Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991)

Plot Summary

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of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.

Full Cast & Characters

Jason Robards

Narrator (voice)

Red Barber

Self - Radio Announcer

Erik Barnouw

Self - Historian

Ken Bilby

Self - Biographer of David Sarnoff

Norman Corwin

Self - Writer

Susan Douglas

Self - Historian

Frank Günther

Self - Engineer

Jeanne Hammond

Self - Niece of Edwin H. Armstrong

Loren Jones

Self - Engineer

Garrison Keillor

Self - Writer

Helen Kelley

Self - Radio Broadcaster

Robert Morris

Self - Engineer

Director & Crew

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