by Lisa Napoli
This page Making him act like: Bill Tush, interview by Karen Herman, Television Academy Foundation, June 14, 2010, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/bill-tush.
This page purple wizard’s hat: Ibid.
This page When he said CNN was a “crusade”: “Rebel with a Cause,” Broadcasting, May 19, 1980.
This page “Nothing, dummy,” Ted responded: Christian Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: The Story of Ted Turner (New York: Times Books, 1981), 248.
This page “Somebody forced to make a public”: Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way, 247.
This page “some little company”: Hank Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story: How a Band of Mavericks Changed the Face of Television News (Boston: Little, Brown, 1990), 30.
This page “Turner Be Sure”: Jeff Denberg, “Visionary Ted Turner Sets Sails for New Challenge in Cable TV,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, February 24, 1980.
This page His query to the original WTBS: Trustee of WMBR Todd Glickman, interview with author, March 5, 2019.
This page An earlier potential buyer: Frederick Allen, “‘Cursed’ Building Is Vacant Again,” Atlanta Constitution, May 26, 1977.
This page From that moment on: Information about the activities at the Progressive Club can be found in Box 2, Files 4, 5, 6, in Mss 6, Jewish Progressive Club Papers, The Cuba Family Archives for Southern Jewish History, The William Breman Jewish Heritage Museum, Atlanta, Georgia.
This page It would take an equal sum: George Rodrigue, “Turner Gets Approval on Bonds,” Atlanta Constitution, July 13, 1979.
This page or “snakes fucking”: Reese Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN (New York: Cliff Street, 2001), 56.
This page “I think I’d rather be broke”: Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story, 66.
This page especially after Sid Pike assured him: Sidney Pike, We Changed the World: Memoirs of a CNN Satellite Pioneer (St. Paul, MN: Paragon House, 2005), 96.
This page The space, as he imagined it: Reese Schonfeld, interview by Karen Herman, Television Academy Foundation, November 9 and 11, 2005, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/reese-schonfeld.
This page “The idea was to demystify news”: Reese Schonfeld, as quoted in unpublished Chris Chase manuscript, Tape 3, Side A, October 27, 1999.
This page what CNN absolutely could in no way: Keith Graham, “Cable News Is Ready for Action in ‘Progressive’ Home,” Atlanta Constitution, May 22, 1980.
This page The trip got off to: Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way, 194. Journalist Christian Williams crewed on Tenacious during Fastnet and writes in detail about the experience.
This page As the day dawned: Ted Turner’s Greatest Race, ESPN Films: 30 for 30 Shorts, dir. Gary Jobson, June 3, 2015, http://www.espn.com/30for30/film?page=tedturnersgreatestrace. Also, “The Fastnet Yacht Race Tragedy of 1979,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHTKMGO0YYw.
This page The first time he’d raced: Peter Ross Range, “Playboy Interview: Ted Turner,” Playboy, August 1978.
This page The seasickness among the men: Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way, 214.
This page Frantic, crackling radio calls: Ted Turner’s Greatest Race.
This page Once during a competition: Ted Turner and Gary Jobson, The Racing Edge (New York: Rutledge Books, 1979), 40.
This page “It’s no use crying”: Christian Williams, “Disaster at Sea: ‘My God . . . Not Like a Race,” Asbury Park Press, August 17, 1979.
This page “The public is manipulated”: Daniel Schorr, Staying Tuned: A Life in Journalism (New York: Washington Square Press, 2001), 304.
This page “I’m not going to say it”: Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way, 16.
This page There had to be a backup: Turner, interview by Michael Rosen, “The Interviews: An Oral History of Television,” June 12 and December 6, 1999; Turner, Call Me Ted, 79.
This page “We are searching the heavens”: Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story, 78.
This page “Keep watching the skies!”: Tom Shales, “Cable TV’s Bye-Bye Birdie,” Washington Post, December 12, 1979.
This page Ted quipped to an audience: “CTAM Prologue to Western Cable Show,” Broadcasting, December 17, 1979.
This page “Who the heck will watch”: Edward Valenti and Barry Becher, The Wisdom of Ginsu: Carve Yourself a Piece of the American Dream (Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press, 2005), 124–26; Ed Valenti, telephone interview with author, July 8, 2019.
This page “I can’t do that”: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 93.
This page eager for the latest: Archie T. Miller, Birds in Hand: RCA and a Communications Revolution (Manchester, NJ: ATM Consulting, 2011), 19.
This page He was sure they were: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 115.
This page new National Christian Network: Miller, Birds in Hand, 23.
This page an uncontrollable rage: RCA attorney Carl Cangelosi, telephone interview with author, June 29, 2019.
This page “Rasputin Mad Monk” routine: Terry McGuirk, telephone interview with author, March 20, 2019.
This page have a hysterectomy: Andy Inglis, RCA Americom president, recounted this story in a taped interview, Box 27, Folder 24, Gerald Jay Goldberg Papers, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
This page “I’m a small company”: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 115; RCA’s Inglis and Cangelosi, Box 27, Folder 24, Gerald Jay Goldberg Papers, Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
This page As the station’s fortunes: Ron Alridge, “WRET Plans to Pay Back Viewer Loans,” Charlotte Observer, February 5, 1976.
This page a black woman hired: Former WRET employee Curtis O. Peters, telephone interview with author, March 11, 2019.
This page Westinghouse threatened to scrub: Vanessa Gallman, “Rights Deal Will Permit WRET Sale,” Charlotte Observer, May 1, 1980.
This page Ted had secured: “FCC Clears Way for Turner Sale,” Broadcasting, May 5, 1980.
This page Now, he lamented: Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way, 257.
This page Reese felt as if he’d been: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 58.
This page “You gotta let me sell this”: Turner, Call Me Ted, 189.
This page It was a worthy chunk: Gallman, “Rights Deal Will Permit WRET Sale.”
This page “Unless television changes a lot”: “FCC Clears Way for Turner Sale,” Broadcasting, May 5, 1980.
This page forty million viewers on thirty stations: “Still Another New News Group,” Broadcasting, May 5, 1980.
This page “do that whole process”: Jon Nordheimer, e-mail to author, April 17, 2018. This diatribe is not verbatim, but it mirrors what Ted said to Dan Schorr on the day he hired him.
This page “But in reality, aren’t you”: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 127.
This page “Barring satellite problems”: Richard Zoglin, “Turner Network Assured Space on RCA Satellite by Court Rule,” Atlanta Constitution, March 5, 1980.
This page The Independent Network News: “John Corporon and the Independent Network News,” Associated Press, June 15, 1980.
Chapter Eight: Reese’s Pieces
This page In the winter of 1979: The description of how Jane Maxwell and Rick Brown arrived at CNN was generously shared by them during my visit to their home on May 22, 2018, and in subsequent telephone conversations and email exchanges.
This page “Bangladesh bazaar” style of news: Reese Schonfeld, as quoted in unpublished Chris Chase manuscript, chapter 24.
This page pungent aroma of vagrancy: Reese Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN (New York: Cliff Street, 2001), 84–85.
This page “I don’t even know what you guys do”: Hank Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story: How a Band of Mavericks Changed the Face of Television News
(Boston: Little, Brown, 1990), 85.
This page Back of the stall in the restroom: Email exchange with CNN original Rick Brown, June 11, 2019.
This page “the lifeblood of citizenship”: David Colker, “Sam Zelman Dies at 100; Pioneer of Local TV News Helped Start CNN,” Los Angeles Times, June 2, 2015.
This page because of a drinking problem: Drew Jubera, “Ed Turner, Commanding the Troops at CNN,” Atlanta Constitution, February 26, 1991. Over the years, Ed Turner helped other staffers conquer their alcoholism.
This page would be a mitzvah: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 73.
This page Deputy did not equal secretary: Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story, 116.
This page “Any similarity between Alec”: See the obituary printed on the Dartmouth Class of 1967 website: http://1967.dartmouth.org/s/1353/images/gid319/editor_documents/obituaries/nagle.pdf.
This page “Kavanau would say”: Schonfeld, as quoted in unpublished Chris Chase manuscript, chapter 38.
This page “Go around with your Geiger”: Reese Schonfeld, transcript of interview for unpublished manuscript co-authored with Chris Chase, Tape 14, November 15, 1999.
This page “A bank interest rate”: Alec Nagle and Peter Vesey, Inside CNN manual, 1980, from the personal collection of CNN original Scott Leon.
This page “It soon became clear”: Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story, 100.
This page “Let’s say a plane goes down”: CNN original Randy Harber, telephone interview with author, July 27, 2018.
This page “How do you start”: Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story, 118.
This page Too many in the avalanche: John Baker, Chicken Noodle News: A CNN Whodunit (Pinole, CA: Dailey Swan Publishing, 2009), 23.
This page “An anchor is an anchor”: Whittemore, CNN: The Inside Story, 220.
This page “Women are attracted to cable”: Priscilla Tucker, “Cable: Boomtown for Women,” New York Daily News, January 19, 1982.
This page “if red fire ants had bit him”: Mary Alice Williams interview, September 24, 1992, Box 29, Folder 74, Gerald Jay Goldberg Papers (collection 1666), Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
This page His wife convinced him: Howard Kurtz, “Bernard Shaw, Under Siege,” Washington Post, January 22, 1991.
This page “I don’t view it”: Carla Hall, “Turner’s Talent Hunt: Cable News Raids the Broadcast Ranks,” Washington Post, April 28, 1980.
This page “Cable Nepotism Network” Ted Turner, Call Me Ted, 186. Ted’s son Teddy became a cameraman at the network and later worked on the Goodwill Games.
This page One early employee: Chris Turner, son of CNN original Ed Turner, hired as a copyboy in June 1980, wrote a tribute on Facebook, December 3, 2018, to the late copy editor Mark Dulmage, who once roared at him for being a “nepit.”
This page “Dee,” Ted shouted: Baker, Chicken Noodle News, 24–25.
This page “a mynah bird with an adenoid problem”: Larry Wright, “On the Air Everywhere,” Atlanta Weekly, July 6, 1980.
This page “Do you realize that”: Baker, Chicken Noodle News, 31.
This page “the most exciting opportunity”: Richard Zoglin, “The All-News Mastermind,” Atlanta Constitution, August 13, 1979.
This page In the hopes of: Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World, 151.
This page dull, dull, dull: Ibid., 119.
This page He didn’t want critics: Ibid., 122.
This page Sandi Freeman of WLS-TV’s: Ibid., 122.
This page After watching her reel: Howard Polskin, “Nothing Stops Sandi Freeman for Long,” TV Guide, June 25, 1983.
This page Unlike Bunnies at the nearby: Ibid.
This page Mostly, she appeared in: Angela Rocco DeCarlo, “It’s All in a Day’s Work for Sandi Freeman,” TV Week, June 19, 1977.
This page As second banana: Cheryl Lavin, “Good Morning, Sandi Freeman!,” Chicago Tribune Magazine, February 25, 1979.
This page “Her job was to look”: Fred Rothenberg, “Paducah Sandi Freeman Has Come Far Since Being Just TV Window Dressing,” Associated Press, January 7, 1985.
This page NBC confirmed that: Diane Marimbas, “Today on TV,” The Daily Herald, Arlington Heights, IL, May 21, 1979.
This page “Pleasant looking blonde”: Jules Witcover, Washington Evening Star, January 23, 1981.
This page “It was very difficult to pick up”: Marilynn Preston, “Freeman Airs Her Enthusiasm for Cable News Network Role,” Chicago Tribune, May 29, 1980, section 2, 12.
This page The sink-or-swim school: Peter Arnett, Live from the Battlefield: From Vietnam to Baghdad, 35 Years in the World’s War Zones (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 327. Various people claim credit for inventing the title “video journalist.”
This page “next rock star of Earth”: Fred Cowgill, phone interview with author, January 7, 2019.
This page Like John Towriss: John Towriss, phone interview with author, January 8, 2019.
This page They loved and relied on her: Reese Schonfeld, interview by Karen Herman, “The Interviews: An Oral History of Television,” Television Academy Foundation, November 9 and 11, 2005, https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/reese-schonfeld; Reese Schonfeld, interview by Brian Lamb, C-SPAN Booknotes, February 23, 2001.
This page Everyone, all together: Ron Taylor, “An Institution, a Bar That Chafes Under a Single Label,” Atlanta Constitution, January 20, 1980.
This page “I just hope we can avoid”: Larry Wright, “On the Air Everywhere,” Atlanta Weekly, July 6, 1980.
This page In six weeks: Iain Johnstone, The Man from Atlanta—Ted Turner, BBC Television, 1982. Accessed online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-uGoKQ7phs. Ted aired the special on WTBS in 1983.
This page Even more vexing: Gary Sherman, interview by Lela Cocoros, Cable Center Oral History Program, July 31, 2019, https://www.cablecenter.org/media-room/press-releases-2016/51-the-oral-history-project/s-listings.html.
This page “Make our newscasts so good”: Nagle and Vesey, Inside CNN.
This page custom-designed microprocessor: Steve Miller, “NAB Brings Out Newsroom Computers,” Broadcast Management/Engineering, July 1980.
This page “I don’t know a thing about”: Randy Schultz, “All-News TV First in Independent Programming,” Palm Beach Post, May 18, 1980.
This page “that can’t take a joke”: Baker, Chicken Noodle News, 48.
This page “got off the ground”: CNN original Tom Gaut, telephone interview with author, January 7, 2019.
This page became known as the “CNN Salute”: CNN original Randy Harber, telephone interview with author, July 27, 2018.
This page “That’s all we have”: Baker, Chicken Noodle News, 45.
This page All the dazzled Reese would confess to: Schultz, “All-News TV First in Independent Programming.”
This page “I’ve been hearing that some of you”: Ted Kavanau, telephone interview with author, March 17, 2018.
Chapter Nine: Until the End of the World
This page A headline in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Jack Gurney, “America, Not America’s Cup, on Turner’s Mind,” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, January 26, 1980. Also Jeff Denberg, “The World According to Turner,” Atlanta Constitution, February 24, 1980.
This page “Ted Turner for President”: John Ahern, “Committee Says Goodby, Ted,” Boston Globe, August 26, 1980, 37.
This page That day’s band, standing tall: Ted Turner, Call Me Ted, 189.
This page Microphone in hand: CNN: Birth of a Network, from the personal collection of David Bell.
This page Sensing that she needed something: Interview with Reese Schonfeld, Gerald Jay Goldberg Papers, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.
This page Imagine, he had said: “News: Why We Do It the Way We Do,” C-SPAN, February 8, 1985, https://www.c-span.org/video/?125307-1/news.
This page To Lamb, the arrival of CNN: Brian Lamb, interview by Jim Keller, The Cable Center, August 26, 1998, htt
ps://www.cablecenter.org/media-room/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=140.
This page “great step forward”: Larry Wright, “On the Air Everywhere,” Atlanta Weekly, July 6, 1980.
This page “an awful lot of people”: Tony Schwartz, “The TV News, Starring Ted Turner,” New York Times, May 25, 1980.
This page “Any establishment doesn’t”: Randy Schultz, “All-News TV First in Independent Programming,” Palm Beach Post, May 18, 1980.
This page From this day forward: Reese Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN (New York: Cliff Street, 2001), 156.
This page “We hope that the Cable News Network”: CNN: Birth of a Network.
This page “Let us pray,” said Reverend Borders: Phil Garner, “In Atlanta, the Dream and the Drive,” Washington Post, June 2, 1980.
This page The husband-and-wife anchor team: Brandon Lisy, “CNN’s First Anchors on the Birth of 24-Hour Cable News,” Bloomberg, December 3, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhY4FP6crHI.
This page “I’m so happy I could die”: Christian Williams, Lead, Follow or Get Out of the Way: The Story of Ted Turner (New York: Times Books, 1981), 239.
This page “How do you like the way”: Ibid., 242.
This page “You realize,” he declared: John Baker, Chicken Noodle News: A CNN Whodunit (Pinole, CA: Dailey Swan Publishing, 2009), 50.
This page “Goodbye, Walter Cronkite”: Jonathan Miller, “Ted Turner’s 24-Hour Cable Network: New News Is Good News,” Washington Post, July 6, 1980.
This page “A new day dawned at dusk”: Tom Shales, “CNN Sets Sail,” Washington Post, June 2, 1980.
This page “The question ‘Will Turner pull it off?’”: Dick Williams, “The Faces of Cable News Network,” TV Week, the Television Magazine of the Atlanta Journal and the Atlanta Constitution, June 1, 1980.
Chapter Ten: Duck Hunting with Fidel
This page An internship at a local television: Reese Schonfeld, Me and Ted Against the World: The Unauthorized Story of the Founding of CNN (New York: Cliff Street, 2001), 110.
