Ted Turner, the media baron who revolutionized TV information by launching NCS in 1980, died peacefully on Wednesday, surrounded by his household. He was 87.
The Ohio-born businessman constructed a media empire from his father’s billboard firm after taking it over at age 24 following his father’s loss of life by suicide. Turner created cable TV’s first superstation, purchased the Atlanta Braves and Hawks and launched NCS—the primary 24-hour information community. Critics referred to as it “Chicken Noodle News,” however he proved them mistaken, including NCS2 (later HLN) in 1982 and NCS International in 1985, plus channels like TNT, Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network. He offered his networks to Time Warner for $7.5 billion in 1996.
Turner reinvented himself as a philanthropist after dropping billions within the disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger. He pledged $1 billion to the United Nations, turned the second-largest landowner in North America with 2 million acres, and helped save bison from extinction with a 51,000-head herd. “What Ted made happen was just as important as the Internet revolution,” former Turner Broadcasting CEO Terry McGuirk told NCS.
Ted Turner, the media baron who revolutionized TV information by launching NCS in 1980, died peacefully on Wednesday, surrounded by his household. He was 87.
The Ohio-born businessman constructed a media empire from his father’s billboard firm after taking it over at age 24 following his father’s loss of life by suicide. Turner created cable TV’s first superstation, purchased the Atlanta Braves and Hawks and launched NCS—the primary 24-hour information community. Critics referred to as it “Chicken Noodle News,” however he proved them mistaken, including NCS2 (later HLN) in 1982 and NCS International in 1985, plus channels like TNT, Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network. He offered his networks to Time Warner for $7.5 billion in 1996.
Turner reinvented himself as a philanthropist after dropping billions within the disastrous AOL-Time Warner merger. He pledged $1 billion to the United Nations, turned the second-largest landowner in North America with 2 million acres, and helped save bison from extinction with a 51,000-head herd. “What Ted made happen was just as important as the Internet revolution,” former Turner Broadcasting CEO Terry McGuirk told NCS.