Media giant Ted Turner’s career roots are tied to Macon where he once lived

CNN founder Ted Turner, who died Wednesday at 87, spent the early years of his career in Macon.

After graduating from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, Turner worked for his father’s billboard advertising company in 1960 — first in Savannah and then in Macon, according to New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Turner, who managed the company’s Macon operation, lived then in a mid-century modern house in Shirley Hills, according to a Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation Facebook post made in 2021.

The post includes a photo of Turner and of the house.

When Turner started working for his father, the business was Turner Advertising Co. His father sold it in July 1962, according to his father’s obituary in The Macon Telegraph.

His father next purchased the Atlanta division and Virginia divisions in Richmond and Roanoke of General Outdoor Advertising Co. for $4 million. His company was the largest outdoor advertising network in the Southeast at the time of his death, according to his obituary published on March 8, 1963.

Ted Turner was promoted to the helm of the company, now Turner Outdoor Advertising, after his father’s suicide, according to New Georgia Encyclopedia.

Turner had moved from Macon to Atlanta by the time of his father’s death, according to his father’s obituary.

“Turner began his media career at the age of 24 when he took over his father’s billboard company, Turner Outdoor Advertising, in the wake of the elder Turner’s suicide,” CNN reported. “He buried his shock and grief in work — but Turner wasn’t content to push other people’s products forever.”

Turner is best known for founding CNN, a ground-breaking 24-hour TV news network that he characterized as the “greatest achievement” of his life, according to CNN.