Another unsung great American (as Hannity would say) and also a conservative is Edwin Howard Armstrong. When Rush talks about the disgronifier, the disgronificator, and the superheterodyne receiver, be aware that the first two are fictional but the superheterodyne is not. It enabled home users to operate their radios with a simple tuning control to select the stations in addition to a volume and possibly a tone control while still achieving greater sensitivity and selectivity than with earlier designs. He went on to invent FM broadcasting when other engineers insisted it would be unworkable. To my mind, this invention, particularly during its time in the early 1930s, is astounding. FM, with its higher fidelity and much greater resistance to static, made it the natural choice for music broadcasting while today, talk predominates on AM.
I have read but cannot conclusively verify that FDR directed the FCC to cancel Armstrong’s early FM broadcast licenses after Armstrong criticized the New Deal in on-air editorials. Armstrong nonetheless made all of his FM patents available to the government for one dollar in pursuit of World War II communications research and development. Armstrong served directly in World War I being promoted to Major.
And I also know that Mr. Armstrong committed suicide. It was very sad.