David Sarnoff

David Sarnoff (1922)

David Sarnoff (Belarus. Даві́д Сарно́ў, Russian Дави́д Сарно́в; born February 27, 1891 in Uzlyany ; † December 12, 1971 ) was an American entrepreneur and pioneer of commercial broadcasting . He founded the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and headed the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for decades .

The “Sarnoff Law” states that the value of a broadcasting company develops in proportion to the number of viewers.

Life

David Sarnoff immigrated from Belarus to the United States with parents and siblings . In New York, he first worked as a messenger boy for a telegraph company, but when the latter refused to take him unpaid leave for Rosh Hashanah , Sarnoff moved to Marconi in September 1906 .

Sarnoff made a career there. He studied technology and business models of electronic communication both in everyday work and in libraries. Sarnoff also worked in Marconi stations on ships and on Nantucket . In the New York branch of the Wanamaker department store, Sarnoff broadcast music on a Henry Joseph Round station .

After this demonstration, he suggested to AT&T chairman Edward J. Nally in 1915 or 1916 to develop a "radio music box" for the "amateur" market. When the General Electric Company took over American Marconi and converted it to the Radio Corporation of America , Sarnoff helped broadcast the heavyweight boxing match between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier in July 1921. About 300,000 listeners followed the fight on the radio, and the demand for radio Home recipients.

In 1930 Sarnoff became president of the RCA. At the 1939 New York World's Fair , Sarnoff introduced the first regular television broadcast. In the early 1950s, Sarnoff put NBC's color television system against that of its rival CBS.

family

On July 4, 1917, Sarnoff married the neighboring daughter Lizette Hermant, the daughter of French immigrants who had also settled in the Bronx. The marriage lasted 54 years until his death. You have three sons: Robert W. Sarnoff , Edward Sarnoff and Thomas W. Sarnoff . Robert succeeded his father as RCA chairman in 1971; the youngest son, Thomas, became chairman of NBC West Coast.

His cousin Eugene Lyons wrote a biography about Sarnoff.

Prizes and awards

• 1951: Knight of the Lorraine Cross
• 1951: Companion of the Resistance
• 1975: Junior Achievement US Business Hall of Fame
• 1977: National Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame
• 1989 (posthumously): Radio Hall of Fame

The Sarnoff Mountains , a mountain range in the Antarctic, are named after Sarnoff .

literature

• Louise Benjamin: In Search of the Sarnoff 'Radio Music Box' Memo. In: Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. Summer 1993.
• Louise Benjamin: In Search of the Sarnoff 'Radio Music Box' Memo - Nally's Reply. In: Journal of Radio Studies. 2002.
• "David Sarnoff of RCA Is Dead; Visionary Broadcast Pioneer; David Sarnoff of RCA, the Visionary Broadcasting Pioneer, Is Dead Here at 80," New York Times. December 13, 1971.
• Marshall McLuhan : Understanding Media : The Extensions of Man. McGraw Hill , New York 1964
• Kenneth Bilby : The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry. Harper & Row , New York 1986, ISBN 0-06-015568-X ; ISBN 978-0-06-015568-1 (volume)
• Carl Dreher: Sarnoff: An American Success. New York Times Book Company , New York 1977, ISBN 0-8129-0672-1 (vol.)
• Tom Lewis: Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio. New York: HarperCollins ISBN 0-06-018215-6 ; ISBN 978-0-06-018215-1 (vol.) 1991, ISBN 0-06-098119-9 ; ISBN 978-0-06-098119-8
• Eugene Lyons : David Sarnoff: A Biography. Harper & Row . New York 1966, ISBN 6-001-50791-0 ; ISBN 978-6-001-50791-5 (volume)
• David Sarnoff: Looking Ahead: The Papers of David Sarnoff. McGraw Hill, New York 1968
• Evan Schwartz : The Last Lone Inventor: A Tale of Genius, Deceit, and the Birth of Television. HarperCollins, New York 2002, ISBN 0-06-621069-0 ; ISBN 978-0-06-621069-8 (volume)
• Robert Sobel : RCA . Stein and Day, New York 1984, ISBN 0-8128-3084-9 ; ISBN 978-0-8128-3084-2 (vol.)

Web links

• The Farnsworth Invention: Fact -v- Fiction
• Sarnoff on NBC
• "Pushing Technology: David Sarnoff and Wireless Communications" paper presented at 2001 IEEE Conference on the History of Telecommunications
• Biography on IEEE Global History Network
• David Sarnoff Library
• Sarnoff Corporation

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} "Mrs. David Sarnoff dies at 79; Widow of Broadcasting Pioneer," New York Times, January 10, 1974.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Museum of Broadcast Communications ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Radio Hall of Fame ( Memento of the original from September 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Big Dream, Small Screen. The American Experience television series. (1997)
5. ^ Kleinfeld, NR "Robert Sarnoff, 78, RCA Chairman, Dies," New York Times. February 24, 1997.
6. ^ NAB Hall of Fame . In: National Association of Broadcasters . Archived from the original on June 5, 2009. Retrieved May 3, 2008.