Turner Broadcasting System

We thrive on innovation and originality--encouraging risk-taking and divergent voices. We value our customers--putting their needs and interests at the center of everything we do. We move quickly--embracing change and seizing new opportunities. We treat one another with respect--creating value by working together within and across our businesses. Turner's firm merges with Rice Broadcasting Co. Inc. and forms Turner Communications Corporation. Turner resigns as vice-chairman of Time Warner; Philip Kent is named chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System. As a subsidiary of media giant Time Warner Inc., Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS) operates as the leading provider of programming for the basic cable industry. Its holdings include TBS Superstation, TNT, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, Turner South, CNN, CNN Headline News, CNNfn, CNNRadio, and CNN International. The company also owns the professional baseball team Atlanta Braves and oversees nascar.com and pga.com. Founder Ted Turner left Time Warner in 2003 to pursue philanthropic interests. The history of TBS is closely tied to the personal history of its flamboyant founder, chairman, and president, Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III. Alternately seeking and shunning media attention, Ted Turner has accumulated colorful nicknames, including "Captain Outrageous," "the Mouth of the South," and "Terrible Ted," and has earned a reputation for daredevil tactics. Turner's freewheeling entrepreneurial style was reflected in the strategic and financial risks the company took under his leadership. In 1970, Turner's firm merged with Rice Broadcasting Company, Inc., a small Atlanta UHF television station. The transaction took the resulting company public, with Turner as majority stockholder, under the new name Turner Communications Corporation. Turner Communications bought the right to broadcast the Atlanta Braves major league baseball games, then bought the team in 1976. The Braves were said to be losing money at the time and were on the verge of being transferred to another city; Turner's acquisition kept popular broadcasts on the air and provided diversification for his growing company. Turner increased his sports presence in 1977 by acquiring the National Basketball Association's Atlanta Hawks. After reading that the cable television network Home Box Office (HBO) was transmitting programs nationwide via satellite, Turner saw an opportunity to expand his station's audience enormously and to make it more attractive to advertisers by beaming its signal to cable TV systems throughout the country. The resulting SuperStation WTBS, begun in December of 1976, became, in effect, another TV network. However, start-up costs were substantial, cable operators who signed up tended to have questionable credit records, and advertisers were reluctant to invest. Nevertheless, in the course of a few years the concept proved viable as WTBS-TV gradually became profitable. Meanwhile, Robert J. Wussler, a 21-year veteran of CBS, joined TBS in April 1980 as executive vice-president, an office he would hold for several years. At CBS, Wussler had been instrumental in the expansion of satellite usage in news coverage--which began as early as 1962--and in the development of the mini-cam for on-the-spot news coverage. His career included positions as president of the CBS television network and of the CBS sports division. In its early years, Turner's SuperStation aired primarily reruns and sports. In June 1980, however, Turner created the Cable News Network (CNN) subsidiary to broadcast live news on a 24-hour basis. News bureaus were established in major cities throughout the United States and the world. The live, 24-hour format encouraged a more direct and unedited presentation of the news than the networks provided, as well as instant availability at viewers' convenience. The minimal editing and absence of star anchors sparked both positive and negative reactions: some thought the format