In 1920, the quiet campus of the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts buzzed with an extraordinary first. Engineering professor Ralph Willis Goddard sent a radio signal crackling into the New Mexico sky, something no one in the state had ever done before. It was one of the earliest broadcasts west of the Mississippi, and the moment that planted the seeds for what would become KRWG Public Media.

From a small shack on campus, Goddard hand-built New Mexico’s first station — then called KOB — which quickly grew into one of the most powerful in the nation, heard from coast to coast. But for Goddard, it was never about wattage or fame. It was about connection. It was personal.

An electrical engineer by training and a visionary by nature, Goddard often rode to campus on horseback, turning over in his mind a central question: how could people in the rugged landscapes of southern New Mexico stay informed and connected? His answer was to build a station that served as both a hands-on learning space for students and a lifeline for the public.

Listeners could tune in to Aggie football games (many of which Goddard announced himself), along with live music, crop and commodity reports, road conditions, and weather updates. It was community radio in its purest form, decades before the term even existed.

Goddard poured his time, energy, and ultimately, his life into the station. On New Year’s Eve in 1929, he died after being electrocuted while repairing KOB’s transmitter. Though his faculty tenure lasted just 15 years, his impact carries on. In 1934, NMSU dedicated Goddard Hall in his honor, which now houses the College of Engineering and the Klipsch School of Electrical Engineering. A few years later, in 1960, the university created the FM station now known as KRWG.

Today, KRWG, named for Ralph Willis Goddard, carries forward that legacy, serving southern New Mexico and far west Texas with public radio and television programming. Once known as “The Voice of the Great Southwest,” KRWG remains a champion of public service and cultural connection, producing local news, public affairs coverage, and one of the only bilingual, locally hosted music shows in the nation.

More than a century after its first signal, KRWG is still amplifying voices, connecting communities, and staying true to its founder’s belief: that informed people build stronger places. To make a gift to sustain the programming on KRWG, see alwaysanaggie.org/donate/give-to-krwg.