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20
Cable News Network
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Many Americans tuned into Cable News Network for the very first time when former Beatle John Lennon was gunned down in New York, exactly six months after the station’s 1980 debut. Stunned fans—at least those in the 1.7 million homes then capable of receiving the all-news channel—found they could get updates on the riveting story whenever they wanted. For those accustomed to obtaining news on TV only when the major networks and their affiliates decided to broadcast it, this proved to be both exhilarating and addictive.
It was not yet enough, though, to put the fledgling station on the map. Unknown on-air personalities at its Atlanta headquarters and eight bureaus across the United States struggled to gain respectability. Expenses were so tight that ceiling panels sometimes crashed down during live reports. Bargain-basement electronic equipment regularly failed. Few viewers even knew of its existence.
But all that changed as CNN improved its resources and a series of compelling events drove an audience to its spot on the cable dial. As U.S. hostages were released by their Iranian captors, as an Air Florida jet slid into Washington’s icy Potomac, and as the Challenger space shuttle exploded over Florida, more Americans accessed CNN and many found it a credible source for 24-hour coverage of the stories that had their neighbors talking. By the time 18-month-old Baby Jessica tumbled into a Texas well in 1987 and captivated the nation for 58 hours until her successful rescue, CNN was the place to turn for breaking news. Four years later, when Operation Desert Storm mobilized and American F-117s began strafing Baghdad, some 11.5 million viewers were glued to its coverage from the besieged Iraqi capital and surrounding flash points.
Today, of course, CNN is one of the world’s most respected outlets for television news. Specialized auxiliary channels focus exclusively on headlines, finance and sports; others broadcast in languages including Spanish and Turkish. Radio stations and an array of Web sites have been added. Some 78 million U.S. households, and more than a billion people worldwide, have access to at least one of its services. And now, as its corporate parent is absorbed by the world’s largest Internet company and aggressive competitors are just a few remote-control clicks away, it prepares to do battle in the new millenium.
CNN first went on-air on June 1, 1980, the result of a fusion of new technologies and the vision of a little-known entrepreneur named Ted Turner. Before its debut, producers at the dominant Big Three networks in New York determined when Americans would get their news. With the advent of CNN, viewers could make that choice themselves at any hour of the day.
Turner (whose given name is Robert Edward Turner III) was born in Cincinnati in 1938. At age 9, his family moved to Georgia, where Robert Edward Turner II owned a business specializing in billboard ads. After graduating from Brown University—where he was vice president of the debating union and commodore of the university yacht club—young Ted took a job with the family firm as an account executive. In 1960, he became general manager of one of Turner Advertising Company’s branch offices. Three years later, business troubles drove his father to commit suicide and Turner assumed control of the ailing venture. As president and chief operating officer for the next 33 years, he slowly restored it to profitability.
Inspired by his success, Turner branched out by purchasing Atlanta’s Channel 17 in 1970. Within three years, he transformed the struggling UHF outlet into one of the country’s few profitable independent stations. But Turner still was not satisfied. When he discovered communication satellites he instinctively knew that they would change the lives of TV viewers everywhere. He renamed his station WTBS, for Turner Broadcasting System, and on December 17, 1976, became one of the first to use this new technology to broadcast a “superstation” to the coast-to-coast cable audience now available and hungry for content. That same year he bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team to grab additional mass-appeal programming for the station. In 1977, while he was also achieving national recognition for piloting his yacht Courageous to victory in the America’s Cup, he purchased the Atlanta Hawks basketball team for the same purpose.
The novel approach boosted Turner’s TV revenues beyond his wildest dreams, and whetted his appetite for even more cable outlets. Struck by the lack of national news available, Turner created CNN in 1980. Two years later he launched a companion service dubbed Headline News to offer nothing but the day’s major stories every half hour. In 1985, he went global with CNN International.
As cable television was methodically made available in practically every corner of the United States, Turner’s various channels began building an audience. But numerous technical glitches, an initially unknown cast of on-air personalities, and undisguised skepticism from traditional broadcast news outlets kept them from attaining widespread acceptance at the start. That all changed, though, as equipment improved and accidents faded, newscasters established followings, and Turner’s ventures consistently turned bad news into compelling TV. Lennon’s assassination in 1980, the Iranian hostage release in 1981, and the Air Florida jet mishap in 1982 were merely the first national touchstones that his 24-hour news sources fed to a waiting public. By the time of the 1986 Challenger explosion and 1987 Baby Jessica rescue, CNN had all the resources ready to competently provide constant live images and a feeling of connection to the growing nationwide audience bent on following the dramas. When tanks rolled across Tiananmen Square in 1989 and scud missiles streaked across the Baghdad sky in 1991, viewership had become worldwide.
But Turner, now well known as a deal-maker and risk-taker, did not stand still. A year after founding the Goodwill Games in 1985 as an alternative to the Olympics, he purchased the MGM/UA Entertainment Company’s highly regarded library of more than 4,000 films and television shows—and once again provided his various stations with exclusive programming that they could air without licensing fees. Turner incurred the wrath of Hollywood by “colorizing” many of the classic black-andwhite films obtained in the latter deal, and the debt he sustained from both purchases forced him to sell several assets. Nonetheless, he continued expanding with the launch of Turner Network Television (or TNT) in 1988 and the Cartoon Network in 1992, both of which also relied extensively on the movies and shows he picked up in earlier transactions. Then, in 1996, Turner hit the jackpot and sold everything to Time Warner Inc. for $7.5 billion. His former holdings now a subsidiary of the world’s largest media and entertainment conglomerate, Turner became vice-chairman (and largest shareholder) of the combined company and head of its cable networks.
All has not been completely smooth sailing for Turner and his operations, of course. There have been troubling excesses as CNN and its sister stations tried to meet the demands of a diverse audience, with criticism often leveled during its tabloid-like coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial, Clinton impeachment drama, and Elian Gonzales saga. And what many believe to be the lowest point came in 1998 when CNN’s NewsStand show incorrectly reported that U.S. forces used nerve gas on American defectors in Laos during the 1970s. (CNN later retracted the story and fired several staffers, while Turner called the incident a terrible embarrassment to him and the network.) But, each time, the stations managed to fully rebound, and their status as reliable news sources reached what was probably an all-time high as the new millenium began.
CNN celebrated its 20th anniversary in Atlanta on June 1, 2000, with fireworks and video clips of its top moments. It was preparing to move under new ownership, too, as just before the calendar turned and Time Warner had announced that it was merging with America Online. Turner would become vice chairman of the new AOL Time Warner, overseeing its combined cable networks division with all the old Turner properties, along with Home Box Office (HBO), Cinemax, the Warner Bros. International Networks, and Time Warner’s interests in Comedy Central and Court TV. He would no longer have direct control of these entities, however, and was said to be angered by that.
In another good-news-bad-news paradox, the big bash was held as CNN recorded its lowest monthly ratings in nine years—a fact generally attributed to new cable competitors, primarily CNBC, MSNBC, and the Fox News Channel, which were luring away significant portions of its once exclusive audience. In an attempt to boost those numbers and reduce its reliance on major one-time events, officials began developing more regularly scheduled programs, documentaries, and specials. They were also hoping that AOL and its 22 million subscribers could help bring CNN back to news domination.
Still, there was a lot to celebrate. CNN remains the world’s number-one news network, with nine of the 10 highest-rated news programs on U.S. basic cable and more than 6.7 billion annual page impressions dispersed among its various Web sites. It has the world’s most widely syndicated television newsfeed, and a network of more than 600 affiliates in the United States and Canada and 800 worldwide. Along with its original three channels, associated businesses now include CNNfn (launched in 1995 to cover financial developments), CNN/Sports Illustrated (an all-sports channel that debuted in 1996), CNN en Español (Spanish-language programming with 8 million subscribers), CNN Airport Network (offering traveler-oriented broadcasts in 27 U.S. airports), CNNRadio, and more.
And, without fear of contradiction, it can forever lay claim to singlehandedly changing the landscape of television news.