If you were a basketball fan in the late 70s and early 80s, there was only one regular source of games on TV and that was WTBS. Even if it was all Hawks, it was NBA basketball and teen me had the Hawks schedule memorized so I wouldn't miss a game against a team I really wanted to see. I watched so many Hawks game back then, I became a Dan Roundfield (RIP) fan. Then, in 1980, CNN came around. Back then, they had the 30 minute Sports Tonight program that ran every night. It was great for teen me as you could watch the new ESPN Sportscenter and the CNN sports show one after the other. Because neither channel had a ton of programming, you could always catch reruns of both shows if you missed the original air time. Then there were the Braves on WTBS, which meant you could find a bad MLB game most every night. And of course, Turner founded the Cartoon Network. Dude was an eccentric but utterly confident guy who did more with his time and money than just about any billionaire I can think of. I mean, the guy preserved bison, married Jane Fonda, Coast Guard vet, won the America's Cup, bought MGM, became a pro wrestling mogul, and challenged Rupert Murdoch to a fistfight. RIP to one of the few cool rich guys.
LOL, I forgot about this: On Opening Day 1977, Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium debuted a new $1.5 million dollar video board Turner installed for the specific purpose of running replays of calls that went against the Braves that he felt were blown in order to rile up fans. It’d soon be banned after umpires complained.
Also in May '77, after they had lost 16 in a row, he sent their manager on a "scouting trip" and installed himself as manager. They lost 2-1, and then the Commish said owners can't do that.
The original TBS was like Grandpa Ted had the remote and we had to watch what he wanted to watch. **** it, here’s six hours of The Andy Griffith Show. Then we watch Braves games all summer. Whatever.
I could have done without the constant Braves games in the 90's. So I skipped them but it was annoying to see the games when you're channel surfing. I was delighted that they were 1-4 in the World Series with 8 NL championship appearances.
