home of KDOL, a country radio station that also broadcasts on 105.5 FM.
The story quotes former station manager Joey Yang saying that the plan was always for KTRU to come back. After almost four years away, I’m sure some folks had lost hope. According to their Facebook page, the call letters are yet to be determined. It will be weird if KTRU comes back under some other name, but that’s still better than them not coming back at all. It will be good to hear them again, if only withing five miles of campus. Swamplot, Rocks Off, and Free Press Houston have more.