Fantastic!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

.....anymore than Benjamin Franklin could have. Discovering that arcing electricity created "static" is an even more feeble claim to genius than DeForest's extremely slippery claim to truly understanding his own detector. Armstrong's the REAL genius, and no amount of Rock Band/pop culture political/historical revisionism will change this fact. Tesla was cheated. (Not as unjustly as Armstrong was, by a FAR cry.) But he well and truly lost his marbles and everybody who had dealings with him knew it. That's an appealing anti-hero narrative for a world looking for "magic" answers. Pop culture has found him to be an appealing eccentric to hang their hopes on. But there are NO secrets of AC or DC transmission of power that have been "hidden" or hijacked. It's (just) another of the "mysticism alternative" conspiracy theories that were played like a harp by conjectural TV script writers like Chris Carter. Great Entertainment. Bad Science. Ken Burns got this one, RIGHT. I wish I could say the same for "Jazz".

First of all I recommend anyone reading this (especially Ken Burns) to pick up a copy of "Tesla" by Tad Wise. Tesla is one of the most brilliant and fascinating inventors of all time.Without Tesla we would not have radio! We would also not have television, alternating current, electric motors, fluorescent light, remote controls and the list goes on and on. He has around 300 patents and phony Marconi infringed on more than one. But he's not the only one to cheat Tesla, give Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse their due.So what happened Ken Burns? Were you getting your funding from Republicans that forced you to manipulate history? Wasn't Tesla enough of a money grubbing cheating capitalist for you? Well you lost a lot of credibility with this and it's a shame.I suggest you change the title slightly. Let's call this pretend documentary, "The Men Who Made-Off With Radio" To think that children trying to learn about the history of radio may as a result of your abomination never hear the name Nikola Tesla. This reflects so poorly on PBS and Ken Burns the thing should be retracted. At the very least Ken should appear at the beginning of the film apologizing and saying we really blew it with this one. We didn't do our research on something as basic as who invented radio.

Ken Burns hits another one out of the ballpark! This amazing examination of the genesis of radio reveals the principals for what they really were: Marconi is quickly dismissed for his disinterest and lack of vision (and a knowing nod to Tesla), Lee DeForest, a social outcast with questionable ethics and more dumb luck than genius, David Sarnoff as the cunning capitalist and Edwin Armstrong, the dynamic tragic force behind the medium. Burns reveals DeForest's feet of clay: he stumbled upon the heterodyne circuit yet couldn't explain how it worked! Armstrong, comprehending it's function, vastly improves upon the design, creating the super-heterodyne, virtually invents FM and briefly becomes General Electric's largest stockholder before falling as a pawn to the Machiavellian manipulations of David Sarnoff. This plays like a corporate soap opera set against the dominate mass medium of a the first half of the 20th Century. Small complaint: the introduction is far too drawn out before the story begins. Unless you're a radio buff it's unlikely you'll recognize the names (or voices) of those being interviewed. But this is a minor quibble--- Empire of the Air is an entertaining exercise in history and rates right up there with Burns' Horatio's Drive. 10 out of 10.

This reminds me of why I got into radio. I started in radio running old time radio shows at WRVO in Oswego NY. This documentary fills in the history for me. I am a very big fan of old time radio like the Great Gildersleeve and "the Shadow" and this sparked my interest. I highly recommend this film for those interested in how our current radio was born. If you want to know the pioneers and the "cads" watch this film for a great background! I think that it gives the controversy a little kick. I think that the invention of the radio tube is still a issue. As one of the commentaries talk about, the development of the audion was a controversial thing. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!