David Sarnoff

David Sarnoff started his communications career as office boy for Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America in 1906. Promoted to telegraph operator and then to a series of management positions within Marconi, he developed an interest in radio broadcasting and began establishing broadcasting stations in 1915. He became Commercial Manager for Marconi in 1917, shortly before Marconi's American organization was acquired by GE and renamed Radio Corporation of America (RCA).

Under Sarnoff's influence, RCA-manufactured radios became the chief source of RCA profits. Using these profits, Sarnoff planned a nationwide radio broadcasting network, whose principal elements were to be "entertainment, information and education." Sarnoff became General Manager of RCA in 1921 and Executive Vice-President in 1929. In 1930 he became President of RCA.

Sarnoff didn't always get it right. In 1955 he observed that "Television will never be a medium of entertainment."