WHAT WE'RE ABOUT

WHAT'S COMING

PAST EVENTS

ABOUT TBS

PRESS ROOM

SITE MAP

R.E. "Ted" Turner called a meeting of all of the managers and top sales people in his fledgling company. Turner sat down at the head of the table and pushed out into the center of the table a small model of the RCA Satcom 1 satellite. He pointed to it and said, 'This is how we're going to become a national network and compete with ABC, NBC and CBS.'

"We all stared at this object sitting on the conference room table," recalls then-sales account executive Bob Levi. "This particular model looked as if someone had backed over it in their driveway. None of us was really sure what this all could mean. We talked to other broadcasters in town, and they all said it was folly."

On December 17, 1976, the "folly" became a reality, with Turner walking down the halls of his television station telling everyone, "We're up on the bird. Now people can watch us from all over the country."

"We were a local independent UHF station," says Bill Burke, current president of the Superstation. "Ted got this wild idea to put it up on the satellite and call it a 'superstation,' and it revolutionized cable. Like a lot of things Ted has done, in hindsight, it looks obvious. But at the time, it was completely inspired."

(More History)

TBS Trivia