Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio 33 years old

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

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of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.

Credits

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio Cast

Name Character
Jason Robards He was 69, 78 years old when he died as Narrator (voice)

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio Crew

Name Department
Tom Lewis as Producer. Production
Ken Burns as Director. He was 38 (now 71) years old Directing
Ken Burns as Producer. He was 38 (now 71) years old Production
Geoffrey C. Ward as Writer. He was 51 (now 83) years old Writing
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio poster
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (33 years)

  • Release day: Tuesday, October 01, 1991
  • Runtime: 113 minutes