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(Posted September 1, 2003) For three decades,
KRWG-TV/Las Cruces has been serving up public broadcasting with a distinctive southwestern
flavor. From local news and community issues
to sky surveys and stories of saints, viewers find it all on the station that began
broadcasting from New Mexico State University’s (NMSU) student union building in
1973.
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Today, the area’s
first public television station still broadcasts from that studio, but everything else has
changed. Initially, KRWG-TV reached viewers in Las Cruces for a few hours each day. Now,
the station broadcasts 18 hours daily and reaches three-quarters of a million viewers in
New Mexico and the El Paso area of Texas.
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A recent documentary, KRWG-TV: The First 30, shows how NMSU broadcast
students and staff have always played a crucial role in the station’s operation. For 15 years, they have been producing and
presenting News 22. They make it possible
for KRWG-TV to be one of the nation’s few PBS stations producing a live weeknight
newscast, and they consistently win New Mexico Associated Press (NMAP) awards for their
work.
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NMSU
Students on the set of KRWG's "News 22" |
Two of
KRWG-TV’s environmental documentaries have won NMAP awards also: Rio Grande: How Clean Is Our River and Not In My Backyard! New Mexico Landfills, which was produced with a New
Mexico Border Health grant. El Favor de los Santos, a documentary on the role of
saints in the lives of residents of the American Southwest and Mexico, earned KRWG-TV a
regional Emmy and a National Association of Hispanic Journalists videography award. It was distributed by NETA and seen on PBS
stations throughout the nation in 2001. NETA
will be distributing KRWG-TV’s recently completed documentary, Capturing Heaven in a Box: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey also. This program explores how the first massive
digital, three- dimensional sky survey will be achieved.
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Sloan Digital Sky Survey site: Apache Point
Observatory,
Sacramento Mtns, New Mexico |
KRWG-TV has never ignored
the unique cuisine of its region, and Hot on the Trail
(distributed by NETA) took viewers throughout the nation on a “hot chile feeding
frenzy across the Southwest.” The program
featured Chile Detective Sunny Conley and restaurants in New Mexico, Mexico, and Texas.
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In addition
to addressing community issues, keeping viewers up-to-date on local news, and reflecting
the area’s diverse culture, KRWG-TV’s mission includes meeting the educational
needs of its viewers. The station has had an
active Ready to Learn program in Las Cruces
and surrounding communities for five years. It
has sponsored the Young Writers and Illustrators Contest (Reading Rainbow) for nine years and had the national
grand prizewinner for third grade in 2000.
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As
KRWG-TV informs, entertains, and educates, it continuously incorporates new technology to
improve its services. The station broadcast
its first digital television signal to Las Cruces viewers in April. “We will continue our digital conversion
process as well as the production of programs with the local focus that our diverse
audience appreciates so much. Partnerships
with other organizations and businesses and our loyal viewers make it all possible,”
said General Manager Ron Salak.
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Many of those loyal
viewers are looking forward to KRWG-TV’s seventeenth annual wine tasting in November. This much-anticipated event continues to grow in
popularity and draws viewers from all over New Mexico.
“Viewers are our single largest source of funding, contributing 18 percent of
our total revenue. We really depend upon
them, and we take pride in the fact that they depend upon us, ” said Salak.
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 Visit
the KRWG Web site: KRWG-TV.org |
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