David Sarnoff: Pioneering a Huge Industry

American businessman David Sarnoff became popular in the world of broadcasting for his pioneering work in radio and TV broadcast in the US. Following the founding of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in 1919, Sarnoff served the company in various capacities until he retired in 1970. He led RCA into a huge empire in the telecom and consumer electronics sector. Sarnoff was nicknamed “The General” for being a reserved Brigadier General in the Signal Corps. The Sarnoff law was credited to him. In the law, it was said that the value of the broadcast network is directly proportional to the number of its viewers.

Sarnoff was born on February 27, 1891 in Uzlyany, Belarus. His family was of Jewish descent. Sarnoff spent his childhood in a traditional Hebrew school where he studied and memorized the Torah. Sarnoff and his four siblings were brought by their mother to the US when she decided to immigrate to New York in 1900. Sarnoff has to sell newspapers during his free times to help the family in raising funds. He developed love of the newspaper business and wanted to pursue a future career. But he landed a job in the Commercial Cable Company as office boy. In September 1906, Sarnoff joined the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America where he started his sixty-year career in electronic communications.

From being an ordinary office boy, Sarnoff rose to the ranks to become a commercial manager in thirteen years. His hand on exposure to work provided him opportunity to learn the business of electronic communications. Sarnoff served in Marconi stations in ships and in posts. In 1919, he installed a wireless equipment on a ship that hunts seals in Labrador and Newfoundland. During this installation, Sarnoff became the first person to relay a medical diagnosis using the technology from the doctor on board the ship to a radio operator at Belle Isle who was suffering from tooth infection. One year thereafter, Sarnoff led two other radio operators at Wanamaker station in confirming the sinking of Titanic.

The US Congress legislated the continuing staffing of commercial vessels with radio stations. Sarnoff’s revenue grew in leaps and bounds. Sarnoff also became the first to demonstrate the use of radio in railroad lines through the Lackawanna Railroad.