First Ship-To-Shore Radio Broadcast

On July 18, 1907, Dr. Lee deForest broadcast the first ship-to-shore radio message from the steam yacht Thelma. The communication provided quick, accurate race results of the Annual Inter-Lakes Yachting Association (I-LYA) Regatta. Frank E. Butler, a Monroeville, Ohio, native and assistant to deForest, was stationed in the pavilion at Fox's Dock, known today as The Jet Express Dock, and received the radio transmission. The creation of the vacuum tube by deForest permitted the rapid development of radio and eventually television. DeForest disliked the existing term “wireless” and chose a new moniker, “radio.” On this site wireless-transmission radio broadcasting was born.

Put-in-Bay, Ohio · United States