biography
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1891–1971)
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| biography:
| Broadcast pioneer and executive, born in Uzlian, Russia. He emigrated to New York City with his family at age nine and studied electrical engineering at the Pratt Institute. He gained national recognition in 1912 as a Marconi Wireless Telegraph Co operator by reporting on the sinking of the Titanic and then staying at his station for 72 hours to help direct ships to the sinking liner. When the newly formed Radio Corporation of America (RCA) acquired Marconi Wireless, he rose through the ranks, becoming RCA's president and chairman, and retiring in 1970. A man with a clear vision of broadcasting's future, he predicted radio would become a basic household utility, and proposed designing ‘Radio Music Boxes’. Foreseeing the need for programming networks, he set up the National Broadcasting Co (1926) to stimulate RCA's radio sales. He was responsible for the first American television service, arranging for RCA to televise programmes (1936) to 150 homes in the New York City area. Under his guidance, RCA developed the black-and-white-compatible colour television system adopted by the Federal Communication Commission in 1953, and the National Broadcasting Company took the lead in broadcasting colour television. A colonel in the US Army Signal Corps from 1924, he was promoted to brigadier-general while on active duty (1944–5) and thereafter enjoyed being called General Sarnoff. |
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