diff --git a/src/twitch.go b/src/twitch.go
index e5e526a..295c469 100644
--- a/src/twitch.go
+++ b/src/twitch.go
@@ -133,8 +133,12 @@ func tw_process_message(rawmsg string) {
 
     /* process system messages (e.g. in USERNOTICE event) */
     if _, ok := metadata["system-msg"]; ok && len(metadata["system-msg"]) > 0 {
-      out_message.Text = strings.ReplaceAll(out_message.Text, "\\s", " ")
-      out_message.Text = strings.Join(strings.Fields(metadata["system-msg"]), " ")  + ": " + out_message.Text
+      sysmsg := strings.ReplaceAll(metadata["system-msg"], "\\s", " ")
+      oldtext := out_message.Text
+      out_message.Text = strings.Join(strings.Fields(sysmsg), " ")
+      if len(oldtext) > 0 {
+        out_message.Text += ": " + oldtext
+      }
     }
 
     /* finally, send it to the message broker via the message_transport channel */