120th Anniversary Celebration of Historic Murgas Radio Transmission

Date and Time

• Saturday, Nov 15, 2025  1pm - 4pm

Location

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Details

On Nov 15, 2025, the presidents of King’s College and The University of Scranton will join the mayors of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton to celebrate Rev. Joseph Murgas—the Wilkes-Barre priest, artist, botanist, and scientist who pioneered the initial stages of wireless communication—and the 50th anniversary of the Murgas Amateur Radio Club named in his honor.

The event, which was organized in partnership with the Slovak Heritage Society of NEPA, celebrates the November 1905 public unveiling of the “Tone Method,” a wireless communication system capable of transmitting voice and sound over long distances that was developed and patented by Father Murgas. The test included a series of messages exchanged between Father Murgas; then Wilkes-Barre Mayor Frederick C. Kirkendall, then Scranton Mayor Alex T. Connell; and Rev. Michael John Hoban, a former bishop of the Diocese of Scranton.

At 1 p.m. on Nov. 15, 2025, Mayor George C. Brown and Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti will recreate that transmission with King’s College president Rev. Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C., Ph.D., and The University of Scranton president Rev. Joseph G. Marina, S.J., Ph.D.

The event also marks the 50th anniversary of the Murgas Amateur Radio Club, a community of local radio operators in Northeastern Pennsylvania that originated in the 1970s.

The celebration is free and open to the public. King’s College will transmit from the Richard Abbas Alley Center for Health Sciences on Public Square. Guests can also enjoy refreshments while they visit the Alley Center’s Rev. Joseph Murgas Room, which showcases his paintings, butterfly collection, wireless broadcasting work, and his priestly vestments.