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Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

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Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio by Tom Lewis Hardcover $52.67
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Editorial Reviews

From Ken Burns, producer of THE CIVIL WAR, comes the story of radio's creation of radio and three men of genius, vision, and determination: Lee De Forest, a clergyman's flamboyant son; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the world's most powerful communications company. This film evokes the lives of three men whose work profoundly transformed modern America.

Product details

Aspect Ratio : 1.33:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
MPAA rating : s_medNotRated NR (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions : 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.75 inches; 3.52 Ounces
Item model number : 2268411
Media Format : Multiple Formats, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Full Screen
Run time : 2 hours
Release date : September 28, 2004
Language : English (Stereo), Unqualified
Studio : PBS
ASIN : B000BITUGQ
Number of discs : 1

Best Sellers Rank: #77,422 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #3,164 in Documentary (Movies & TV)
- #3,836 in Special Interests (Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews:
102 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		73%
4 star		18%
3 star		4%
2 star		2%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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J. Brannon

Great Story on the history or radio

Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

This video and the companion book offer a great glimpse into the background of how radio across the globe developed 100 years ago. This video and book provide a 'lab bench' view into the labs of Armstrong and De Forest as they and other developed the technologies that still run our economies today; not just AM and FM commercial radio but spin off technologies like point to point communications that lead to our always on society of today. It also provides a view into the business drive that business men like David Sarnoff had that made radio and television what it is today - for the better and worse.

One of the things that I particularly liked about this video and book was that it dives into the deep personal backgrounds of each of the lives reviewed. It was honest and shared not only the highlights of these men's lives but also the pitfalls. None of these men were without their character flaws, but then who among us don't share some of these same traits. From this we can better learn their motives and what drove them to the great successes (and failures) they had and apply this to all of our lives today. Finally for Sarnoff in particular, as an immigrant of the early 1900's, he was driven deeply to success to not only support his family, but to better his adopted country. One wonders what lessons we could learn today from his and the other men's examples?

A great view and read. I recommend both!

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Captain Skywarn

Yes, but where's Tesla?

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2003

Verified Purchase

This film was a very good in-depth look at the people who were most responsible for bringing radio to the masses. However, I find it distressing that Nikola Tesla was never mentioned once in this documentary. Everyone remembers Marconi as the "father" of radio, but it was actually Tesla, in his experiments with the wireless transmission of power, who invented radio and who was the true father. Ken Burns would have done good to at least mention that fact. Other than this discrepancy, the documentary is a very good look into the early history of radio.

The program concentrates on the three men most responsible for bringing radio to the masses: Lee DeForest, Edwin Armstrong, and David Sarnoff.

Lee DeForest's only real claim to fame was the invention of the "Audion" radio tube, made by borrowing an earlier invention, the Fleming valve, and adding a bent piece of wire between the cathode and plate, which DeForest called a "grid." His invention made possible the real evolution of the radio, even though he was never able to explain how it worked.

DeForest also "borrowed" other physicist's inventions and tried to pass them off as his own. He was eventually sued by the Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden, who successfully claimed that DeForest stole one of his ideas and claimed that he (DeForest) had "invented" it.

Edwin Howard Armstrong, the second player in our drama, took DeForest's radio tube and built an improved radio around it, subsequently inventing the first real innovation, "regeneration." He was also able to adequately explain how DeForest's audion tube worked, and invented circuits that allowed the tube to transmit as well as receive.

DeForest was always trying to sue Armstrong for his patents, believing the idea of regeneration to be his, not Armstrong's, and Armstrong would spend his fortune and the rest of his life defending his patents. Armstrong is also credited with inventing FM (Frequency Modulation).

The third player in the radio drama is David Sarnoff. Through a series of associations with Marconi, Armstrong and other radio pioneers, Sarnoff almost singlehandedly created the radio broadcasting industry (and the first radio network, NBC), and he would let nothing and no one stand in his way. His company, RCA, was largely responsible for the invention of television, which used some of Armstrong's FM inventions (Armstrong never received credit for this due to his falling-out with Sarnoff).

Some of the best sequences of the program are those where only a glowing radio tube is present and an old radio show is heard. This allows the viewer to listen much like their grandparents might have when radio was the only broadcasting medium in existence.

With all that said, I give the program a four-star rating only because nowhere is Tesla, who is the true father of radio, mentioned.

24 people found this helpful

Helpful

D. C. Gibson

Ken Burns does it again

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2014

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This is the story of the three men responsible for bringing radio and television into our homes. We take both for granted, as if they've always been there.

Each man was obsessed with his work. One was for the most part a phony and took credit for the work of others. He invented what eventually made radio and television possible but couldn't explain how it worked.

The other two were geniuses in very different ways. At first they were friends but over time became enemies. Prolonged lawsuits over patents consumed huge amounts of time and money and were responsible for the very tragic death of one. He was obsessed with proving he was right. The attitude of the other can be seen in something he used to say; "I don't get ulcers, I give them".

This is a must see if you're interested in the history of radio and television.

2 people found this helpful

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Electronics Geek

Bad Video Transfer

Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2020

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Obviously transferred to DVD from a low quality VHS tape. There are annoying margins the entire DVD and, halfway through, the video drops out completely foe minutes at a time. I had to return it.

Helpful

Tony P

Gritty and Honest

Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2019

Verified Purchase

A no-holds-barred history of radio. Both technical and political history here.

Helpful

Art S.

Who Knew -

Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2020

Verified Purchase

It's been over 100 years and you still can't get a good AM signal - and FM is all crap music, or NPR

Helpful

Herb

HIstory of Radio: The Best

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2013

Verified Purchase

I'll keep this short. Empire of the Air is one of the best documentaries on the development of radio ever put to video. It is a grand tour starting with Marconi, including DeForest, Armstrong, and Sarnoff. There are dozens of testimonials from "old timers" who were there, and knew these visionaries of "Wireless." A must see for your own pleasure, or as a tool in a course on Broadcasting or Mass Communication.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

AlanMusicMan

Sowing Seeds, the First Tech Empire

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2015

Verified Purchase

Fascinating documentary about the race to rule the radio airwaves. Takes in the competition between Marconi and his rivals and the dirty work and skulduggery that attended the race to claim and patent ownership of the basic inventions. Then, the race to productise electronic broadcasting and reception. Shows how David Sarnoff built up Radio Corporation of America (RCA) into one of the biggest (and arguably the first) tech empires the world has ever seen. If you have an interest in broadcasting and how the seeds of our modern interconnected world and consumer paradise were sown, you'll get a lot out of this.

Steven Fowler

Excellent Documentary on the Birth of Radio

Reviewed in Canada on February 1, 2017

Verified Purchase

Excellent documentary film about the birth of radio and how it made possible everything we take for granted today, namely television, satellite TV & radio, and all types of wireless communications. The only downside is that it is primarily focused on developments mainly in the US, and has very little about developments that took place in other parts of the world including Canada. Still, it makes for fantastic viewing and indepth study of the primary players in the creation of radio.

Bruce Atchison

A great primer for radio in America

Reviewed in Canada on June 4, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is one documentary I've wanted for a long time. It's well documented and it doesn't get too technical. but it explains how we came to have the medium of radio.