Ted Turner, TV Mogul and CNN Founder, Dies at 87
Ted Turner has passed away at the age of 87. Turner took over the world of cable TV and founded CNN. Reports state that he passed away peacefully on Wednesday,…
WASHINGTON – OCTOBER 09: Ted Turner prepares to deliver remarks at the National Press Club October 9, 2006 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)Ted Turner has passed away at the age of 87. Turner took over the world of cable TV and founded CNN. Reports state that he passed away peacefully on Wednesday, May 6.
The media mogul and philanthropist was also known as "The Mouth of the South." He was an outspoken businessman who built a media empire around cable television. He is known for creating popular channels for movies, cartoons, and the first popular superstation. Turner founded CNN, TBS, TNT, and Cartoon Network.
The Ohio-born businessman disclosed in September 2018 that he was suffering from Lewy body dementia. This is a brain disorder that affects memory and other cognitive functions in the body.
Not only did he transform the world of television, but he also transformed himself into a sports figure. Turner won the America's Cup and was the owner of the Atlanta Braves when they won the World Series.
Ted Turner Gets Into Television
After taking over his father’s billboard advertising business in the early 1960s, Turner built it into a profitable company. By the late 1960s, he was looking for new ways to grow. One key insight was that owning media outlets could help him both advertise more effectively and control content distribution.
His entry point came in 1970, when he used his growing resources to buy a struggling television station in Atlanta called WJRJ-TV (later renamed WTBS). At the time, the stations were considered second-tier and often financially unstable, but Turner saw potential where others didn’t.
Instead of treating it like a typical local station, he experimented aggressively:
- He filled airtime with inexpensive but popular content like old movies, sitcom reruns, and sports.
- He used his advertising expertise to promote the station heavily.
- Most importantly, he embraced emerging satellite technology.
In the mid-1970s, Turner made a bold move: he uplinked WTBS to a satellite, allowing cable systems across the country to carry the channel. This effectively turned a small local station into the first “superstation,” giving it a national audience. That move was the real breakthrough—it bypassed traditional network structures and created a new model for television distribution.
This success laid the groundwork for everything that followed, including the launch of Cable News Network in 1980. Without that early gamble on a failing local station and satellite distribution, Turner likely wouldn’t have become a central figure in the television industry.
Turner was married and divorced three times and had five children at the time of his death. He is survived by his five children, 14 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
