Ted Turner

In the noisy rise of cable television, Robert Edward Turner III seemed built for the moment. Born on November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in Savannah, Georgia, he became one of the most forceful media figures in modern American business. Turner was a businessman, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist, best known for founding CNN, the first 24-hour cable news channel, and WTBS, which helped create the superstation model in cable television. He also founded TNT, TBS, Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies.

Turner’s early life mixed privilege, pressure, and restlessness. He attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, then Brown University, where he was vice-president of the Brown Debating Union and captain of the sailing team. He first studied classics, to his father’s horror, then changed to economics before being expelled for having a female student in his dormitory room. He later received an honorary B.A. from Brown in 1989. Before being drafted, he joined the United States Coast Guard Reserve, later saying simply, “I liked boats,” and recalling deployments to Charleston and Fort Lauderdale.

The turning point came in March 1963, after his father’s suicide. At 24, Turner took over Turner Outdoor Advertising, then worth $1 million, and became president and chief executive of the family company. During the Vietnam War era, the billboard business prospered, especially across the South. By the late 1960s, Turner had bought several Southern radio stations, then sold them in 1969 to purchase a struggling Atlanta UHF television station, WJRJ-TV. He renamed it WTCG, for Turner Communications Group, and promoted it with the phrase “Watch This Channel Grow.”

Growth came from a mix of nerve, thrift, and showmanship. WTCG filled airtime with old movies, cartoons, classic sitcoms, dramas, and whatever syndicated programs Turner could buy cheaply. In 1972, the station acquired rights to Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks games. Turner also bought a Charlotte station, WRET-TV, which struggled so badly that he appeared on air asking viewers for contributions before it became profitable and widely watched. In 1980, he founded CNN, turning a bold cable idea into one of the most prominent news networks in the world.

Turner’s ambitions reached well beyond news. He owned the Atlanta Braves, who won the 1995 World Series, and helped turn the team into a nationally popular franchise. He launched the charitable Goodwill Games and treated professional wrestling as valuable television, airing it on TBS from 1971 and later buying Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988, rebranding it as World Championship Wrestling. His mouth could be as big as his businesses, earning him the nicknames “The Mouth of the South” and “Captain Outrageous.”

In later decades, Turner put much of his wealth into causes he believed in. He gave $1 billion to create the United Nations Foundation and served as chairman of its board. In 2001, he co-founded the Nuclear Threat Initiative with U.S. senator Sam Nunn to reduce reliance on and prevent the spread of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. He also backed environmental causes, created Captain Planet and the Planeteers, and used his ranch land to build the world’s largest privately owned bison herd. Turner died on May 6, 2026, leaving behind words that still sound like him: impatient, expansive, and aimed at action. “You should set goals beyond your reach,” he said, “so you always have something to live for.”