Ted Turner (1938-2026)

Ted Turner 

Ted Turner (1938-2026)

Ted Turner just died. He was 87 and suffered from Lewy body dementia. Here is what the Dementia Society of America tells us: “Lewy body disease is one of the most common causes of Dementia in the elderly. Lewy body disease happens when abnormal structures, called Lewy bodies, build up in areas of the brain. The disease may cause a wide range of symptoms, including changes in alertness and attention, hallucinations, problems with movement and posture, muscle stiffness, and confusion.” That sounds perfectly awful.

Turner’s family business was highway billboards and he roamed the state selling advertising space. I remember the billboards along the highway with “Turner” on the bottom of them. Turner will be remembered for many things: CNN and the 24 hour news media, a bison steakhouse, marriage to Jane Fonda and a host of other ventures. But I am from Atlanta and I remember him for WTBS – the predecessor of the networks TBS and TNT. In 1976 Turner bought an independent television station that had no network. Back in those days, the three broadcast networks NBC, CBS and ABC were dominant. WTBS had virtually no original programming and ran reruns of the Beverley Hillbillies and other fare 24/7. Turner bought the Atlanta Braves which at the time was one of the worse teams in baseball (67-94) to broadcast their games.  He even installed himself (briefly) as manager. About the same time he bought the Atlanta Hawks to add to his sports programming.

Turner was a visionary and decided to put WTBS up on the new broadcast satellites circling the earth. So he went to his bank and asked for a loan to become a superstation broadcasting to a national market rather than just in the Atlanta area. Going to the bank and saying that he wanted financing to put his station broadcasting the Beverley Hillbillies and the woeful Atlanta Braves to Pocatello, Idaho and beyond was met by derision. So he went to a hedge fund – Bass Brothers – to get the money needed to go nationwide. Thus, Turner was the pioneer that started the rise of cable TV and the loss of market share of the three broadcast giants. He also founded the Cartoon Network – although some might say that was redundant with CNN and the Weather Channel (my brother’s favorite station). Who would have thought that anyone (other than my brother who was a pilot) would want to watch the weather 24/7? But if Jim Cantore shows up at your airport, you know you are in trouble.

Turner founded the Goodwill Games and was an accomplished yachtsman defending the America’s Cup on the Courageous, defeating Australia in 1977.

I know that Turner will be called “brash” but I call him “visionary.” We are all better off because of Ted Turner.

RIP