What Is Awesome

• Competed in the 1964 US Olympic sailing trials.
• Inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame in 1993.
• Once called Christianity “a religion for losers,” and pro-life advocates “bozos.”
• Was married to former model and fitness guru Jane Fonda for 10 years.
• Is the largest individual landowner in North America with 1,910,000 acres owned across fifteen ranches in twelve states. The largest ranch is 920 square miles and is the largest privately owned contiguous piece of land in the US.
• Also has the largest private bison herd. In fact, he also owns Ted’s Montana Grill, a chain restaurant specializing in, of all things, bison meat.
• Ran one of the largest outdoor advertising (billboard) companies in America at age 24.
• Bought the Atlanta Braves in 1976 to provide programming for his burgeoning satellite TV network (now TBS). Attempted to personally manage the team himself in the late 1970s before MLB officials got antsy.
• Attempted to have one of his Braves’ players, Andy Messersmith, who wore jersey number 17 to change his last name to “Channel,” so as to promote his network which aired on channel 17 in Atlanta.
• Founded the Goodwill Games in 1986 in response to controversy during the 1980 Olympics.
• Donated $170 million to help build Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Stadium, which was later donated to the MLB after the 1996 Olympics. It was permanently converted to a baseball field and the stadium was renamed in his honor.
• Launched CNN in 1980 out of a former country club in the suburbs of Atlanta. After quickly increasing in size, he purchased the Omni International Hotel in downtown Atlanta and renovated it into what is known today as the CNN Center. The revitalization of downtown Atlanta has been credited to this move. The former owner of the Omni also sold Turner the Atlanta Hawks, by the way.

“We won’t be signing off until the world ends. We’ll be on, and we will cover the end of the world, live, and that will be our last event… and when the end of the world comes, we’ll play ‘Nearer, My God, to Thee’ before we sign off.”

• Launched a short-lived competitor to MTV in 1984, the Cable Music Channel, which lasted 33 days. The story behind CMC is actually pretty interesting and almost warrants its own post.

• Attempted to buy CBS, instead bought the MGM/United Artists for $1.5 billion just to sell parts of it back to others in an effort to reduce debt. Turner retained ownership of a gigantic film and television library, which now includes

  The Wizard of Oz
  A Christmas Story
  Gone With the Wind
  Tom & Jerry
  North by Northwest
  Gilligan’s Island
  2001: A Space Odyssey
  Looney Tunes

  … along with a significant chunk of the pre-1986 MGM/UA TV and film library, the RKO Radio Pictures Library, and the pre-1950 Warner Bros. film library.

• Used to own theatrical and television rights to Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
• Had to start an entire company (Turner Entertainment) to manage all of his film assets in 1986.
• Bought World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1988, later sold it to the World Wrestling Federation (WWF).
• Launched the philanthropic Turner Foundation in 1990 which distributes grants for environmental and population-relatd work. As part of this, he created Captain Planet. That’s right. Ted Turner made Captain Planet.
• Created the United Nations Foundation in 1998 to manage his $1 billion donation to the UN’s causes. The one billionth dollar was donated by 2006.
• Served in the Coast Guard, receiving the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal for Humanitarianism (not to be confused with the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism).
• Is the recipient of 42 honorary degrees.
• Bought Hanna-Barbera Productions and acquired Castle Rock Entertainment (distributors of Seinfeld, among other things) and New Line Cinema in the early 1990s.
• In 2001, launched the Nuclear Threat Initiative to “close the growing and increasingly dangerous gap between the threat from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the global response.”
• Was Time’s Man of the Year in 1991 and Broadcasting & Cable (Magazine)’s Man of the Century in 1999. How an industry which has not existed for more than a century can have an industry publication that awards such a designation remains a mystery.

And now, the complete listing of his media properties (thanks, Wikipedia!)

TV

• CNN
• CNN HD
• HLN (CNN Headline News)
• CNN Airport Network
• CNN International
• CNN en Español
• CNN Chile
• CNN+ (Only in Spain)
• CNN IBN (Localized to India)
• n-tv (HLN Germany)
• CNN Turk (Localized to Turkey)
• truTV (formerly CourtTV)
• NBA TV
• TBS
• TBS HD
• TNT
• TNT HD
• TCM (Turner Classic Movies)
• WPCH-TV, Atlanta
• Cartoon Network
  • Cartoon Network Studios
  • Adult Swim
  • Williams Street
• Boomerang
• Boomerang UK (+ multiple localized European versions)
• Cartoonito (UK)
• Cartoon Network Too (UK)
• Fashion TV Latin America
• Infinito TV (Latin America only)
• Space (Latin America)
• Retro (Like TV Land, but for Latin America)
• China Educational Television Network (approx. 40% ownership)
• Nuts TV (UK-only, if Maxim had their own network, it would be this)
• Pogo (Cartoon Network for India)
• Boing (Cartoon Network for Italy)

Web Properties

• PGA.com & PGATour.com
• NASCAR.com
• GameTap
• CartoonNetwork.com
• AdultSwim.com
• CNNMoney.com
• CNN.com
• iReport.com
• TBS.com
• TNT.tv
• TruTV.com
• PlayON! Sports Network

It is surprising that the guy only has a net worth of about $2.3 billion.

This post is tagged Ted Turner