Ted Turner Profile

When Ted Turner entered the broadcasting business in 1970, there was no cable television as we know it. Viewers in most markets made do with three channels at most, with one national news broadcast a day. Turner took a failing UHF station in Atlanta, Georgia and sent it by satellite to fledgling cable television operators around the country, creating the first Superstation. Then he did what the old networks and news media considered impossible: he created the first all-news television station, CNN, and pioneered the live broadcasting of breaking news from around the globe, allowing the whole world to experience history in the making.

A fierce and courageous competitor, Turner personally dominated the sport of sailboat racing in the 1970s, winning the America's Cup in 1977 and overcoming a deadly storm to triumph in the Fastnet Race of 1979. He continued to make his mark on the sports world as owner of the Atlanta Braves baseball team, winners of the 1995 World Series, five National League pennants and 14 consecutive division championships, an all-time record.

One of the most colorful and unpredictable characters in the history of American business, he is also a philanthropist of unprecedented generosity. In the 1990s, he single-handedly paid a billion-dollar debt his country owed the United Nations in back dues. Having achieved historic successes in the world of business, he has now turned his attention and resources to the causes of world peace and nuclear disarmament.