The Italian physicist, Guglielmo Marconi, received the first transatlantic wireless signals (from Poldhu, Cornwall) at St John's, Newfoundland, on December 12th, 1901. Messages could now be broadcast from continent to continent in seconds. The first radio programme, featuring music and a poem, was broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1906, from Massachusetts. Regular daily broadcasts from New York followed. This instantaneous form of mass communication forged an international listening audience for popular entertainment, music, plays and comedy. Navigation, military defence, meteorology, taxis - the subsequent uses of radio have been extensive.