Robert Edward “Ted” Turner III (b.1938) is an American broadcasting executive, media businessman, and philanthropist. This pioneer of cable television established the first satellite superstation and the first all-news network.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Turner rebuilt his late father’s outdoor advertising business in Atlanta before venturing into television. His Turner Broadcasting System included the television networks TBS, CNN, TCM, TNT, and the Cartoon Network. In 1996, Turner merged Turner Broadcasting Network with Time Warner to create the world’s largest media company.
Turner bought the Atlanta Braves baseball team in 1976 and the Atlanta Hawks basketball team in 1977 and started the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team in 1999.
Turner is also recognized for his philanthropy and environmentalism. Among the most significant private landowners in the United States, he is an accomplished yachtsman; he won America’s Cup in 1977. In 1997, he pledged $1 billion to help the United Nations with feeding children, helping refugees, and eliminating land mines.
Turner’s autobiography Call Me Ted appeared in 2008. He is the subject of Christian Williams’s biography, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: The Story of Ted Turner (1981.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Ted Turner
I have the same credo with my land as I had with my business: He who profits most serves the best.
—Ted Turner
Topics: Business
Sports is like a war without the killing.
—Ted Turner
Topics: One liners
A leader is someone who creates infectious enthusiasm.
—Ted Turner
Topics: Enthusiasm, Leadership
To be happy in this world, first you need a cell phone and then you need an airplane. Then you’re truly wireless.
—Ted Turner
Lead, follow, or get out of the way.
—Ted Turner
Topics: Action
I’ve never run into a guy who could win at the top level in anything today and didn’t have the right attitude, didn’t give it everything he had, at least while he was doing it; wasn’t prepared and didn’t have the whole program worked out.
—Ted Turner
Topics: Attitude
I see what keeps people young: work!
—Ted Turner
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Richard DeVos American Businessman, Philanthropist
Bill Gates American Businessperson
W. Clement Stone American Self-help Guru
Jack Welch American Businessperson
Michael Bloomberg American Businessperson
John D. Rockefeller American Industrialist, Philanthropist
Jeffrey Immelt American Businessperson
Michael Dell American Businessperson
Andrew Grove Hungarian-born American Businessperson
Robert Kiyosaki American Businessperson