In Ted Turner's Early Life, Accomplishments, And Struggle

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The book Call Me Ted, by Ted Turner, describes his early life, accomplishments, and struggles. I will be answering the following questions about Ted Turner: What made Ted Turner inspired to start CNN? Did the Gulf War have an impact on starting CNN? How did Ted Turner own Channel 17? How did Ted Turner start his business with the Braves?
What made Ted Turner inspired to start CNN? Ted Turner first started on the road to success by taking over his father’s business. Ted Turner’s father committed suicide because of bankruptcy. Ted knew nothing about controlling, or owning a business. At the age of 24, Ted Turner took over Turner Advertising. Ted Turner became the chief executive of Turner Advertising and the CEO of the company. From there, Ted …show more content…

Ted Turner got the idea of CNN from his channel that he already owned. Channel 17 first started off as a sitcom channel. On Channel 17, their would be reruns of movies and new shows would be produced. Gilligan’s Island was a popular broadcast on Channel 17. Ted Turner thought to himself and realized that he would soon be losing money if he did not change his business strategy. Channel 17 was owned by Rice Broadcasting which was run by Jack Rice Jr.Jak;s initials provided the call letters, WJRJ. When Ted Turner met with Jack Rice, he found out that Jack’s business was bleeding cash. Ted Turner wanted to invest in the channel because his company could use the losses to lower their tax obligations while he turned the station around. Another reason why Ted wanted to use the deal was to promote his station. About fifteen percent of Ted’s billboard inventory went unsold. The signs all over Atlanta, Ted could put the unsold ones to use and promote their radio station. Ted Turner thought it was a challenge, but he loved the challenge of …show more content…

As Channel 17 was looking worse by the day, television was where Ted wanted to be and he was determined it give it a try. Ted first owned the channel in January 1970 and changed the letters to WTCG, for Turner Communications Group. Ted Turner wanted to have sports on his channel to really jump to the next level. Ted already took professional wrestling from the ABC station and the customers lover watching it. Later, Ted found out that the Atlanta Braves were knew in town and had recently moved from Milwaukee in 1966. Ted figured that if he could somehow get the Braves onto WTCG, it would be a huge coup. The rankings would go up, and many Atlantans who did not have UHF, which was about fifty percent of the market, would buy one just to see the Braves games. The Braves lost money since moving to Atlanta. Ted offered the Braves $600,000 per year. This was three times what WSB’s fee. In return, Ted wanted sixty games instead of twenty. After some negotiating, Bill Bartholomay, who led the group that purchased the Milwaukee Braves, agreed to Ted’s

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