The astonishing story of America's airwaves, the two friends -- one a media mogul, the other a famous inventor -- who made them available to us, and the government which figured out how to put a price on air.

This is the origin story of the airwaves -- the foundational technology of the communications age -- as told through the forty-year friendship of an entrepreneurial industrialist and a brilliant inventor.

David Sarnoff, the head of RCA and equal parts Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, and William Randolph Hearst, was the greatest supporter of his friend Edwin Armstrong, developer of the first amplifier, the modern radio transmitter, and FM radio. Sarnoff was convinced that Armstrong's inventions had the power to change the way societies communicated with each other forever. He would become a visionary captain of the media industry, even predicting the advent of the Internet.

In the mid-1930s, however, when Armstrong suspected Sarnoff of orchestrating a cadre of government officials to seize control of the FM airwaves, he committed suicide. Sarnoff had a very different view of who his friend's enemies were.

Many corrupt politicians and corporations saw in Armstrong's inventions the opportunity to commodify our most ubiquitous natural resource -- the air. This early alliance between high tech and business set the precedent for countless legal and industrial battles over broadband and licensing bandwidth, many of which continue to influence policy and debate today.

• We started tracking this book on June 1, 2016.
• This book was $13.99 when we started tracking it.
• The price of this book has changed 123 times in the past 3,383 days.
• The current price of this book is $2.99 last checked 7 hours ago.
• This book is at its lowest price in the past year.
• The lowest price to date was $1.99 last reached on May 7, 2021.
• This book has been $1.99 6 times since we started tracking it.
• The highest price to date was $13.99 last reached on February 18, 2023.
• This book has been $13.99 2 times since we started tracking it.

• HistoryAmericasUnited States20th Century
• Humor & EntertainmentRadioHistory & Criticism
• Engineering & TransportationEngineeringTelecommunicationsRadio & Wireless
• HistoryAmericas
• HistoryUnited States20th Century

• Publication Date: November 21, 2023
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 265 Pages
• File Size: 68 KB