"I want my MTV" goes a famous song lyrics of “The Dire Straits”, for young people symbolizing the meaning of this music channel, music television. "Leaders say: I want my CNN" ¹ was the title of an article in Variety Magazine on April 18, 1990 alluding to die increasing importance of the news channel, Cable News Network, for "world leaders, military officials and even intelligence agencies" ² around the globe. In fact, numerous leaders are known to receive much of their news from the Atlanta-based TV-network. President Bush, for instance, watched many hours of CNN during the gulf war. Others‚ like Boris Yeltzin of Russia or the general secretary of NATO, Manfred Wörner, used this electronic global stage (CNN International) to deliver messages which would otherwise probably unheard of or less well regarded. The big mouths who called CNN the Chicken Noodle Network shortly before it went on the air in 1980 have also lost their speech.

After being turned down at Harvard University, Turner, who bad also joined the Coast Guard, applied at Brown University on Rhode Island where he decided to major in the classics. His father, a WW II veteran, had a billboard business in Georgia. Turner describes him as a very rough man who used to punish him heavily. He committed suicide on March 5, 1963. Ted, meanwhile 23 years of age and already manager of a Turner Advertising company branch got kicked out of college in his senior year for entertaining a woman in his room and left for Florida and finally returned to his home in Georgia where he not only saved his dad's business but built it into an empire. This is how he got the money to buy several local radio and TV stations. 3

In December 1978 Ted Turner began to recruit the first people for a project that would exceed everything he had done before. He had purchased the Atlanta Braves as well as the Atlanta Hawks, he had won the America's Cup and had built up a successful media business.

¹ Guider, Elizabeth. (1990). Variety/April 18. p.50.

² Jenish D'Arcy. (1990). McLean's/June 18. p.52.

³ Whittemore, Hank. (1990) . CNN. ‚The inside story. Chapter One. and Painton, Priscila. (1993) . The

taming of Ted Turner. [Man of the year]. Time Magazine/January 6. p.36

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It seems that Turner was taught a strong work ethic and the pressure to accumulate material success, to be a success himself. However, Turner managed to motivate a couple of ambitious people to venture something that nobody had ever tried before: Producing a 24 hour news program. In 1980 he bought a Georgian-brick building in suburban Atlanta had it renovated with the help of his architect Helf Rich walls broken down, columns removed and equipped with audio and computer facilities, telephones and editing machines within just a few months. The house, which had been a country club before, was referred to as the white house according to its style and white paint. Even though its 90.000 square feet of space were adequate for the satellite farm that was needed, the facilities inside were poor and so were the first hours and days of CNN. But it did work. An ambitious, young staff had the courage to run a 24-hour program even though several black-outs were inevitable in these early days. One can distinguish three reasons that were probably most important for the success of the project.

"I knew it could be done - and it could be done much cheaper than the three big networks do it" ⁴ .

At first, Turner's tactic to hire young, fresh journalists who will perform well and enthusiastically even for a bow salary. That way he could keep the finances under control and even though he had to invest most of the money he had earned so far into the news station, the costs stayed relatively low. Since 1980 things have changed a little, though. The young, ambitious beginning journalists have grown older and most of them moved on to do other jobs. New people who lack the pioneer excitement of the first days work for CNN. They are still young, many of them under 30, and their salary is still modest. That is what some of them told me: You won't become rich working here, you have to like the job! The manager of CNN-International told me, on the other hand, he was very satisfied with his pay check. But he emphasized that there was quite a difference between leading employees and others.

"We intend to reveal as much of the news process as possible." 5

⁴ Ted Turner in: Whittemore, Hank. (1990) . CNN. The inside story.

⁵ Ted Turner in: Whittemore, Hank. (1990) . CNN. The inside story. p.57.

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The second reason is a psychological one. By changing the technical order of TV news they managed to create a style that gives viewers the feeling of being part of the news process instead of just consuming what an isolated anchor says. Taking the mystery away from the news gathering gives CNN also more credibility. The limited space in the old country club prevented this idea from being fully realized and nothing but a quiet corner with a tape machine behind the anchor appeared on the TV screen. Only in 1987 with the move to the renamed Omni hotel building, now CNN Centre, was this idea put into action. The big newsroom on the third floor is surrounded by anchor boots and cameras showing the busy journalists at work while the anchor reads the news. Through a glass gallery visitors may watch the newsgathering from the fourth floor. where you feel like observing something somewhere between a telephone-receiver-dependent species in the zoo, the stock exchange in New York and the space lab. "Our philosophy is live, live and more live." ⁶ Of course there was nothing new about being live. ABC, CBS and NBC had done a good job in life coverage many times. The difference with CNN is that here news don't have to compete with other programs and life coverage is only approved on special occasions like the Olympic Games or the inaugural speech. CNN is very flexible when it comes to life coverage. Actually, mobile and flexible life coverage where the established networks couldn't compete anymore is what made CNN famous. And not only is the function of live-coverage essential to CNN it's the role that news play in general that makes the program so special. While major networks seem to carry highly financed 15 to 20 minutes newscasts to preserve a serious image, for CNN news is all that matters. Here we have another reason for increased credibility of CNN, the credibility to be the news-expert! Right there lies a significant difference: The public stations use News to maintain or obtain an image, CNN is an image for news in itself. Except for commercials there is nothing that doesn't fit into the news spectrum in one way or the other.

There is more about the success of an all news Station than just an intelligent new concept. For long term success it takes news itself to establish an audience.

⁶ Reese Schonfeld in: Whittemore, Hank. (1990) . CNN. The inside story.

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