05/06/2026
We were saddened to learn about the passing of Ted Turner, a titan of the media industry. Mr. Turner was a generous donor to the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries. Our exhibition hallway is named in his honor and features two cases that continue to focus on major themes tied to his life and legacy: broadcast media and the environment.
In 1970, Turner purchased an independent, ultra-high frequency television station in Atlanta, Georgia. Leveraging communication satellites to expand the reach of this local station, he created the first ever Superstation. By the end of the decade, WTCG-Atlanta boasted an unprecedented 4.8 million subscribers across the country, and Turner had revolutionized cable television. In 1980, he bet on the future again with the launch of the first 24-hour news channel, the Cable News Network (CNN). In the decades that followed, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. built a portfolio of unrivaled cable television news and entertainment brands and businesses, including CNN Headline News, CNN International, TNT, Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies. At the helm of his businesses until a 1996 merger with Time Warner, Inc., Turner forever changed the modern media landscape.
He was also an influential philanthropist who directed considerable resources toward the preservation and protection of the natural world. In 1990, he founded the Turner Foundation, which supports efforts for improving air and water quality, developing a sustainable energy future to protect climate, safeguarding environmental health, maintaining wildlife habitat protection, and developing practices and policies to curb population growth rates. Since its creation, the foundation has given more than $400 million to organizations that support its mission and goals. In 1997, he announced a historic pledge of $1 billion to the United Nations. That funding established the United Nations Foundation, an organization that supports UN causes across the globe, including health, gender equality, human rights and humanitarian response.
