Ted Turner’s audacious vision for 24-hour news changed the media landscape forever. “Up All Night” by Lisa Napoli unveils the riveting story behind CNN’s birth, capturing the excitement and challenges of a revolutionary idea that shook the foundations of traditional broadcasting.
Dive into this captivating account of media history and discover how one man’s dream reshaped the way we consume news today.
Table of Contents
Genres
Writing, Research and Publishing Guides, Company Business Profiles, Communication Skills, Communication and Media Studies, History, Biography, Business, Politics, Pop Culture, Journalism, Historical, Leadership
“Up All Night” chronicles the creation of CNN, the first 24-hour news network, through the lens of its visionary founder, Ted Turner. Napoli meticulously details Turner’s journey from billboard magnate to media mogul, highlighting his unconventional approaches and relentless drive. The book explores the technical, financial, and logistical hurdles CNN faced in its early days, from skeptical investors to the challenge of filling a 24-hour news cycle.
Napoli paints a vivid picture of the network’s launch on June 1, 1980, and its subsequent impact on journalism and global events. She delves into key moments that defined CNN’s rise, including its groundbreaking coverage of the Gulf War and the Challenger disaster. The author also examines the personal toll of Turner’s ambition on his relationships and mental health.
Throughout the narrative, Napoli weaves in the stories of early CNN employees, offering insights into the chaotic and exhilarating atmosphere of a startup that would reshape the media landscape. The book concludes by reflecting on CNN’s legacy and its continued influence on modern news consumption.
Review
Napoli’s “Up All Night” offers a compelling and well-researched account of CNN’s inception and early years. Her writing style is engaging, striking a balance between factual reporting and narrative storytelling that keeps readers invested in the story.
The author’s extensive interviews with key players provide a multi-faceted view of events, offering both insider perspectives and critical assessments. This approach lends credibility to the narrative and helps readers understand the complexities of launching such an ambitious venture.
One of the book’s strengths is its portrayal of Ted Turner. Napoli doesn’t shy away from Turner’s eccentricities and flaws, presenting a nuanced picture of a visionary leader with human vulnerabilities. This balanced approach adds depth to the story and avoids hagiography.
The book excels in contextualizing CNN’s rise within the broader media landscape of the time. Napoli effectively illustrates how CNN’s 24-hour format disrupted traditional news cycles and changed viewer expectations.
While the book is generally well-paced, some readers might find certain technical details about satellite technology and broadcasting logistics challenging. However, these sections are crucial for understanding the magnitude of CNN’s achievement.
“Up All Night” is a valuable contribution to media history, offering insights that remain relevant in today’s rapidly evolving news environment. It’s a must-read for anyone interested in journalism, media studies, or the intersection of technology and communication.
Journalist Lisa Napoli details CNN’s saga and the life of its founder, Ted Turner. By emphasizing live reports and broadcasting 24 hours a day, CNN, which was the first all-news cable TV channel, turned the news world upside down. Napoli revels in Turner’s eccentric life and powerful personality. A pioneer in broadcasting, Turner seldom gets the credit he deserves; Napoli sets the record straight.
Swashbuckling Television
Lisa Napoli details the almost unbelievable history of media mogul Ted Turner and his foremost invention: CNN.
Ted Turner
Atlanta’s independent TV station, Channel 17, struggled with a tiny audience, few advertisers and monthly losses of $50,000. To rescue his venture, the station owner bought an ad on an Atlanta billboard.
Robert Edward “Ed” Turner Jr. owned that billboard and many more. When his son Ted was 4, Ed sent him to boarding school; he believed sons who spent too much time with their mothers became feminine.
Ted later went to Brown University, where he became an accomplished sailor. After Brown suspended him twice, Ted joined the Coast Guard and worked for Ed at Turner Outdoors in Macon, Georgia. He increased billboard-space sales twofold.
New York media circles…were predicting – and almost hoping – that CNN would fail, for its success would upend not just news, but the entire advertising industry.
In 1962, as Turner Outdoors grew, Ted oversaw operations in Atlanta. Ed smoked three packs a day, drank a fifth of liquor daily, became addicted to pills and, in 1963, shot himself in the head. His suicide at age 52 devastated Ted.
Broadcasting
Ted Turner bought a radio station in Chattanooga, Tennessee, which adopted a Top 40 music format. Turner used unsold billboard space to promote it and acquired three more stations. Then he acquired Channel 17, renamed it WTCG – for Turner Communications Group – and began broadcasting on January 1, 1970.
Turner promoted the station as “Super 17”; in August 1974, it became the first US television station to broadcast 24 hours a day.
Wasted space – wasted anything – drove Ted crazy. It made zero sense [to him] that television stations ceased transmission each night.
Turner acquired the broadcast rights to Atlanta Braves baseball games. He boosted profits by accepting direct-response commercials featuring products viewers could buy by mail or phone. His advertisers included the renowned Ginsu kitchen knives.
Former deejay Bill Tush, a WTCG employee, read 20-minute audio summaries of news stories daily. He read stories about UFOs, higher beer prices and anything involving marijuana. The WTCG crew lampooned news shows with on-camera characters like “the Unknown Newsman,” a crew member with a paper bag on his head. A German shepherd in a shirt and tie, Rex the Wonder Dog, once co-anchored the news. Fan mail and merchandise orders poured in.
Satellite and Cable TV
In 1972, Turner expanded Channel 17’s audience via cable television. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled that cable system operators could air the broadcasts of the nearest independent TV station. No independent could match WTCG’s sports programming, library of old movies or all-night broadcasting schedule.
In 1976, Turner bought the Atlanta Braves to make sure the team would stay in Atlanta. That year, the Braves won 70 games and lost 92, but attendance nearly doubled.
Convinced that the big networks did not properly inform the American people, Turner regarded competing with network news shows as a noble pursuit.
Reese Schonfeld started the New York City-based Independent Television News Association (ITNA), a news service with a subscriber base of nine independent television stations. In September 1978, Turner and Schonfeld planned a nonstop news operation – the Cable News Network, or CNN.
CNN
On May 21, 1979, Turner announced that CNN would launch in one year. To create a studio for it, he bought the Progressive Club – a former Jewish country club – for $4.2 million. The 21-acre property had a vacant, columned mansion, three swimming pools, and handball and tennis courts.
While crews worked on CNN’s headquarters, Turner competed in England’s 605-mile Fastnet yacht race. Deadly gales turned it into a struggle for survival; sailors were washed overboard and yachts sank. Rescuers could not find Turner and his crew. But 80 hours after they started, Turner and his crew won the race, which claimed 19 lives.
CNN suffered the mysterious disappearance of a crucial satellite just after its December 1979 launch. The manufacturer of the satellite, RCA, had reserved space on it for CNN, but RCA wouldn’t launch another satellite for 18 months, and had already sold out transponder space on that satellite.
Ted fell to his hands and knees to underscore his contrition and begged. ‘You gotta let me sell this station, or I’m a goner.
A federal court ruled that RCA owed CNN a transponder on a different satellite. Assuming that its satellite transmission would not be interrupted, Turner said, CNN would stay on the air until the end of the world.
On June 1, 1980, CNN pitched tents for its launch party, which sported six huge satellite dishes, the largest array ever at a nongovernmental site. Turner and his guests celebrated a successful launch, but during its start-up period, CNN lost $2 million a month.
AOL, Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting
In 1987, Turner sold 37% of Turner Broadcasting for $560 million, money he used to pay down the $2 billion he had borrowed to buy MGM and its profitable film library.
Turner married Jane Fonda in 1991, and he became a billionaire in 1997, when Time Warner bought Turner Broadcasting. Time Warner later agreed to a disastrous merger with AOL. In the wake of that merger, AT&T acquired Time Warner in 2019 for $85 billion and announced it would remove any mention of Ted Turner from the businesses he had built.
Gossip, Shenanigans and Triumph
Napoli, an experienced media reporter, entwines gossip, media shenanigans, bloody corporate warfare, abusive parenting, yachting, desperate grasping after money, personal courage and the finances of billboard companies to weave an amusing, captivating portrait of Ted Turner and the birth of CNN. She captures the vanished age of independent, swashbuckling television, a time that profoundly shaped today’s media universe – and will never return. Napoli echoes, with great detail, the usual contradictory presentation of Ted Turner: obnoxious jerk, lady- killer, adventurer and determined mogul. Turner understood how to capture a huge audience with a tiny resource – the essence of every entrepreneur’s struggle.
Lisa Napoli also wrote susan, linda, nina & cokie: The Extraordinary Story of the Founding Mothers of NPR; Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald’s Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away; Radio Shangri-La: What I Learned in Bhutan, the Happiest Kingdom on Earth; and Temple on the Mall: The Harmonic Convergence of the Faux Bhutan.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Lisa Napoli began her career as an unpaid teenage intern at CNN’s New York bureau in the summer of 1981. As a journalist, she has worked at the New York Times, Marketplace, MSNBC, and KCRW. She is the author of two previous books, Radio Shangri-La and Ray & Joan. She lives in Los Angeles.