Ted Turner Career and Net Worth

Ted Turner Career and Net Worth, What happened to Ted Turner’s fortune? are a few of the main themes covered in this article.

Ted Turner is a media mogul and an entrepreneur from Ohio. He has about $2.2 billion in net worth as of this writing. He got his wealth being the creator of CNN, TNT, TBS and as former owner of the Atlanta Braves. He has left indelible prints on the entire media landscape by being the brain behind CNN, WTBS, MGM, TNT and Cartoon Network.

Ted Turner Early Life
Ted Turner was born on November 19, 1938 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ted’s family relocated to Savannah, Georgia when he was a young boy. He went to a private all boys academy known as The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Ted attended Brown University where he was the captain of the sailing team and vice president of the Brown Debating Union. He majored in Classics which was not welcomed by his father. He switched later to major in Economics. Ted never graduated from Brown after he was caught with a girl in his dorm and expelled.

Ted Advertising Company
After Ted was expelled, he took over his father’s Billboard business which was thriving at the time in Macon, Georgia. After his father committed suicide unfortunately in March 1963, he naturally became the president and chief executive of Turner Advertising Company. It became successful particularly during the Vietnam War. Ted acquired many Southern radio stations using the profits from the business.

Read Also: David Siegel Career and Net Worth

Turner Broadcasting Systems
Ted later sold the radio stations and bought a UHF television station, WTCG. He was in no quandary as to the profitability of the new outfit and it was a huge success. Ted took shows that VHF had let go including “I Love Lucy”, “Gilligan’s Island”, “Star Trek’ and many more. He later bought WRET, channel 36. Ted acquired the Atlanta Braves in 1976 and the Atlanta Hawks in 1977, at the time he had not interest tp provide programming for WTCG. Ted broadcasted Braves games using the WTBS superstation’s status into almost every home across the United States. He by so doing turned the team into a household name- precursor for their success in the 90s and early 2000s.

CNN
Ted made contact with media exec Reese Schonfeld in 1978 about his intentions to set up a 24-hour news channel. It was agreed that the dream could materialize with a staff strength of 300 if they employed electronic newsroom and satellites to transmit. The following year, Ted sold WRET to bankroll the transaction and set up its headquarters in Atlanta. He was made president and chief executive officer of the Cable News Network now known as CNN. Turner became the CEO of the new media set up in 1982. What happened to Ted Turner’s fortune? Read further to find the response.

Turner Entertainment
Ted created Turner Entertainment in 1986. It was to oversee film and TV properties he owned. He acquired MGM’s library of 2,200 films made prior to 1986. He had them syndicated on his nationwide TV stations. Ted aired colorized versions of older films that were originally shot in black and white.

AOL Time Warner
In 1988, he acquired Jim Crockett Promotions and converted to World Championship Wrestling- the main competitor to Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation (WWF). That same year, Ted introduced Turner Network Television with “Gone with the Wind”. TNT at the initial stages showed older movies and TV shows before adding original programming.

Ted Turner Personal Life
Ted is huge on philanthropy. He gave the largest single gift of all time to the United Nations. Ted joined Warren Buffet’s The Giving Pledge and promised to donated the majority of his wealth to charity after his demise.