Not Too Good to Be KTRU

Rice’s student-run radio station regained its former call sign in August after an eight-year hiatus. Harrison Lorenzen, the KTRU operations director, spearheaded the $10,000 buyback after the station that originally acquired the KTRU letters went under new ownership.

“After a six-monthlong process, we were able to gain a low-power designation, KTRU-LP, and the other station remains KTRU-FM,” said Lorenzen, a Will Rice College junior. “KRTU has always been our brand image, and we’ve reenergized our community of students, faculty and community members by legally restoring our letters.”

In May 2011, Rice closed on the sale of the station’s transmission tower, FM frequency and broadcast license to the University of Houston for $9.5 million. The unilateral decision left Rice radio an internet-only station until October 2015 when KTRU returned to FM under the call sign KBLT-LP. An anonymous alumnus and former KTRU staff member donated the funds for the buyback. The station will celebrate its call sign with a campus concert in February.

— Kendall Hebert