The network
Describes the friendship and partnership between David Sarnoff, the head of RCA, and Edwin Armstrong, the developer of the first amplifier, and how they combined efforts to bring the FM transmitter and modern radio to society and forever change the world.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
2mentions
2people
2017–2020years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- For some background here, ATT claimed for decades that there was no reasonable way they could provide cheap local phone calls unless they were given a monopoly whereby they could charge super expensive prices for long distance calls to make up the difference.
The founder of MCI (the M stood for Microwave) realized that by using Microwave Relay Towers, he could earn enough profit to pay for a set of towers between Chicago and St. Louis WITHIN EIGHT HOURS assuming a start time of 7:00 am.
That realization, and his outmaneuvering of the FCC, was the beginning of the end for ATT. Ironically today MCI is owned by Verizon.
If you’re interested in learning more check out this book: The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age https://www.amazon.com/dp/006224275X/
- For more on the origins of FM and other related tech, see _The Network: The Battle for the Airwaves and the Birth of the Communications Age_, Woolley and Hoye, 2016, https://www.worldcat.org/title/network-the-battle-for-the-ai...
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