Empire of the Air The Men Who Made Radio VHS

This should be a must-watch for anyone studying communications, be it radio, television or the internet. Even as a comm major, the only person I really heard about was Sarnoff, and even then, just in passing, which is a real shame. This touched not only on the actual technology but the actual people involved in its development as well and brought to life an era that really was the equivalent of the internet explosion in the 1990s. The communications industry moves so fast, we forget our roots, and yet, we really shouldn't. The names may change, but the issues really haven't. Read more

The DVD was in excellent condition and this is a documentary I fell everyone should watch Radio and television changed the word as much as computers have , This is our history. Read more

A wonderful window on the end of era of the loan wolf inventor. Read more

...Tesla was the greatest of them all ! Read more

A précis: De Forrest - Bad; Armstrong - Good; Sarnoff - Wicked. This documentary tells the story of radio through the interlinked biographies of Lee de Forrest, inventor and self-promoter; Howard Armstrong, the engineer's engineer; and David Sarnoff, the immigrant boy who made good. It culminates in the story of Armstrong's suicide, and the ascendancy of television. The film takes a parochial view of its subject: the lives and times of three Americans. Its agenda, beyond telling the story of radio in a romanticized way, is to do a hatchet job on De Forrest and provide a hagiography of Armstrong, with Sarnoff in a supporting role as The Ruthless Tycoon. The talking heads that leaven the portentous narration are writers and engineers. The writers provide a personal commentary, but the larger social impact of radio is barely addressed. A more gaping hole is the absence of the business story of radio; none of those interviewed provide a commercial perspective. The most memorable part of the documentary is the collection of vintage photographs. The camera lingers on sepia prints of the twenties and thirties, and the main characters are evoked through many good stills. An irritating editing conceit is frequent and abrupt cuts to black over vintage radio recordings. The rationale is painfully obvious - "Listen, Dummy, we're talking about an aural medium here" - and the arrhythmic execution simply disrupts the story. I guess I'll have to go read the book. Read more

Met expectations Read more

Very interesting. Read more

intriguing Read more