“That seeded the idea, what could he do next? And that was where he fell into news.” Interview Highlights He saw the power of cable television and cable television delivered via satellite,” she says. The overnight news programming was a big hit, and that was where the idea of CNN was born, she says. “And what they really didn't bargain for was that when they went up on cable and then up on the satellite and they could be seen at different time zones all around the country, lots of people were watching at all hours.” “But what they didn't bargain for is that there were tons of insomniacs,” Napoli says. His idea was to put the news on at night where it would “get lost in the shuffle” and make it a “jokey” news program, starring broadcaster Bill Tush. In fact, Turner didn’t want to do news, but the Federal Communications Commission required that television stations do a certain amount of public service broadcasting news, she says. He then branched out from billboards into television, acquiring WTCG in Atlanta, which wasn’t a news station at all, Napoli says. Turner began his career as a billboard salesman after he inherited the company from his father. He said he hoped that CNN’s national and international coverage would “bring together in brotherhood and kindness and friendship and in peace the people of this nation and this world.” In his launch speech in June 1980 at CNN’s Atlanta headquarters, Turner shared his vision for the network.

Four decades later, journalist and author Lisa Napoli takes a deep dive into the history of the first 24-hour news network in her new book, ' Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN, and the Birth of 24-Hour News.' The network started in 1980 and quickly showed its value in covering news events as they were happening. The launch of CNN by the eccentric and sometimes outrageous Ted Turner ushered in a new era of nonstop news. By Lisa Napoli This article is more than 2 years old.

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