Ted Turner turned the metaphorical equivalent of water to wine when he transformed his father's billboard company into Turner Broadcasting Systems. The media giant, absorbed by Time Warner in 1995, has a sad origin that traces back to Turner's mentally ill father, who committed suicide in 1963. Ted, a Brown University dropout, took over his father's red inked billboard advertiser and launched the company into broadcasting. In January 1970, Turner Communications Group bought an independent TV station in Atlanta and formed the nascent stages of the Turner empire. Between 1975 and 1979, Turner bought the Atlanta Braves and Hawks sports teams; spun off the billboard business; and beamed the first cable television "superstation" via nationwide satellite. In 1979, Turner renamed the company Turner Broadcasting, and TBS has been a household name ever since.

Faux Olympics and the Chicken Noodle Network

Like all corporate visionaries, Ted Turner's initial gambles made skeptics of many an onlooker. When he first aired his Cable News Network, a 24 hour all news format, many called it the Chicken Noodle Network. Turner is famous for the speech that he gave to the CNN staff : "See, we're gonna take the news and put it on a satellite and beam it down to Russia, and we're gonna bring world peace and we're all gonna get rich in the process." Master of eloquence he is not, but Turner has indisputably gleaned riches and success from CNN. While he may not have solved all the world's problems, some would argue that his goal of countering the glory of local war coverage has been effective, as wars do indeed "look bad" from CNN's global perspective. Turner's next philanthropic endeavor resulted in the profoundly less lucrative Goodwill Games, which were launched in the thick of the Cold War in 1985, to promote peaceful co-existence between the U.S. and Russia. The Games continually lose money, though Turner is quick to point out that success and profit are not always related; after all, he is known to say, "Mother Theresa didn't make a profit". In 1996, Turner donated $1 billion to the UN for purposes of third world restoration.

Turner hits the presses, the big screen and the animation scene

In 1986, Turner Broadcasting purchased MGM/UA studios for $1.5 billion and assumed millions in debt. UA was immediately sold off, and in 1987, TBS was bailed out of debt by Tele-communications Inc and Time Warner, Inc., both of which acquired equity in the company. The next year, TNT debuted in 17 million homes, premiering with an MGM acquisition, the first cable telecast of Gone With the Wind. In 1989, Turner Pictures and Turner Publishing were formed within two months of each other. With an impetuous Pac-Man entrepreneurial style, Turner gobbled up Hanna-Barbara for $320 million in 1991, the same year that he married Jane Fonda. TBS launched the Cartoon Network in October 1992, the first 24 hour, all-animation TV channel. By August 1993, TBS was able to buy New Line Cinema Corp. and Castle Rock Entertainment Co. for a cool billion.

Time for a TBS buyout

In September 1995, after five weeks of talks between Time Warner Chairman Gerald Levin and Ted Turner, a $7.5 billion buyout of Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc. was announced. Turner and Levin had befriended each other in the process, and Turner was made Vice Chairman of the new combined entity, the natural successor to Levin. At the time of the merger, TBS assets included New Line Cinema and Castle Rock Entertainment; cable networks CNN, TNN, TBS and the Cartoon Network; and the Atlanta Braves and Hawks sports teams. As of late 1999, Ted Turner and TBS Inc. are credited with giving Time Warner the boost that it desperately needed. TNT is currently seen in more than 75 million homes and the TBS Superstation is seen in more than 76 million; collectively they have licensed more than 150 of today's top movies, including Forrest Gump and The Truman Show. The incorporation of an empire unto a larger empire has pushed Time Warner to the top of its game. Currently the biggest player in the media game, Time Warner's revenues total $26.8 billion and employs more than 675,000 people.

Who isn't in the internet these days?

With the TimeWarner-AOL merger a seeming certainty, Turner has spent countless hours exploring how to use AOL to bring its content to the Internet. In AOL, it has the partner it needs to market its internet content and provides it with an audience well into the millions.