diff --git a/messaging/msgq.cc b/messaging/msgq.cc
index af93bbf60..a06db165a 100644
--- a/messaging/msgq.cc
+++ b/messaging/msgq.cc
@@ -142,11 +142,26 @@ void msgq_close_queue(msgq_queue_t *q){
   }
 }
 
+static void thread_signal(uint32_t tid) {
+  #ifndef SYS_tkill
+    // TODO: this won't work for multithreaded programs
+    kill(tid, SIGUSR2);
+  #else
+    syscall(SYS_tkill, tid, SIGUSR2);
+  #endif
+}
 
 void msgq_init_publisher(msgq_queue_t * q) {
   //std::cout << "Starting publisher" << std::endl;
   uint64_t uid = msgq_get_uid();
 
+  // Notify readers to connect
+  uint64_t num_readers = *q->num_readers;
+  for (uint64_t i = 0; i < num_readers; i++){
+    uint64_t reader_uid = *q->read_uids[i];
+    thread_signal(reader_uid & 0xFFFFFFFF);
+  }
+
   *q->write_uid = uid;
   *q->num_readers = 0;
 
@@ -158,15 +173,6 @@ void msgq_init_publisher(msgq_queue_t * q) {
   q->write_uid_local = uid;
 }
 
-static void thread_signal(uint32_t tid) {
-  #ifndef SYS_tkill
-    // TODO: this won't work for multithreaded programs
-    kill(tid, SIGUSR2);
-  #else
-    syscall(SYS_tkill, tid, SIGUSR2);
-  #endif
-}
-
 void msgq_init_subscriber(msgq_queue_t * q) {
   assert(q != NULL);
   assert(q->num_readers != NULL);