Through foresight, determination, and public relations skill, David Sarnoff invented commercial broadcasting, as we know it. He also developed a communications giant called RCA, created NBC and pushed television to prominence.

A young Russian immigrant to America in 1900, Sarnoff sold newspapers on New York's Lower East Side. As a messenger for the American Marconi Company, he read voraciously from technical journals and followed engineers into their workshops to absorb details.

At 16, Sarnoff was hired as a junior telegrapher. As his experience grew, Sarnoff advanced his idea for a radio music box to his superiors at Marconi. He envisioned a time in which music, news and sports could be broadcast over the airwaves. His bosses rejected the idea, but 25-year-old Sarnoff never lost faith in his vision.

Marconi became the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and Sarnoff climbed the ranks. As RCA's general manager, Sarnoff correctly gauged the public's interest in the heavyweight championship fight between Jack Dempsey and Georges Carpentier. Broadcast live by RCA, the event drew thousands of listeners. Sales of radios soared.

Sarnoff later used alliances with GE and Westinghouse to create NBC, the first national radio network and the first real programming supported by advertisers.

Then as RCA president in 1930, Sarnoff turned to the development of television. He bought up patents, pushed research and finally introduced commercial television in black-and-white at the 1939 World's Fair in New York City.

World War II put the cause of television on hold. But once the war was over, Sarnoff began marketing his new technology, developing NBC through the early television years to support the growth of television, first black-and-white, then color. With sales of only 5,000 color sets in the introductory year of 1954, Sarnoff continued to believe in color and eventually convinced other broadcasters, dealers and consumers to put a color set in the living rooms of America.