WI: No Ted Turner

Let's assume that Ted Turner dies in a boating accident before he inherits his father's company. What would be the impact of no Turner?
 
Okay, so first cable news.

Plus, Ted helped to bankroll the 1986 Goodwill Games which might have helped some to build bridges between U.S. and USSR
 

Driftless

Donor
In 1986, Ted Turner bought MGM, and after about a year of financial upheaval, Turner re-sold the studio but retained the rights to show MGM's old film library.

Eventually, that library formed the source of content for the Turner Movie Classic cable channel. Turner Movie Classic channel has done a done a marvellous job of expanding interest in old films, back to the silent era. Not just as a source of cheap 24/7 content; but also including frequent and informative discussions of film history by critics and film historians that help put those old films in historical context.
 
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_Broadcasting_System

So CNN, TBS, TNT, TruTV(used to be Court TV), Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Boomerang, and TMC will either not exist or be radically different, with no telling what fallout this might trigger for other networks.

A wide number of tv shows, movies, and cartoons will either never be made, or broadcast on different networks. This would also drastically alter shows that are broadcast in syndication, in that some shows that lived on through reruns might fade into obscurity, while other shows might remain in the spotlight.

No Turner Field for the Atlanta Braves to play in, or if they build the same exact stadium, it will obviously have a different name.
 
No Georgia Guidestones?

Many locals around the stones believe Ted Turner built the structure. “The rumor here is that Ted Turner built them. Jives with a lot of his beliefs, his big money, and his absolutely zany personality,” said one man who preferred to remain anonymous.

And so without Ted Turner, the anti-Illuminati conspiracy crowd will possibly be purged of the one and only belief that prevents the rest of us from viewing them as cool-headed, rational analysts.
 
Without Turner who, if anyone, comes up with the idea of Superstations?

WGN in Chicago was already growing to the point where it could have become what TBS became. Indeed, I remember WOR being on our cable system (NE Ohio) in the early 80s and getting Mets games as well as TBS and Braves games.

The programming for Super stations might be quite different though. Did anyone at either of these stations have an interest in restrooms, for instance, the way Turner did? What were the lineups like at those stations? I only know about the baseball, and really just know in general that Turner used old movies and westerns to get programming for his superstation.

It could also be that, because WGN and WOR would grow to be larger, people would think that superstations would only be possible in very large markets, whereas is Atlanta is kind of a small to medium-sized Market, though with the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Alabama to draw from pretty close, I guess it's more of a large medium sized Market.

There were probably plenty of Southerners who would have bought the Braves in 76 when they were sold, but it is possible they could have moved to Denver, there was thought about that. However, it's just as possible they wait a few years and moved to Tampa.
 
I should have been more clear. There were already plenty of regional superstations, Turner was the guy who thought to go national.

Perhaps no Turner means the superstations stay regional powerhouses, in turn this drastically changes what action the FCC takes—likely there’s no SyndEx law. Which in turn means there’s still an opportunity for a regional operator to go national in the 1990s. Or perhaps someone going national in the 1980s triggers a 1990s version of the law which could look very different given the make-up of Congress a few years later than when OTL laws were passed.
 

nbcman

Donor
Delayed return of Bison to the US diet as Ted Turner is a big rancher and the Montana Grill Restaurants that he has been a partner in has introduced many people to the taste of Bison.
 

Driftless

Donor
Delayed return of Bison to the US diet as Ted Turner is a big rancher and the Montana Grill Restaurants that he has been a partner in has introduced many people to the taste of Bison.

Good point. In the late 1980's into the 90's, there was a resurgence of bison raising on midwestern farms as a knock on from Turner's efforts. If you are a carnivore, bison is a very good red meat alternative. It's just that raising the animals can include a high start-up cost(mostly real strong fencing)
 
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