History Early history Turner Broadcasting System traces its roots to a billboard company in Savannah, Georgia, purchased by Robert Edward Turner II in the late 1940s. Turner grew the business, which later became known as Turner Advertising Company. Robert Edward Turner's son, Ted Turner, inherited the company when the elder Turner died in 1963. After taking over the company, Ted Turner expanded the business into radio and television. Turner Broadcasting System as a formal entity was incorporated in Georgia on May 12, 1965. 1970s In 1970, Ted Turner purchased WJRJ-Atlanta, Channel 17, a small, Ultra High Frequency (UHF) station, and renamed it WTCG, for parent company Turner Communications Group. During December 1976, WTCG originated the "superstation" concept, transmitting via satellite to cable systems. On December 17, 1976, at 1:00 pm, WTCG Channel 17's signal was beamed via satellite to its four cable systems in Grand Island, Nebraska; Newport News, Virginia; Troy, Alabama; and Newton, Kansas. All four cable systems started receiving the 1948 Dana Andrews – Cesar Romero film Deep Waters already in progress. The movie had started 30 minutes earlier. WTCG went from being a little television station to a major TV network that every one of the 24,000 households outside of the 675,000 in Atlanta was receiving coast-to-coast. WTCG became a so-called Superstation and created a precedent of today's basic cable television. HBO had gone to satellite transmissions to distribute its signal nationally in 1975, but that was a service that cable subscribers were made to pay extra to receive. Ted Turner's innovation signaled the start of the basic cable revolution. In 1979, the company changed its name to Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.) and the call letters of its main entertainment channel to WTBS. 1980s On June 1, 1980, Cable News Network (CNN) was launched at 5:00 p.m. EDT becoming the first 24-hour news cable channel. The husband and wife team of Dave Walker and Lois Hart news anchored the first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, then executive vice president of CNN, hired most of the channel's first 200 employees and 25-member staff including Bernard Shaw, the network's first news anchor. In 1981, Turner Broadcasting System acquired Brut Productions from Faberge Inc. Also in 1981, WTBS began its usage of "Turner Time" in June 1981, in which programming began at five minutes after the top and bottom of each hour, instead of the broadcasting norm of beginning at