|
Ted Turner
Ted Turner. As you certainly recall
Ted was called the “mouth of the south” by newspaper
columnists, television, and radio commentators. But what was
he really like? ? What kind of a guy was he??? I can’t state
what is he like now, but I knew then. I WAS THERE in Atlanta
to watch him create and move his empire forward!! First, let
me state for the record that I like Ted. But those with a
thin skin should not have worked for him. In those days he
was a very aggressive guy who wanted results yesterday as
opposed to today. (As a matter of fact for the survival of
his business he NEEDED results yesterday). No excuses!!! A
sign on his desk stated “Lead, follow, or get out of the
way”. He meant it!!! He led!!! The word “patience” was not
in his vocabulary.!!
I believe I first met Ted at Fan and Bill’s restaurant in
Atlanta. His father had just died and left quite a bit of
debt that Ted decided to clean up. He did. While doing so he
set a financial platform to proceed to the future….make that
HIS future. I was one of the few who thought he was totally
correct when he bought Channel 17 in Atlanta. I
instinctively knew it was a matter of time before all local
TV stations (whether U’s or V’s) would be “must carry” items
on the quickly expanding cable systems; thus, Channel 17
wouldn’t be just a lousy Atlanta TV signal, but rather would
have complete competitive Atlanta coverage. In the early
70’s Ted called my house early in the morning and asked that
I come to his office as soon as possible Why in the heck
should I fight the Atlanta morning traffic to go to his
office on Techwood Drive…but people, including me, seemed to
go out of there way to please Ted. I fought the traffic. We
talked about a number of items that morning including his
dream for Channel 17 to become the SuperStation on cable
systems nationwide; and a dream to have a 24 hour
independent news network on cable (CNN happened down the
line!!) And also, that morning he hired me as a consultant
for his Chattanooga TOP 40 radio station which was in
trouble. He had TWO Top 40 challengers who were drilling
holes in his stations ratings. I drove to Chattanooga and
met with Bob Elliott who was the GM. Tex Meyer was the PD. I
listened to the competition. They were very good!!! I gave a
verbal report to Ted, and he said, “fix it and win”. Easier
said than done. I knew I could win, but against TWO Top 40
competitors it would take longer than with one…maybe a
year!!! Ted knew I had the reputation of quick turnarounds
and he wanted IMMEDIATE results. The first rating book in
six months showed some improvement, but not enough for Ted
to see that we were definitely on the road to success. As we
sat in the Atlanta Arbitron office looking at the rating
book (ratings were not delivered by computer at that time)
he said that he had to cut expenses and was going to
automate the station. “ Could you do the automation tapes”
he asked? I did not have the equipment to do so. My contract
was over at that point, but I wanted to keep working with
the station to help make it number one, and that indeed DID
happen in the next book!!! (Ted has never known until this
column that I continued working with the station for free).
Although in my opinion patience was not one of his virtues
Ted had many assets. For example, he was the guy that made
Atlanta a media center/icon/capitol/capital. It all started
with Channel 17, CNN, and Headline News…all Turner
properties. Others followed such as the Weather Channel that
decided to make Atlanta their headquarters. There are now a
lot of radio companies that have their headquarters in
Atlanta. We even housed Burkhart/Abrams, our media
consulting company there. Ted was sort of a media
magnet…people moved toward him. He bought the Braves, put
them on the SuperStation, and Braves fans were suddenly in
every state. I have a lot of Ted Turner stories that I will
write about in the future. I can certainly state that Ted is
one person I am happy to have met in my lifetime!!! It…I
mean HE was an experience!!!
e-mail Kent
kent@kentburkhart.com
|
