Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

Reflection Paper
Before the daily lives of the people were invaded by the flurry of ‘prime times’ and social

media, radio was the single medium that kept the people connected with the outside world.

Radio was the medium that unified the people belonging to different cultures, races, and

walks of life. It created cultural standards and benchmarks in language, music, news, humour,

and literature. Years after its invention in 1895, the radio indeed was the internet of the 1930s

when it became familiar with the people.

In his documentary ‘Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio’, Ken Burns carefully

examines the lives of the three people who are generally credited with the invention of the

Radio, namely Lee de Forest, Edwin Howard Armstrong, and David Sarnoff. The

documentary takes a look at the friendship, rivalry, hatred, and genius of these individuals,

whose interaction with each other in tragic ways led to the brilliant invention of the radio and

its early success. It enables the audience to get a closer look at the captivating careers and

lives of the three radio pioneers.

David Sarnoff, the man who had the vision and saw the enormous potential of radio, Lee de

Forest, who developed a device that made the development of full-scale radio possible and

Edwin Armstrong, the man who pioneered FM technology and whose early inventions and

discoveries de Frost claimed as his own. The documentary also features the career of

Guglielmo Marconi, an Italian inventor who is credited with the invention of wireless

telegraphy – a system that transmitted the dots and dashes of telegraph messages and

communication through the air (Hijiya, 1992).

With life in the present day so dominated by the medium of television and social media, we

have quickly forgotten the influence that radio had over society and the daily lives of the

people for nearly half a century. Radio was the very first form of any mass media available to

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the general household. It became an integral and invaluable part of the everyday lives of

many families and homes, whether the people used it for news, humour, drama, sports, or any

other thing. Radio was an invention that became an essential part of their lives and influenced

society in so many ways.

The invention of radio changed how the people communicated with each other, the way they

interacted, shared thoughts and opinions and promoted ideas with one another. Radio

completely changed the landscape of advertising and marketing activities by enabling

companies and corporations to advertise and promote their products and services to new

markets all around the globe. Apart from that, radio became the everyday companion of man,

something to which the people could turn to for entertainment as well as news (Archer &

1880-, 1939).

The adoption of radio helped to modernize and improve the overall standard of living of the

American society. The growth of radio to the American households and families occurred in

a period that spanned nearly three decades, starting from the 1920s to the 1950s (Craig,

2004). Furthermore, the 1940s are considered to be the golden age of radio by many. It was

the time when the influence of radio was at its peak, the demand for radio sets soared, and it

became a fundamental part of every household. Congruently, the number of radio stations

and broadcasts also went up, as so did the finances and revenues generated through the

advertisements.

During this particular period, the golden age of radio, there was a continuously expanding list

of new stations and programs, and the key advantage of buying a radio set for a family was to

gain access to these attractive broadcasts and programs. This growth in radio programming

also helped in developing a national identity in America, as it brought together a widespread

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and diverse population to a common platform for sharing cultural ideas and experiences, thus

creating the notion of America as one big community (Craig, 2004).

The growth of radio into American society was affected by the economic and social

conditions of that time, as well. Families belonging to the North and the West side of the

country were usually the first ones to adopt the new technology, mainly due to the far better

economic conditions of these urban centres. Similarly, the biggest and the most successful

radio stations were also located in such prosperous and progressive parts of the country, in

order to provide easy access and more reach to the advertisers.

The phenomenal radio boom in the United States was experienced mainly in the cities and

urban centres of the North and those in the West. In the regions of the country that were

economically backward as compared to the Northern and Western parts, the growth of radio

was much slower. While the invention of radio may have been a breath of fresh air and a new

and exciting sensation in some parts of America, the people who were suffering from poor

economic conditions had to wait much longer to be able to buy a radio set.

The economic conditions also played a significant role in the growth of radio. Unsurprisingly,

African American households living in the United States, who were among the lowest on the

economic ladder, were the last families to buy a radio set and experience the new invention.

Many of America’s such poorer households had to wait until late into the 1940s to get radio

receivers. It also suggests that during much of the golden age of radio, the programs were

mainly broadcasted to a diverse white audience and that the African American families were

excluded not only as listeners but also performers (Craig, 2004).

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References

Archer, G. L., & 1880-. (1939). Big business and radio. Retrieved from

http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=US201300053192

Craig, S. (2004). How America Adopted Radio: Demographic Differences in Set Ownership

Reported in the 1930-1950 U.S. Censuses. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic

Media, 48(2), 179–195. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15506878jobem4802_2

Hijiya, J. A. (1992). Lee de Forest and the Fatherhood of Radio. Lehigh University Press.

Hilmes, M. (1997). Radio Voices: American Broadcasting, 1922-1952. U of Minnesota Press.

The History of the Radio Industry in the United States to 1940. (n.d.). Retrieved October 12,

2019, from https://eh.net/encyclopedia/the-history-of-the-radio-industry-in-the-united-

states-to-1940/

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