1980
CNN launches
On this day in 1980, CNN (Cable News Network), the world’s first
24-hour television news network, makes its debut. The network signed on at 6
p.m. EST from its headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, with a lead story about the
attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan. CNN went on to
change the notion that news could only be reported at fixed times throughout
the day. At the time of CNN’s launch, TV news was dominated by three major
networks–ABC, CBS and NBC–and their nightly 30-minute broadcasts. Initially
available in less than two million U.S. homes, today CNN is seen in more than
89 million American households and over 160 million homes internationally.
CNN was the brainchild of Robert “Ted” Turner, a colorful,
outspoken businessman dubbed the “Mouth of the South.” Turner was born on
November 19, 1938, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and as a child moved with his family to
Georgia, where his father ran a successful billboard advertising company. After
his father committed suicide in 1963, Turner took over the business and
expanded it. In 1970, he bought a failing Atlanta TV station that broadcast old
movies and network reruns and within a few years Turner had transformed it into
a “superstation,” a concept he pioneered, in which the station was beamed by
satellite into homes across the country. Turner later bought the Atlanta Braves
baseball team and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team and aired their games on
his network, TBS (Turner Broadcasting System). In 1977, Turner gained
international fame when he sailed his yacht to victory in the prestigious
America’s Cup race.
In its first years of operation, CNN lost money and was
ridiculed as the Chicken Noodle Network. However, Turner continued to invest in
building up the network’s news bureaus around the world and in 1983, he bought
Satellite News Channel, owned in part by ABC, and thereby eliminated CNN’s main
competitor. CNN eventually came to be known for covering live events around the
world as they happened, often beating the major networks to the punch. The
network gained significant traction with its live coverage of the Persian Gulf
War in 1991 and the network’s audience grew along with the increasing
popularity of cable television during the 1990s.
In 1996, CNN merged with Time Warner, which merged with America
Online four years later. Today, Ted Turner is an environmentalist and peace
activist whose philanthropic efforts include a 1997 gift of $1 billion to the
United Nations.