Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19 1938 (1938--) (age 70) in Cincinnati, Ohio[1]) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is best known as the founder of the cable television network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition to CNN, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is well known for his $1 billion pledge to the United Nations donated through his United Nations Foundation.

Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business which he took over at the age of 24 after his father's suicide. The billboard business, Turner Outdoor Advertising, was worth approximately one million dollars when Turner took it over in 1963. Purchase of an Atlanta UHF station in 1970 began the assemblage of the Turner Broadcasting System. His Cable News Network revolutionized news media, coming to the forefront covering the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Using his media empire for publicity, Turner turned the Atlanta Braves baseball team into a nationally popular franchise and launched the charitable Goodwill Games.

Turner's penchant for making controversial statements has earned him the nickname "The Mouth of the South." Turner was also in the news for his much publicized marriage to actress and political activist Jane Fonda, as well as their subsequent divorce.

In addition to his charitable donations, Turner has devoted his assets to a blend of environmentalism and capitalism, owning more land than any other American, and using much of that land for ranches as part of his plan to re-popularize bison meat (for his Ted's Montana Grill chain), in the process amassing the largest herd in the world. He also created the environmental education/action animated series Captain Planet and the Planeteers.

Biography

Early life

Turner was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. When he was nine years old, his family moved to Savannah, Georgia. He attended the McCallie School, a private, boys preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Turner attended Brown University and was vice-president of the Brown Debating Union. He was also a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Turner initially majored in Classics. After learning of this, Turner's father wrote him a letter saying that his son's choice of major made him "appalled, even horrified," and that he "almost puked."[2] Turner later changed his major to economics. Turner was expelled from Brown in 1960 for having an unauthorized female visitor in his dormitory room.

Sailing

Ted Turner began sailing when he was nine years old. He entered competition when he was eleven in the junior program at the Savannah Yacht Club, and went on to compete in the Olympic trials in 1964.

Turner is highly honored among yachtsmen as the winner of at least two great races. In 1977, he successfully defended the America's Cup for the United States as skipper of the yacht Courageous. In the 1979 Fastnet race, made famous by the terrible storm and the resulting loss of life, he skippered the yacht Tenacious to a corrected-time victory.

Business Activities

Turner inherited a small outdoor advertising business from his father when he was 24. Turning it around, he used the firm to acquire a small local broadcast station in Atlanta, later becoming WTBS. He recognized early the potential of new communications satellites to make his small market station available nationwide. Thus, as cable systems were developed across the nation, many carried his Atlanta station free to fill out their offerings. This increased his viewership and advertising revenues.

He purchased the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks in 1976 partially to provide sports programming for his TV station, and similarly created the Goodwill Games in 1986. His relationship with the Braves was somewhat peculiar before the team's success in the 1990s; Turner was one of the more hands-on owners in baseball history, at one point going as far as to give the team's regular manager the day off so Turner could manage. About this experience, he famously said, "Managing isn't that difficult, you just have to score more runs than the other guy". Among other things, Turner suggested the nickname "Channel" for pitcher Andy Messersmith and jersey number 17, in order to promote the television station that aired Braves games. Major League Baseball quickly nixed the idea. Turner Field, which was first used for the 1996 Summer Olympics as Centennial Olympic Stadium and then converted into a baseball-only facility for the Braves shortly thereafter, is named after him.

Turner created Cable News Network in 1980 as another cable channel. He figured that many like him got home too late to watch the network news at 6:30 PM. CNN was instrumental in creating the modern "all news, all the time" television format. In a typical bit of bravado, Turner vowed upon launching CNN that, "We won't be signing off until the world ends. We'll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event. . . . and when the end of the world comes, we'll play 'Nearer My God to Thee' before we sign off."

After five years on the air, CNN found themselves outgrowing their original home, a former country-club on the outskirts of Midtown Atlanta. Ever the visionary, Turner saw another opportunity. He purchased the Omni International from developer Tom Cousins and moved CNN there. The complex was rechristened the CNN Center. As the Omni International, the office/retail/movie theater/hotel complex had never succeeded. Through some clever financial maneuvering, Cousins had managed to keep it solvent, then sold it to Turner along with the Atlanta Hawks. CNN then moved into the end of the tower that once housed The World of Sid & Marty Krofft. Having the presence of Turner gave the Omni a focus that it had never enjoyed before, and it was instrumental in the revival of Atlanta's Downtown area.

In 1984, Turner launched Cable Music Channel, his competition to MTV. The channel was short-lived, but helped mold and launch the original (but now changed) format of VH1.

After a failed attempt to acquire CBS, Ted Turner purchased the legendary but struggling Hollywood film studio MGM/UA Entertainment Co. from Kirk Kerkorian in 1986 for $1.5 Billion.

Following the acquisition, Ted Turner assumed an enormous debt and had no other choice but to sell parts of the acquisition. MGM/UA Entertainment Co. was sold back to Kirk Kerkorian. The MGM/UA Studio lot in Culver City was sold to Lorimar/Telepictures. Turner kept MGM/UA's pre-1986 and pre-merger film and TV library, which included nearly all of MGM/UA's material made before the merger, and a small portion of United Artists's film and TV properties (which included very few UA pictures, the TV series Gilligan's Island, the RKO Radio Pictures library, and the pre-1948 Warner Bros. library that was once the property of Associated Artists Productions, UA Television's predecessor company).

Turner used these assets to begin adding new cable channels. In 1988, he introduced Turner Network Television (abbreviated TNT) with a broadcast of Gone with the Wind. TNT was, at least initially, a vehicle for older movies and television shows, but slowly began to add original programming and newer reruns. Since its launch in 1994, Turner Classic Movies adopted the role of broadcasting the older Warner Bros., RKO, and MGM libraries. As with the original TBS, TNT used sports broadcasts and pro wrestling organisation WCW to attract a broader audience; in the former case, signing contracts with NASCAR and the NBA.

In 1992, the MGM library, which as noted above included a number of Warner Brothers properties, including the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies libraries became the core of Cartoon Network. Turner's companies had also purchased Hanna-Barbera Productions by this time, adding additional content. With the 1996 Time Warner merger, the channel's archives gained the post-1948 Warner Bros. cartoon library, thus giving the channel's archive a staggering amount of cartoons.

In the mid-1980s, Turner became a driving force for the colorization of black and white films. In 1985, the film Yankee Doodle Dandy became the first black and white movie to be redistributed in color, thanks to computer colorization. Despite widespread opposition to the practice by many film aficionados, stars and directors, the movie won over a sizeable section of the public on its re-release [3], and Turner would soon colorize a majority of films that he had owned. However, in the mid-1990s, the high cost of the process led Turner to abandon the idea of colorizing films. In contrast with TNT, TCM has shown the unaltered versions of films.

Turner Entertainment Co. was established in August 1986 to oversee the entire film properties owned by Ted Turner.

In 1988, Turner purchased Jim Crockett Promotions which he soon renamed World Championship Wrestling (WCW) which would grow to become the main competitor to Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF). In 2001, under AOL Time Warner control, it was sold to World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly the WWF). It has been stated that Ted Turner has always had a special place in his heart for professional wrestling.

In 1989, Ted Turner created the Turner Tomorrow Fellowship to be awarded to a work of fiction offering positive solutions to global problems. The winner, chosen from 2500 entries worldwide, was Daniel Quinn's Ishmael.

In 1990, he created the Turner Foundation, which focuses on philanthropic grants in the areas of the environment and population. Also in that year, he created the character Captain Planet, an environmental superhero. Turner produced two TV series with him as the featured character.

In 1993, Turner appeared in the epic Gettysburg, which he produced, as Colonel Waller T. Patton, a role he reprised in the 2003 prequel Gods and Generals, also produced by Turner.

The Time Warner years

On September 22, 1995, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. announced plans to merge with Time Warner, Inc. The merger was completed on October 10, 1996, with Turner as vice chairman and head of Time Warner's cable networks division. On January 10, 2000, Time Warner announced plans to merge with AOL as AOL Time Warner. This merger closed January 11, 2001. The company has since dropped "AOL" from its corporate name.

Personal life

Before marrying and divorcing Jane Fonda (1991 to 2001), he had been married twice before. His first marriage to Judy Nye lasted four years (1960 to 1964). His second marriage was to Jane Shirley Smith and lasted over 22 years (1965 to 1988). He has five children.

Turner is reportedly involved with several women, including the novelist and playwright Elizabeth Dewberry.[4]

Recent years

On January 29, 2003, AOL Time Warner announced that Ted Turner would resign as a vice chairman.

On February 24, 2006, Turner announced that he would not seek re-election as director on the Time Warner board of directors.

Through Turner Enterprises, he owns 15 ranches in Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and South Dakota.[5] Totaling 1.91 million acres his US land-holdings make Turner the largest individual landowner in North America.[6] According to his Ted's Montana Grill website, "Turner Enterprises' mission is to manage Turner lands in an economically sustainable and ecologically sensitive manner, while conserving native species."

Ted Turner sponsors the debates known as the Public Forum Debate of the National Forensic League. Every year, he attends the National Forensic League's National Speech and Debate Tournament and speaks there as well.

On September 19, 2006 Turner in a Reuters Newsmaker conference posited a hypothetical situation, relating to Iran's nuclear position, wherein he stated, "They're a sovereign state. We have 28,000. Why can't they have 10? We don't say anything about Israel -- they've got 100 of them approximately -- or India or Pakistan or Russia." He also facetiously advocated such policies as banning men from public office, "Men should be barred from public office for 100 years in every part of the world...The men have had millions of years where we've been running things. We've screwed it up hopelessly. Let's give it to the women" Reuters News Service September 20, 2006

Achievements

In 1991, Turner became the first media figure to be named Time Magazine's Man of the Year.

He is America's largest private landowner, owning approximately two million acres (8,000 km²), which is greater than the land areas of the two smallest states of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. According to documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, Turner's land has a higher gross domestic product than the country of Belize. He also has the largest private bison herd in the world, with 40,000 head. In 2002, Turner co-founded Ted's Montana Grill, a restaurant chain specializing in burgers and other entrees made from fresh bison meat.[7]

Under his ownership, World Championship Wrestling became the only federation in history to outrate and outsell the McMahon family and their World Wrestling Federation. This event brought about a rise in popularity to professional wrestling and is now known as the Monday Night Wars. WCW television ratings were also heavily competing with ABC's Monday Night Football.

After the American-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, Turner founded the Goodwill Games as a statement for peace through sport.

In 1998, Turner pledged to donate $1 billion of his then $3 billion net worth to United Nations causes, and created the United Nations Foundation to administer the gift. The Foundation "builds and implements public-private partnerships to address the world’s most pressing problems, and broadens support for the UN through advocacy and public outreach." In 2006, the Foundation delivered its billionth dollar to United Nations causes--approximately $600M of which came from Turner, and $400M of which came from public and private sector partners. Turner has pledged to use the remaining $400 million dollars from his commitment to leverage additional funds for UN causes and activities.

Turner served in the United States Coast Guard . He is also a recipient of the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism.

Controversies

• Ted Turner has called observers of Ash Wednesday "Jesus freaks."^[1] He referred to Christianity as "a religion for losers"^[1] and dubbed abortion opponents "bozos."^[1]
• Ted Turner caused a stir in Montana in 2003 by providing a significant amount of funding to a project aimed at restoring a westslope cutthroat trout population in Cherry Creek and Cherry Lake. The controversy stemmed from the use of poison to kill the abundant fish population currently living in the stream using the poison antimycin. http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/08/05/news/003cherryckbzbigs.txt
• Turner once said that North Korea was a good country because he claimed North Koreans were healthy and because they rode bicycles.

Bibliography

• Racing Edge by Ted Turner (Simon & Schuster, 1979) ISBN 0-671-24419-1
• Biographies
• Media Man: Ted Turner's Improbable Empire by Ken Auletta (W. W. Norton, 2004) ISBN 0-393-05168-4
• Clash of the Titans: How the Unbridled Ambition of Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch Has Created Global Empires that Control What We Read and Watch Each Day by Richard Hack (New Millennium Press, 2003) ISBN 1-893224-60-0
• Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN by Reese Schonfeld (HarperBusiness, 2001) 0060197463
• Ted Turner Speaks: Insights from the World's Greatest Maverick by Janet Lowe (Wiley, 1999) ISBN 0-471-34563-6
• Riding A White Horse: Ted Turner's Goodwill Games and Other Crusades by Althea Carlson (Episcopal Press, 1998) ISBN 0-9663743-0-4
• Ted Turner: It Ain't As Easy as It Looks: The Amazing Story of CNN by Porter Bibb (Virgin Books, 1996) ISBN 0-86369-892-1
• Citizen Turner: The Wild Rise of an American Tycoon by Robert Goldberg and Gary Jay Goldberg (Harcourt, 1995) ISBN 0-15-118008-3
• CNN: The Inside Story : How a Band of Mavericks Changed the Face of Television News by Hank Whittemore (Little Brown & Co, 1990) ISBN 0-316-93761-4
• Lead Follow or Get Out of the Way: The Story of Ted Turner by Christian Williams (Times Books, 1981) ISBN 0-8129-1004-4
• Atlanta Rising: The Invention of an International City 1946-1996 by Frederick Allen (Longstreet Press, 1996) ISBN 1-56352-296-9

See also

• List of professional sports team owners

References

External links

• Official website
• Ted Turner at the Notable Names Database
• Ted Turner at the Internet Movie Database
• Ted Turner on AskMen.com
• Interview with Ted Turner for The People Speak
• Ted Turner speaks at the The Global Philanthropy

Preceded by Dave Bristol	Atlanta Braves Managers one game in 1977	Succeeded by Dave Bristol
Preceded by George H. W. Bush	Time's Man of the Year 1991	Succeeded by Bill Clinton

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Persondata
NAME	Turner III, Robert Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ted Turner
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American media mogul, philanthropist, founder of TBS and CNN
DATE OF BIRTH	November 19 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cincinnati, Ohio
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH