Remembering Harvey-T: Radio personality Harvey Twite, 63, died at home

Popular Ruidoso disk jockey and newscaster Harvey Twite, know on-air as Harvey-T, was found dead in his home early Monday.

"A co-worker found him unresponsive at his home and called 911," Ruidoso Police Chief Darren Hooker said. "Law enforcement and other first responders arrived about 8:45 a.m. CPR was initiated, but he was declared dead at the scene at 9:35 a.m."

No foul play is suspected in the death of the 63-year-old.

Tim Keithley said he often shared a radio studio with Twite.

"Harvey T. was Ruidoso," Keithley said. "He loved this town. He was Ruidoso's Walter Cronkite.

"I was with him on 9-11. He was on the air watching when the towers fell, and he continued despite the personal impact."

Twite was employed at KEDU since its inception 15 years ago.

He was born in Steamboat Spring, Colorado.

During an interview in October marking his annual broadcast of "War of the Worlds" on Halloween and marking the radio station's 15th birthday, Twite said he moved with his family to the San Luis Valley.

He would listen to stations in Oklahoma, Denver and Chicago, learning about the latest popular records and was fascinated by the CBS Mystery Theater, he said in the interview.

“I was kind of a techie as a kid. I started building radios out of kits,” he said. “I would set a radio up from Oklahoma City all night long. I was in a small band and we knew what all the latest music was all over the country. The local stations weren’t playing any of that rock and roll stuff.

“I started practicing reading news from the newspaper and that’s how I got good enough to try out for a weekend radio show out of Monte Vista, Colorado in 1971. They liked me and I liked them and that was my first radio job, but I had a radio operator’s third class license before I had a real driver’s license.”

Services dates for Twite are not yet announced.

More:KEDU celebrates its 15th birthday on Halloween and moved to new "digs"