Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991)
For 50 years radio dominated the airwaves and the American consciousness as the first “mass medium.” In Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio, Ken Burns examines the lives of three extraordinary men who shared the primary responsibility for this invention and its early success, and whose genius, friendship, rivalry and enmity interacted in tragic ways. This is the story of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Directing:
Writing:
Stars:
- Ken Burns
Writing:
- Geoffrey C. Ward
- Tom Lewis
Stars:
Release Date: 1991-10-01
7.4/10
7.4/10
- Country: US
- Language: English
- Runtime: 113
Watch on
Narrator (voice)
Self - Historian
Self - Historian
Self - Writer
Self - Engineer
Self - Predicts Demise of Radio (archive footage)
Self - Sings (archive sound)
Hamlet (archive sound)
Self - Finest Hour Speech (archive sound)
Self - Objects to Quality of Radio Programming (archive footage)
Self - Host of 'This Is Your Life' (archive footage)
Self - Announces Landing in Normandy (archive footage)
Self - with Lee De Forest (archive footage)
Self - Eulogizes Sarnoff (archive footage)
Self - Makes Broadcast About Banking Reform (archive footage)
Self - Serenades Sarnoff (archive footage)
Self - Conducts NBC Symphony (archive footage)
Self - Announces Bombing of Hiroshima (archive sound)
Self - Professor in War of the Worlds Broadcast (archive sound)
