Ted Turner, Billionaire CNN Founder, Pioneer of 24-hour News Culture Dies at 87

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Ted Turner, the high-flying media tycoon, entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded CNN and revolutionised American cable television, died aged 87 years yesterday.

The Ohio-born Atlanta businessman built a media empire that encompassed cable’s first superstation and popular channels for movies and cartoons, plus professional sports teams like the Atlanta Braves.

Many things to many people, it was his audacious vision to deliver news from around the world in real time, at all hours, that really made him famous – once his idea finally took off. In 1991, Turner was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year for “influencing the dynamic of events and turning viewers in 150 countries into instant witnesses of history.”

On June 1, 1980, Turner launched CNN, the first 24-hour, all-news cable network. Turner eventually sold his networks to Time Warner and later exited the business, but continued to express pride in CNN, calling it the “greatest achievement” of his life. Turner’s death was first reported by CNN, citing a Turner Enterprises news release.

“Ted was an intensely involved and committed leader, intrepid, fearless and always willing to back a hunch and trust his own judgment,” CNN chairman and CEO Mark Thompson said in a statement. “He was and always will be the presiding spirit of CNN,” Thompson added.

He was a staple of magazine covers and newspaper business sections, cultivating a reputation for keen instincts and a no-filter style. He sometimes ran into trouble for injudicious comments about world affairs or religion, earning the nickname “Captain Outrageous.”

“I don’t have any idea what I’m going to say. I say what comes to my mind,” he told The New Yorker for a profile published in 2001.

He was also a prolific philanthropist, environmentalist and self-described “do-gooder.” He famously gave $1 billion to the United Nations and co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

The young Turner enrolled at Brown University in 1956, but he was kicked out three years later, reportedly for having a woman in his dorm room. Turner then joined his father at the family business, headquartered in Atlanta, becoming general manager of a branch office in 1960, NBC reported.

The elder Turner, struggling with financial hardships and mental health issues, died by suicide in 1963; his son took over the advertising company, taking on the roles of president and CEO.

Turner Advertising was renamed Turner Communications with the acquisition of several radio stations. Turner branched out into other media, purchasing a beleaguered UHF television station in Atlanta, as well as the rights to old movies and sitcom reruns.

In the mid-1970s, Turner made one of the most consequential decisions of his career. He was one of the first media company owners to use satellite technology to broadcast his station to a national cable television viewing audience, widening his reach and boosting revenues.

In the late 1970s, Turner came up with the idea for a 24-hour cable news channel — a significant shift in an era when the “Big Three” network news programmes still reigned supreme and many viewers did not conceive of news consumption as a minute-to-minute activity.

CNN aired its first broadcast on June 1, 1980, anchored by the husband-and-wife duo of David Walker and Lois Hart.

Turner married for a third and final time in 1991, partnering with the Oscar-winning actor and activist Jane Fonda. The union between an avatar of American capitalism and an outspoken progressive who railed against the status quo raised eyebrows, but the two were smitten from the start and bonded over their shared curiosity about the world.

In 1996, Time Warner Inc. acquired Turner Broadcasting System for $7.5 billion. Turner was named vice chairman of Time Warner and presided over the new company’s cable TV brands.

Time Warner then merged with the former Internet giant AOL in 2001, with Turner becoming vice chairman and senior adviser of the newly formed AOL Time Warner Inc. Two years later, he resigned as vice chairman.

It was widely reported that Turner was forced out, and his departure effectively marked the end of his reign as a media industry chief. But in recent decades, he remained productive as a philanthropist and environmentalist.

Turner published an autobiography, “Call Me Ted,” in 2008. Ten years later, he announced that he had been diagnosed with Lewy body dementia. “It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s. It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal,” Turner told journalist Ted Koppel in the fall of 2018 from his Montana ranch.

Turner was married and divorced three times. He had five children — two from his first marriage, to Judy Gale Nye, and three from his second marriage, to Jane Shirley Smith.