Wide World of Women

The media mogul, philanthropist, and one-time owner of the MLB's Atlanta Braves and NBA's Atlanta Hawks Ted Turner died on Wednesday morning.

He will be remembered most for founding the first ever 24 hour news channel with CNN. Launched on June 1, 1980, it struggled in its' early years mostly due to being in the red financially speaking and suffering several technical problems--with trying to connect with many satellite operations located throughout most of the world. Nearly a year and a half later, CNN2 started on New Year's Day 1982. It would later be renamed CNN Headline News and in its' final years in the late 2000's to HLN, with Robin Meade and her "Morning Express" program the last to air shows live on that channel.

He was quite a visionary, always striving to do more. Even though we get our news via our phones, let us take a moment to salute the man who helped change the way we consume news 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
Without Ted Turner, we would have been stuck in a major wasteland. Even with TBS becoming a Superstation and with him founding TNT, Cartoon Network, and TCM, his impact on the TV business will never be forgotten. And was he even married to Jane Fonda for ten years, so his third time was definitely the charm.

Even with his efforts to save the bison and running over 2 million acres of land with 28 different properties in the U.S. and even Argentina, he spoke often on how important it is to save the planet. And kids will never forget those "Captain Planet" cartoons, always so educational.

Here are some of the dozens of tributes to honor this true maverick, trailblazer, and yes a swashbuckler with a kind heart--unlike other CEO's where their egos are as big as the planet Mars.

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/06/us/ted-turner-death

The first two anchors CNN showed to the world, Dave Walker and Lois Hart remembered fondly the early days on KCRA/NBC3 in Northern California:
http://youtu.be/8Lxsyc1tAqo?si=1yAoeYeWH-wvAtBE

Christi Paul, formerly of HLN now at WKYC Channel 3 in Cleveland on how she met Ted in 2018 at an event:
http://youtu.be/d8lK-j59v0E?si=YrJ6A-3STSqMg-_-

Ernie Johnson and the Inside The NBA crew on ESPN (minus Shaq) recalling how TNT put the greatest postgame show in American television sports history on the map:
http://youtu.be/9PmHSolj0ms

In founding TCM, it was one of his "greatest achievements" (even though the colorization of several classic B&W films was not well received.)
https://youtu.be/wOqHBV3AshE

His first of two chats with Johnny Carson in the 1980's:
https://youtu.be/JhBZAhwOG2A

August 1984 documentary about "The Man From Atlanta" that aired on BBC2:
https://youtu.be/q-uGoKQ7phs

Ted's other big passion was wrestling. He founded the WCW (now the AEW) which took on Vince McMahon and the WWE (then called the WWF) which set off the "Monday Night War".
"Busted Open" had a podcast about his passing on Sirius XM. Eric Bischoff & Ariel Helwani had some thoughts on how he marketed wrestling to a growing TV audience:
http://youtu.be/ZG5TPBDTA3o

Finally, his first major love was baseball. We all know the story of Channel 17, when then WTBS became a Superstation in 1977. The Atlanta Braves would be seen nationwide gaining millions of fans every time they played on the road. They were a horrible team in the late 1970's and all of the 1980's.
But once pitchers Tom Glavine and Steve Avery arrived, along with acquiring Greg Maddux in a controversial 1992 trade with the Chicago Cubs--the Braves became "America's Team".
Several consecutive division titles, four National League pennants, and winning the 1995 World Series. It was quite a run, and the newly launched Braves Vision had a unique set of interviews remembering the man who sat in the stands instead of the stuffy owner's box:
https://youtu.be/GBQhP4YCMTM

Finally, Pamela Brown and Wolf Blitzer closed out their morning show "The Situation Room" with a nice tribute.
The words she said on her Instagram really resonated with me the most, even though the glory days of CNN have long past--with the possibility of David Ellison taking over the network maybe in the second half of the year if regulators around the globe approve Paramount Skydance merging with Warner Bros. Discovery.

"As we remember the life and legacy of Ted Turner, who was truly a giant in our industry, I wanted to leave you all with the final few minutes of our show today. The words of the people who knew him best and worked with him as he built our foundation into this global news organization say it better than I ever could. One of them, of course, is my colleague @wolfblitzer ... who I’m forever grateful to Ted for bringing into CNN. We can all take a lesson from Ted in his persistence, his vision for an informed world and his love of Earth. He’s already very missed."

A brash trailblazer and a true maverick, his impact on how we watch television and consuming the news will never be forgotten. May he RIP alongside Hank Aaron, along with many of the animals that left roaming the many miles of the countryside since the early 2010's.