Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American media mogul and philanthropist. He is best known for founding CNN, his failed marriage to Jane Fonda, and his $1 billion pledge to the United Nations (see United Nations Foundation).Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business. 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 fore covering the space shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986 and the Persian Gulf War in 1991.
Colorful episodes from his life include being was expelled from Brown University and winning the America's Cup in 1977.
He purchased the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Hawks in 1976 and 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."
In 1988, Turner purchased World Championship Wrestling, which was composed of several territorial promotions (known as NWA). He went head to head with the World Wrestling Federation,under the direction of Eric Bishoff, former WCW announcer turned President, (now World Wrestling Entertainment) and from mid 1996 to late 1998 beat Vince Mcmahon in TV ratings and PPV buy rates. Such legends and mega-super stars like Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, "The Macho Man" Randy Savage, and many others worked with Turner greatly influenced the success of WCW.
After 1998, WCW began losing fan interest to the WWF (now WWE). Bishoff was released from work. The company then hired in late 1999, former creative writer of the WWF Vince Russo. Russo took credit for the newfound success of the WWF, but could do nothing for WCW. Then in 2000, Bishoff and Russo were both put at the helm of WCW, nothing still could be done despite an increase in ratings. Bishoff behind the scenes tried purchasing the company, but TBS would not give them TV time, so the company was sold to Vince Mcmahon in 2001 under the false impression he would keep WCW alive. Bishoff and other former employees of WCW now work for the WWE. Russo is now a creative write for the new National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).
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.
He founded the Turner Foundation in 1990.
On September 22, 1995, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. announced plans to merge with Time Warner Inc. This merger completed on October 10, 1996, with Turner as vice chairman, 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.
On January 29, 2003, AOL Time Warner announced that Ted Turner would resign as a vice chairman.
As of June 23, 1999, Ted Turner still is America's largest landowner.
Ted Turner has acknowledged that he has a bipolar affective disorder.