It's a distant memory now. At the height of the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm on a winter afternoon, a few youngsters walked into our south Delhi residence offering us a cable connection to a satellite television channel called CNN. For the next few weeks we sat glued to the news channel, eagerly following the developments in Baghdad.
Last month, I came face to face with the man who started it all. A tall man with a thin white mustache walked into a Chinese restaurant at Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas for a private dinner. Very politely he extended his hand and introduced himself: "I am Ted Turner."
Turner is a legend in the cable TV business. Whether in philanthropy, business, entertainment or sports, Turner has had a remarkable career. On June 1, 1980, Turner inaugurated CNN, the world's first, live, in depth, round-the-clock news television network.
Within five years the channel went global with CNN International and is now distributed in 210 countries and territories worldwide.
Turner's holdings are not limited to cable networks, although he also owns Turner Network Television, Turner Classic Movies, Sportsouth and The Cartoon Network.
His Turner Entertainment Company manages one of the world's largest film libraries, including the MGM library, licensing broadcast and cable stations to show Hollywood classics.
In June 2001, Turner, the former husband of Hollywood star Jane Fonda, announced the creation of two independent film production companies and "Gods and Generals" was their first feature film.
Turner is the recipient of numerous industry awards and civic honors, including being named "Time" magazine's 1991 Man of the Year and Cable and Broadcasting's Man of the Century in 1999.
Have heard and read a lot about his fascinating life and enterprises I took the opportunity to discuss a range of global issues with the media mogul, ranging from nuclear disarmament to alternative living.
Media consolidation in the US is in his "top five" list of global problems, somewhere down below war, nuclear proliferation and environmental degradation.
He said that he was against the formation of these giant companies, including in retrospect the merger between TW and AOL, which voting for, he said, was his "craziest" business mistake.
He cited Disney's decision to reject distribution of "Fahrenheit 9/11" as an ominous indication of the chilling effect of media consolidation.
Reacting to a business proposal, he advised me to take the greatest risks while young, as, to his mind, there's nothing worse than an older guy who used to be rich.
"That's why I started the restaurant business," he added, referring to his chain of "Montana Grill" restaurants, which specialise in bison burgers.
Turner's expects to open up to 40 more restaurants in the next few years.
Turner spoke passionately about his latest venture, managing the largest commercial bison herd in North America, with approximately 32,000 bisons spread among his 14 ranches in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
I discovered that he had a dedication to making the world a better place and had made his mark as one of the most influential philanthropists in the US.
In 1998, Turner created the UN Foundation with his historic $1 billion gift to the United Nations and its programmes. The UN Foundation has committed more than $28 million to India's economic and social development, as well as to the protection of its environment.
Appearing the next day as the keynote speaker at the National Association for Television Programming Executives (NATPE) Convention in Las Vegas, the founder of CNN said, "We need to be very well informed. We need less Hollywood news and a little more hard news."
The maverick called Fox News a propaganda tool of the Bush administration and indirectly compared Fox News Channel's popularity to Adolf Hitler's election to run Germany before World War II. Predictably, Murdoch's Fox News was quick to respond to Turner's comment Tuesday morning.
"Ted is understandably bitter, having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind; we wish him well."
When I asked the 66-year-old billionaire, who leveraged a television station in Atlanta into a media empire, what he'd put on his tombstone, Turner replied: "My tomb stone would say, I have nothing more to say."
(Lall is the president and CEO of LALL Entertainment, a company based in Los Angeles and New Delhi. )
He can be contacted at
lallentertainment@hotmail.com
