Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
When I was growing up in south Roosevelt County, our television viewing choices were (no matter how you counted them) darned limited.
In the earliest days, we had one station that was magically (and still somewhat inexplicably) cobbled together from the available networks at the time.
Our early viewing favorites included “Captain Kangaroo” each weekday morning, and “Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color” one cherished evening each week.
Eventually that station split into the two available networks for our area: NBC and CBS.
That was it.
Then 50 years ago — on Sept. 1, 1974, to be specific — our television world expanded exponentially when public broadcasting arrived as KENW-TV went on the air from the campus of Eastern New Mexico University in Portales.
I remember that moment with great clarity.
It was a hot Sunday afternoon, and Portales News-Tribune Editor Gordon Greaves and his wife, Betty, had come down for lunch at our house.
When the station went on the air at 5 p.m., we were gathered around the console television in our living room to watch as colorful bars of the test pattern were replaced by the KENW-TV-3 logo, followed by a short welcome-aboard speech from station director Duane Ryan.
When Ryan was inducted in the New Mexico Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame in 2015 (a year after KENW had its 40th anniversary), that opening moment was replayed.
“Hello there!” we heard in Ryan’s signature dulcet baritone. “This is KENW-TV channel 3, Portales, New Mexico, beginning its very first broadcast day. Won’t you join us?”
Join them, we did, and 50 years later, KENW-TV remains the backbone of my television world.
For almost 49 of those years — until his passing in April of 2023 -- Duane Ryan remained at the helm as director of broadcasting, overseeing a station that introduced us to our own local celebrities like “Creative Woman” Sheryl Borden and her equally creative and talented colleagues who included the late Don Criss, Clyde Powell, and Dallan Sanders.
Having public television gave us access to wonderful commercial-free programming from “Nova” to “Great Performances.” Our children could grow up with the gentle guidance of Fred Rogers and the comic genius of Jim Henson’s Muppets on “Sesame Street.”
I’m not sure our family would have made it through the pandemic without the distracting comfort of Ken Burns’ mesmerizing documentaries, plus ongoing favorites like “This Old House,” “Antiques Roadshow” and “Finding Your Roots.”
This half century of broadcasting excellence — plus Duane Ryan’s unprecedented decades of leadership — will be celebrated on Saturday in the KENW studios, appropriately situated at the corner of Sesame Street (no, really) and South Avenue N on the west side of Eastern’s campus.
Besides being the setting of the 50th anniversary festivities from 2-5 p.m., the facility itself will be getting a new name to mark the occasion and honor the man who made it possible.
At a 2:30 p.m. ribbon cutting, the building will officially become the Duane W. Ryan Broadcast Center.
We’re all invited to “come and play,” as they say on Sesame Street.
And regardless of the weather, I am confident that Mr. Rogers would join me in guaranteeing that it will, indeed, be a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
Betty Williamson tips her grateful hat to all who had a hand in bringing public television to the High Plains, especially Mr. Ryan. Reach her at:
