The country club was called The Progressive Club (I worked there for a few years as secretary to its Board of Directors, and met my first husband there), restricted to a Jewish membership. Coincidentally, I knew Ted Turner through another friend for several years, and participated in several parties he threw, all of which were just as awesome as you would hope. I was kind of "there" when it began, but not all "Bri-Wi There," if that makes sense. I wasn't really an eyewitness to history, but I was in the neighborhood.
Ted Turner, originally from Ohio, moved to Atlanta, GA, following his father's March 1963 suicide, when he became president and chief executive of Turner Advertising Company (essentially a billboard company) at the age of 24. He turned the firm into a global enterprise. (Psychologists have been fascinated with Ted for years, BTW ~ just Google his name, seriously, it's crazy nuts.)
In the late 1960s, Turner used the profits from his billboard enterprise to buy several Southern radio stations, and in 1969 (the year Defendant No. 1 and I wed), he sold them to buy a struggling television station in Atlanta, WJRJ, Channel 17. Later events over a period of time allowed him to turn that single little TV station into what became SuperStation WTBS.
Turner has always been philanthropically inclined, and his vision for a broadcast empire was greater than reruns of old movies and "I Love Lucy." His net worth eventually grew to more than $100 Million (even before he bought the Atlanta Braves and the Atlanta Hawks), which enabled him to launch Cable News Network ~ CNN ~ the first 24/7 news station in history. His detractors called it the "Chicken Noodle Network," proclaiming that Turner's little TV station would never have the capabilities of a Real Live Network.
Boy, did he prove them wrong. As of February 2015, CNN is available to approximately 96,289,000 cable, satellite, and telco television households (82.7% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.
I believe he founded CNN out of just and pure motives ~ a desire to better inform the world while also practicing American capitalism at its best ~ and since he was already in Atlanta with a well-performing television station broadcasting to the entire country, why not start it up right then and there? Launched at 5AM Eastern time on June 1, 1980, CNN remained in that country club for five years before moving on to bigger studios in downtown Atlanta.
Treunion
CNN currently broadcasts primarily from NYC with studios in DC and LA. It's headquarters, CNN Center in Atlanta, is now only used for weekend programming. Turner doesn't own CNN anymore, so we can't blame him for its current content!
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