June 20, 1924

Engineer Frank Maddox tested a new 20-watt radio transmitter and made  the first broadcast of radio station "3BIY" (the future WDBJ). Ray Jordan,  the bookkeeper for Richardson-Wayland Electric Co., first played "Soldier's Joy" on the fiddle.

Several miles away on the Roanoke side of Salem, S.H. McVitty picked up the signal on his radio receiver.

This was the beginning of

Roanoke Radio

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