Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991)

Director:

Ken Burns

Writers:

Ken Burns (additional), Tom Lewis (book),

Stars:

Jason Robards, Red Barber, Erik Barnouw

Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy. Another 1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jason Robards	...	Narrator (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Red Barber	...	Himself - Radio Announcer
Erik Barnouw	...	Himself - Historian
Ken Bilby	...	Himself - Biographer of David Sarnoff
Norman Corwin	...	Himself - Writer
Susan Douglas	...	Herself - Historian
Frank Günther	...	Himself (engineer)
Jeanne Hammond	...	Herself - Niece of Edwin H. Armstrong
Loren Jones	...	Himself - Engineer
Garrison Keillor	...	Himself - Writer
Helen Kelley	...	Herself - Radio Broadcaster
Robert Morris	...	Himself - Engineer
Dana Raymond	...	Himself - Friend of Edwin H. Armstrong
Gertrude Tyne	...	Herself - Engineer

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

television | pioneer | radio | radio broadcasting | broadcasting | 

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Genres:

Documentary | History

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

October 1991 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Florentine Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

At the end of the credits, there is a message in Morse code that reads "Baseball next". Ken Burns' documentary on baseball did come after this one.

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Connections

Features This Is Your Life (1952)

User Reviews

The life of radio and some of the birth of television!

Ken Burns once again hits paydirt with a documentary on the birth of radio and it's ultimate demise at the hands of television. Granted, this film had more of a limited appeal than BASEBALL or CIVIL WAR did, however it is still a fine project. The film goes deep into how radio works and tells stories from the early days of broadcasting, before there was tv, radio had all sorts of radio shows, ranging from BURNS AND ALLEN, to musical shows, to THE SHADOW. Ultimately a new invention called television killed radio and forever transformed it. All of the entertainment shows put on radio ended up on tv. This film also goes into some of the technical aspects of how radio and tv work and how they were invented. Anyone in the business or interested in how it all began should check this one out. This is a great documentary! PBS does it again and so does Ken Burns.