1 of 1- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline 
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
Definitely a pioneer of broadcasting.
It's hard to remember a time when all news channels didn't exist, but it was Turner who created the concept. Critics decried it in its early days, insisting "CNN" stood for Chicken Noodle News and predicted no one would watch. But it quickly gained a lot of respect by broadcasting live from the Iraq war. (Remember that eerie looking green screen as a correspondent talked over it from his hotel room in Baghdad?)
I can only wonder what Ted must have thought of Fox News and how his all-news network concept was so corrupted by it?
Here's a look at the very first broadcast from June 1, 1980 - 46 years ago.
And the war that made the network's name.
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
I heard about this, but had long forgotten it. Did you know CNN founder Ted Turner made a "Doomsday Video?" It was going to be the last story CNN would ever air - the end of the world.
Here's how it came to be and why you were never supposed to see it.
("Nearer My God To Thee," by the way, is said to be the final song the orchestra aboard The Titanic played just before the famous ship sank.)
Remembering the late Ted Turner's infamous CNN 'Turner Doomsday Video'
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
He's remembered for CNN and TBS, but Ted Turner got his broadcasting start in radio.
How Ted Turner Used Radio To Start An Empire
- Chrisphen
- Member
Offline
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
CNN hasn't amounted to much over the years. I disregarded it after Gulf War One.
He was a shithead, which places him slightly above cunthole status.
I suppose TCM is the closest thing he has as any lasting contribution to civilisation.
- RadioActive
- Moderator
Offline
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
He wasn't exactly #1 on my list of the nicest people in the world, but he did prove that a 24-hour all news station could work, when most skeptics were sure it wouldn't. And he was the first to put a broadcast TV station up on the satellite, when no one else thought of that in the early days of cable. Gotta give him credit for that.
- mic'em
- Member
Offline
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
He also gave alot of money to charity. His purchase of a small professional wrestling company in Georgia became WCW and knocked Vince McMahon out of the stranglehold he and his company had on the sports entertainment industry. He is being credited with saving the careers of many people involved in that genre and making it the powerhouse it became. Whether you like it or not, professional wrestling was huge in the 80's and 90's, due to the war between Turner and McMahon.
- bmaudioworks
- Member
Offline
Re: Ted Turner Founder Of CNN Passes Away At 87
RadioActive wrote:
He wasn't exactly #1 on my list of the nicest people in the world, but he did prove that a 24-hour all news station could work, when most skeptics were sure it wouldn't. And he was the first to put a broadcast TV station up on the satellite, when no one else thought of that in the early days of cable. Gotta give him credit for that.
This. I didn't always agree with him on some things in broadcasting and media, but definitely an innovator in TV. Also worth noting that Turner's company was where graphics firm Television by Design (TVbD) had its beginnings... and one of its long-time clients was Rogers Broadcasting, notably CFMT. (Nice to hear the great Evelyn Macko on some of the promos in this clip!)
Last edited by bmaudioworks (May 7, 2026 7:13 am)