The history of KRUX
To understand the history of KRUX 91.5 FM, we must take a trip back in time to 1920. Ralph Willis Goddard, "New Mexico's first broadcaster," accepted a job at the New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. Goddard's motivation for coming to New Mexico was based on the Mexican Revolution; he was tasked with setting up a wireless communication system for American soldiers guarding the border.
This led to Goddard creating KOB, the first radio station on the New Mexico State campus. The radio stations of today and yesterday were utterly different. KOB was a wooden shack behind the engineering building. It had two 60-ft antennas and a 500-Watt Marconi transmitter on loan from the U.S. Navy.
A Round Up article from Tuesday, October 17, 1922, reads, "Last Saturday for the first time in the history of the Southwest, and probably in the history of the United States, a football game was broadcasted by radiotelephone, play by play. The men of the State College Radio Station KOB and 5XD, members of the American Radio Relay League, after an all-day working period, were successful in accomplishing what, until recent years, was thought to be an impossible feat, the playing of the football game in the homes of people throughout the surrounding country."
By 1925 KOB was becoming a remarkable station, its 500-Watt transmitter projected signal literally across the world. The signal has been picked up in places such as American Samoa and Quebec in British Canada.
Goddard died in 1929, and so did KOB. It had been sold to the Albuquerque Journal and was moved to Albuquerque in 1931 and remains an operating station to this day.
The Engineering Hall was later dubbed Goddard Hall in honor of his contributions to the College.
The College went without a radio station for some time, though the need was soon filled.
In the early 1950s, a new student-run radio station opened in the Coronado Playmakers Building near Hadley Hall. This new radio station was called KNMA. A small little blurb on page 6 of the Wednesday, October 17, 1951 issue informs, "KNMA now operates on a frequency of 660 kilocycles from 6:45 to 7:45 am and from 6:30 to 9:00 pm."
KNMA is that it wasn't a licensed broadcaster until 1964. Before this time, they operated a current carrier one-watt station which was only available in the dorms. KNMA became KRWG-AM and KRWG-FM. It was moved from the Coronado Playmakers center to Milton Hall and can still be found in there today.
In 1974, KRWG-AM and KRWG-FM split.
At the time of this news article, the Corbett Center was just being built, so the newly opened KNMS, along with ASNMSU, worked out a deal with auxiliary services to construct a new home for KNMS.
The long-term dream of KNMS was to become a fully-fledged radio station with an operating license from the F.C.C. It took about 15 years for this dream to come to fruition.
In 1989 KNMS received the F.C.C.'s permission to broadcast as a non-commercial station! A transmitter was built here at the Corbett Center; the rest is history!
KRUX underwent a few upgrades since it opened its doors: a new transmitter in 2008 and a new antenna in 2015. The new antenna is a directional antenna that broadcasts at 3.2 KW. Remember the first 500-Watt transmitter set up by Goddard. With all that power, KRUX is able to reach portions of El Paso.
