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| 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of Lee de Forest, a clergyman’s flamboyant son, who invented the audion tube; Edwin Howard Armstrong, a brilliant, withdrawn inventor who pioneered FM technology; and David Sarnoff, a hard-driving Russian immigrant who created the most powerful communications company on earth. | |
| Release Date: | Oct 01, 1991 |
|---|---|
| Director: | Ken Burns |
| Writer: | Geoffrey C. Ward, Tom Lewis |
| Genres: | Documentary, History |
| Keywords | radio, radio wave |
| Production Companies | Florentine Films |
| Box Office |
Revenue: $0
Budget: $0 |
| Updates |
Updated: Feb 10, 2026 Entered: May 03, 2024 |
| Name | Character |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Dana Raymond | Self - Friend of Edwin H. Armstrong |
| Gertrude Tyne | Self - Engineer |
| Fred Allen | Self - Predicts Demise of Radio (archive footage) |
| Gene Autry | Self - Sings (archive sound) |
| John Barrymore | Hamlet (archive sound) |
| Winston Churchill | Self - Finest Hour Speech (archive sound) |
| Charles J. Correll | Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage) |
| Lee De Forest | Self - Objects to Quality of Radio Programming (archive footage) |
| Ralph Edwards | Self - Host of 'This Is Your Life' (archive footage) |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | Self - Announces Landing in Normandy (archive footage) |
| Eugenia Farrar | Self (with Lee De Forest) (archive footage) |
| Freeman F. Gosden | Self - Prepares for Amos 'n' Andy Broadcast (archive footage) |
| Guglielmo Marconi | Self - Visits Sarnoff at RCA (archive footage) |
| Marie Mosquini | Self - with Lee De Forest (archive footage) |
| Nelson Rockefeller | Self - Eulogizes Sarnoff (archive footage) |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | Self - Makes Broadcast About Banking Reform (archive footage) |
| David Sarnoff | Self - with Marconi at RCA (archive footage) |
| Frank Sinatra | Self - Serenades Sarnoff (archive footage) |
| Arturo Toscanini | Self - Conducts NBC Symphony (archive footage) |
| Harry S. Truman | Self - Announces Bombing of Hiroshima (archive sound) |
| Bob Warren | Self - This is Your Life Announcer (archive footage) |
| Orson Welles | Self - Professor in War of the Worlds Broadcast (archive sound) |
| Name | Job |
|---|---|
| Geoffrey C. Ward | Writer |
| Ken Burns | Music Director, Director of Photography, Director |
| Paul Barnes | Sound Editor, Editor |
| Yaffa Lerea | Sound Editor, Associate Editor |
| Tom Lewis | Author |
| Morgan Wesson | Sound, Archival Footage Research |
| Alan Barker | Sound |
| Lee Dichter | Sound Re-Recording Mixer |
| Dalton Delan | Executive In Charge Of Production |
| Allen Moore | Director of Photography |
| Buddy Squires | Director of Photography |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Morgan Wesson | Producer |
| Tom Lewis | Producer |
| Ken Burns | Producer |
| Camilla Rockwell | Associate Producer |
| Susanna Steisel | Associate Producer |
| Organization | Category | Person |
|---|
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| 2026 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
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