SARNOFF, DAVID 1891-1971

Communications tycoon

Radio and Television Leader

David Sarnoff, an immigrant boy with a grammar-school education, became the most powerful figure in the communications and media industries. As president of the Radio Corporation of America he created the National Broadcasting Company radio network and developed television.

Pluck and Luck

Sarnoff was born in Russia and arrived in America at ten. When he was fifteen he left school to support his family after the death of his father. His first job was as messenger boy for the Commercial Cable Company, and in 1906 he moved to the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America as a $5.50-per-week office boy. Sarnoff taught himself telegraphy and was encouraged by Guglielmo Marconi. On the night of 14 April 1912 he was managing the experimental radio station on the roof of the Wanamaker Department store in New York when the Titanic hit an iceberg. He remained at his equipment for seventy-two hours.

Radio Music Box

Sarnoff became manager of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America, which in 1919 was merged into the new Radio Corporation of America—owned by General Electric, Westinghouse, American Telephone and Telegraph, and the United Fruit Company. As an RCA executive, Sarnoff resubmitted a memo to the Marconi Company in 1915: "I have in mind a plan of development that would make radio a household utility in the same sense as a piano or a phonograph. The idea is to bring music into the home by wireless. The receiver can be designed in the form of a simple 'Radio Music Box' and arranged for several different wave-lengths, which should be changeable with the throwing of a single switch or pressing of a single button." He was allowed $2,000 to develop the "radio music box," which sold $83 million worth of units between 1922 and 1924. In 1926 he organized for RCA the first radio network, the National Broadcasting Company, and acquired station WEAF New York from AT&T, which withdrew from broadcasting. Sarnoff steadily enlarged the scope of RCA activities. He purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929 and was credited with putting the phonograph and radio in the same unit; he acquired a major share of the RKO movie studio in 1928; and in 1929 he formed a new company with General Motors to manufacture car radios.

Advent of Television

Sarnoff had a knowledge of the technical aspects of broadcasting, but his genius was prognostic. He was able to anticipate developments in communications media, and he possessed the drive and business ability to bring his predictions to successful reality. He became president of RCA in 1930 and was credited with saving the firm when the government ordered GE and Westinghouse to sell their RCA interests in 1932. As president he consistently invested substantial amounts in research, often against the opposition of his associates. A 1923 Sarnoff prediction took twentyfive years to fulfill: "I believe that television, which is the technical name for seeing as well as hearing by radio, will come to pass in the future." As president of RCA he was in a position to provide Vladimir Zworykin with $100,000 for work on television. The research investment reached $50 million before black-and-white television was perfected. During World War II, RCA manufactured radar, shoran, loran, and other electronic devices; Sarnoff went on active duty and became a brigadier general. After the war Sarnoff, who retained his rank, devoted his full attention to television, sensing that the consumer market was ready for it. He accomplished the task of persuading radio stations to invest in television facilities. Then he undertook the responsibility to make color television feasible, successfully competing against the Columbia Broadcasting System to develop a system that would receive FCC approval.

Research and Manufacture

Although he had financed the NBC Symphony for Arturo Toscanini, Sarnoff was more interested in developing network radio and television than in program content: "Of course we have a certain responsibility for creating programs, but basically we're delivery boys." He often stated that "The heart of RCA is its scientific laboratories." Sarnoff's unrivaled achievements resulted from the circumstance that he was the only network head who was head of a maufacturing operation; RCA made the equipment to send and receive radio and television broadcasts. In many instances RCA scientists and engineers developed that equipment.

Fulfillment

David Sarnoff represented one of the great American success stories from the last waves of nineteenthcentury immigration. He became rich, but wealth was not his primary interest. His chief ambition was to enlarge the applications of the electronic media through research, development, and production. Consequently he permanently changed not just the means of mass communication but American life and culture.

Sources:

Eugene Lyon, David Sarnoff (New York: Harper & Row, 1966);

Robert Sobel, RCA (New York: Stein & Day, 1986).

David Sarnoff

The American pioneer in radio and television David Sarnoff (1891-1971) was chairman of the board of the Radio Corporation of America.

David Sarnoff was born on Feb. 27, 1891, in the Russian-Jewish community of Uzilan close to Minsk. In 1895 his father left to try his luck in the United States; 5 years later he sent for his family. When the father died in 1906, David, as the eldest son, became the family provider. He started as a messenger boy for the Commercial Cable Company. Six months later he became an office boy for the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America.

Studying in his spare time, Sarnoff finally was promoted to wireless operator. While working at Sea Gage, N.Y., he completed a course in electrical engineering at Pratt Institute and later acquired practical experience as a marine radio operator on various ships. He then became the operator for John Wanamaker's New York station, where he was the first to pick up the distress call of the S.S. Titanic on April 12, 1912. This unfortunate incident proved rewarding for Sarnoff, for his dedicated work in the disaster won him an appointment as a radio inspector and instructor at the Marconi Institute. By 1914 he had risen to contract manager, and in 1919, when Owen D. Young's Radio Corporation of America (RCA) absorbed American Marconi, Sarnoff was commercial manager. In 1917 he married Lizette Hermant, who bore him three sons.

By 1921 Sarnoff was general manager of RCA and had revived an earlier idea to send music over the air. RCA's directors were reluctant to invest much money, but after Sarnoff broadcast the 1921 Dempsey-Cartier fight, they quickly changed their minds. Sarnoff became a vice president in 1922 as RCA began the manufacture of radio sets. He also was responsible for the creation of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1926.

Sarnoff is known as the father of American television. From the initial experiments in the early 1920s, he pushed its development to commercial feasibility. As president of RCA (since 1930), he appeared on the first public demonstration of television, in April 1939. Although NBC launched commercial telecasting in 1941, World War II retarded its growth. Sarnoff served as communications consultant to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and emerged as a brigadier general.

In 1947 Sarnoff became chairman of the board of RCA, which grew into one of the world's largest corporations, its activities including leadership in black-and-white and color television and many other associated industries. He received honorary degrees from over 26 universities and numerous awards from foreign governments and technical institutes. He died on Dec. 12, 1971, in New York City.

Further Reading

For the serious student of communications, Sarnoff's own Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff (1968) is valuable for its predictive glances into the future of electronics and masterful coverage of the history of broadcasting. A biography is Eugene Lyons, David Sarnoff (1966).

Additional Sources

Bilby, Kenneth W., The general: David Sarnoff and the rise of the communications industry, New York: Harper & Row, 1986.

Dreher, Carl, Sarnoff, an American success, New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., 1977.

Lewis, Thomas S. W., Empire of the air: the men who made radio, New York, NY: Edward Burlingame Books, 1991.

Sobel, Robert, RCA, New York: Stein and Day/Publishers, 1986. □

SARNOFF, DAVID 1891-1971

Television network executive

Background

Born in Minsk, Russia, David Sarnoff immigrated to America in 1900 to reside with his family in a tenement on New York City's Lower East Side. To support his family, nine-year-old David, the eldest son, almost immediately found work selling newspapers. Soon he had his first real job, as a five-dollars-a-week messenger boy. In 1906 he took a position with American Marconi, the American office of the first wireless-telegraph company, Marconi Wireless. As a telegrapher for Marconi, Sarnoff stayed at his post for three straight days after the sinking of the SS Titanic on 14 April 1912, receiving wireless transmissions of the names of the dead and survivors. The Titanic tragedy had the effect of boosting the infant wireless industry, which could communicate with vessels at sea.

Forming RCA

Sarnoff's fortunes rose with American Marconi's, and when the company merged with several others to form the Radio Corporation of American (RCA) in 1919, he was one of the conglomerate's junior executives. As an officer of RCA, Sarnoff was responsible for the company's change of emphasis from transoceanic communication to commercial radio broadcasting. To that end RCA established the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1926, which offered entertainment and news to owners of "receiver sets" in New York City. Soon NBC was broadcasting nationwide over chains of transmitters that relayed radio signals far from their starting point.

President of RCA

Sarnoff became president of RCA in 1930. Over the next two decades the company entered the movie and phonograph industries, and NBC dominated radio entertainment. By the early 1940s Sarnoff was ready to lead his company into television, with which RCA had been experimenting for years. Sarnoff had seen enormous potential in the broadcasting of images as well as sound since the 1920s. World War II interfered with RCA's plans, however, and the company was not allowed to begin mass production of television receivers until 1946.

Color Television

In the 1950s Sarnoff strongly backed NBC's attempts to manufacture color television sets and to broadcast in color. He was successful in getting television sets approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that were "color compatible," meaning that they could pick up either black-and-white or color broadcasts. However, Sarnoff's corporate rival, William S. Paley of CBS, quickly overcame RCA's lead in manufacturing color sets and overtook NBC in television broadcasting. Sarnoff retired from RCA in 1970 and died a year later.

Sarnoff, David (1891–1971), president and chairman of the Radio Corporation of America.Born in Minsk, Russia, Sarnoff immigrated to the United States in 1900. He became an office boy in Gugilelmo Marconi's wireless telegraph company in New York in 1906, rising to management roles by World War I. On the formation of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1909, Sarnoff became RCA's commercial manager, then president (1930) and chairman of the board (1947). He retired from his executive positions in 1969. Unlike his chief competitor, William S. Paley of CBS, Sarnoff directed research and manufacturing of radio broadcasting equipment and receivers. Beginning in 1926, he also directed the National Broadcasting Company's radio and later television services. Referred to as General Sarnoff after his brief European service in World War II, he cultivated legends to enhance his own background. (He did not operate the world's key wireless link to rescue efforts when the Titanic sank in 1912, nor did he write a famously prescient “radio music box” memo when still in his twenties.) His real accomplishments included helping to establish network radio broadcasting in the 1920s, leading RCA's development of black‐and‐white television in the late 1930s, and likewise pushing compatible color television in the 1940s and 1950s. While never educated beyond grade school, Sarnoff could see the commercial possibilities of technical innovations, and he actively supported RCA's substantial research and development program. He was an industrial autocrat who passed RCA leadership on (though for only a few years) to his oldest son, Robert. Purchased by General Electric in 1985, RCA lasted barely fifteen years after its long‐time leader's death.

Bibliography

David Sarnoff , Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff, 1968.
Kenneth Bilby , The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry, 1986.

Christopher H. Sterling

David Sarnoff 1891-1971, American pioneer in radio and television, b. Russia. Emigrating to the United States in 1900, he worked for the Marconi Wireless Company, winning recognition as the narrator of the news of the Titanic disaster (1912). In 1915, he proposed a "radio music box" that led to radio broadcasting as it is known today. The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) absorbed the Marconi firm in 1921, and Sarnoff became general manager. As president (after 1930) and eventually chief executive officer (1947-66) and chairman of the board (1947-70) of RCA, he helped develop black-and-white and compatible color television. In 1944, the Television Broadcaster's Association gave Sarnoff the title "Father of American Television," a moniker appropriate for his contribution to the development of commercial television broadcasting but misleading in terms of the development of television technology. He served Dwight D. Eisenhower in World War II as adviser on communications. Active in public affairs, he was often a spokesman for the broadcasting industry.

Bibliography: See R. Sobel, RCA (1986); K. Bilby, The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry (1986).