Free Dreamers and Deceivers by Glenn Beck

Yes . . . The office of the director at the Federal Communications Commission.”
    •  •  •
    The lawsuits began almost immediately. Some were filed against Howard Armstrong, and others Armstrong was forced to file himself.
    The months tied up in court once again turned into years.
    RCA was openly using FM technology for its television arm, while blatantly ignoring Armstrong’s patents. Rumors flew that Sarnoff was encouraging other corporations to disregard Armstrong’s patents as well. It became a sort of unspoken coalition, with a single unarmed man on one side and ten Goliaths on the other.
    Everywhere Armstrong turned a new wall rose in his path, but still he pressed on. At one point the opposing lawyers kept him coming back to the witness stand for over a year, asking him questions of no consequence to the case just to stall for time and wear him down. Then, one day, it was finally David Sarnoff’s turn to testify. Much of this time was a blur to Howard, but he would never forget what Sarnoff was about to say.
    “Mr. Armstrong has asserted,” the opposing attorney said, “that you once offered to pay him for the rights to develop FM technology, which he now claims to be his own original work. He’s put the figure in question at one million dollars. Is this true?”
    “It is not,” Sarnoff said.
    “You never offered to pay Mr. Armstrong, on behalf of RCA, for the use of his work?”
    “At some point, I may have offered him something. We were old friends, you see, and he always seemed to be having legal troubles—”
    Armstrong’s lawyer objected to this, and as usual, was overruled.
    “In any case,” Sarnoff continued, “if I offered him anything it wouldhave been nowhere near the figure you mentioned. It would have been a gesture, nothing more.”
    “Mr. Sarnoff,” his attorney began, “I’ll close with a simple question for you. Who developed FM?”
    David Sarnoff leaned forward to make sure the court could hear every word that he said.
    “The FM system that is in question here today was developed, beginning to end, by RCA. It is the sole invention of our corporate engineers.”
    1941
    On December 7, 1941, the United States was again thrown into war.
    As before, despite his own ongoing battles, Howard Armstrong immediately offered his services, and turned over every patent he held for the use of his country in the war effort.
    Lee de Forest, now sixty-eight years old, and always game for publicity, announced his development of a self-guided bomb to be used against enemy forces in the air campaign. At the demonstration, the bomb veered off course and nearly fell among the generals who’d gathered to witness its power. All in attendance left feeling lucky to have escaped with their lives.
    While David Sarnoff had been denied a navy commission back in 1917, this time was different. For the duration of the war he left the safety of the boardroom for an active role in support of the Allies. In the end, he directed the development of a communication system that helped make possible the invasion of Normandy.
    When the war was finally over, it was back to business as usual.
    Unbelievably, Howard Armstrong was still hanging on—refusing to back down. But Sarnoff had an ace in the hole that he’d hoped he’d never have to play.
    Sarnoff made another phone call to Washington, and within a month of American Telephone & Telegraph joining his lobby, the ruling he’d requested came down from the FCC:
    The FM broadcast frequencies were to be permanently moved, far up the spectrum from where they’d always been. In that one stroke, every unit in existence that was designed for FM transmission and reception was rendered obsolete.
    River House Apartments, 13th Floor
    East 52nd Street, New York City
    January 31, 1954
    Edwin Howard Armstrong had held on for nearly nine years more. Royalties had dwindled, debts were piling up, his health was failing, his savings were gone, and his hard-fought patents