(born 1938) Ted Turner (R.E. Turner III) is largely credited for the popularization of cable TV with TBS, one of the first stations to reach a nationwide audience in 1975. This station carried only the minimal amount of news required by the FCC and showed mostly reruns.

Another one of his groundbreaking stations, CNN, was initiated in 1981, and has had an incredible influence both in news broadcasting and in reporting mostly national events to international audiences from its Atlanta base. An outspoken and controversial figure, he is married to actor Jane Fonda; he has challenged other wealthy men to give more with his planned $10 billion gift to the UN. In 1995 TBS was sold to Time Warner, Inc. and Turner rose to the position of vice-chair within the huge conglomer-ate. He also became the largest single land-owner in the US in 2000 with 1.7 million acres.