Three men invented your grandparents' TikTok. It destroyed them.
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of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth.
Direction
Classic Burns: panning photos, fiddle music, inevitable doom.
Writing
Geoffrey Ward's script makes patent law feel Shakespearean.
Acting
Jason Robards narrates like he's disappointed in humanity.
Director
Ken Burns
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 1991 film predicted our current tech-bro era: brilliant inventors crushed by the platforms they built.
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