Media Moguls: Ted Turner — The Atlanta Braves & The Sports TV Revolution

How Ted Turner Turned the Worst Team in Baseball Into a TV Goldmine — and Changed Sports Forever

Apr 23, 2025

Hi friends,

Hope you’re doing well! I’m excited to share that Episode 3 of Media Moguls: The Ted Turner Saga is LIVE.

Quick heads up: Media Moguls is now available in video on YouTube! But instead of watching me talk for 3 hours (boring!), we’ve paired the audio with archival footage to give each episode a real sense of movement and a more cinematic, ephemeral feel. It’s wayyy more engaging than staring at a podcast cover and honestly, really helps brings these stories to life. Check it out!

Listen to The Ted Turner Saga | Part 3: The Atlanta Braves & The Sports TV Revolution

Episode 3 dives deep into how sports broadcasting evolved from a network afterthought into the billion-dollar engine it is today—and how Ted Turner’s Braves, along with cable and the satellite, helped spark that revolution. It’s the story of a media maverick who knew that playing by the rules meant failure. So, he didn’t.

Ted brought showmanship to the ballpark, flooded WTCG with more baseball than anyone had ever aired, and turned the worst team in baseball into a Southern obsession, and eventually, a national sensation. All while clashing with the Establishment at every turn.

This episode covers the early days of sports broadcasting, Ted’s MLB suspension, the rise of free agency, Hank Aaron’s home run race, Channel 17 aka Andy Messersmith, Ted managing the Braves, and much more. Some of the stories are so unbelievable, no fiction writer could’ve made them up—but they really happened.

Listen or watch now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube

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And one last shot in the dark—if you cover media, sports, business, or tech (newsletter, podcast, blog, whatever), I’d love to connect and chat about the show. Thanks again for listening and supporting!

Damn Strong!
Web

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Show Notes: Media Moguls - Episode 3

Long before live sports dominated television and drove billions in media rights deals, the televised sports landscape was limited, local, and low-priority. In this episode, we explore how Ted Turner saw something no one else did: that sports weren’t just games — they were powerful, 162-game-long TV shows. And when he turned the worst team in baseball into a programming goldmine for his upstart UHF station, he didn’t just change his channel — he changed the entire business of sports.

From the rise of color TV to the birth of cable, Ted Turner saw that sports could be more than entertainment — they could anchor an entire network. When he bought the Atlanta Braves, it wasn’t for wins; it was for airtime. He packed his station with baseball games, outrageous stunts, and a whole lot of personality, turning a last-place team into the South’s favorite pastime. Along the way, he redefined sports ownership, took on the league’s old guard, and helped lay the groundwork for the 24/7 sports era we live in today. This is the wild, unlikely story of how one media maverick turned a struggling team into a national phenomenon — and rewrote the rules of both television and sports in the process.

Credits

Writing, research, and production by Web Barr.
Artwork by Dylan Lathrop.
Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant

Sources: Episode 3

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