The Start Of CNN…January – June 1980
The Start Of CNN…January – June 1980 Photos From Jeff Jeffares
Jeff was hired January 2, 1980 at CNN to help Chief Engineer Jack Ormond put it all together, and was one of the original 200 hires. In the beginning, there was a big empty studio and boxes of new equipment everywhere. Oh, and wires….lots of wire and cable that had to be run.
Below we see the RCA TK47s that Jeff unpacked and set up. In the second photo we see what would become “the pit” with it’s switching gear in place, but with no cabinets yet. In the color photo, we see a May rehearsal less than a month before the June 1, 1980 sign on with Jeff at the TD position (nearest). Finally, the Grass Valley 1600 switcher with E Mem still in the crate.
The Cable News Network was launched at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on June 1, 1980. After an introduction by Ted Turner, the husband and wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the channel’s first newscast. Burt Reinhardt, the executive vice president of CNN at its launch, hired most of the channel’s first 200 employees, including the network’s first news anchor, Bernard Shaw.
This summer, CNN will celebrate it’s 35th Anniversary. Thanks to Jeff for sharing these rare pictures…many more are headed for the scanner, so stay tuned! Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Is this the pieces they used to build wolf Blitzer?
New Year’s Eve and all is quiet. CNN Newsroom, 12-31-14.
I remember CNN’s sign-on – at what, 4PM? – and I recall the first 12 or 24 hours was simulcast by WTBS, as many cable systems were just 10 or 12 channels back then and most had not picked up CNN yet. I was working news in Florida and my GF and I watched 2, 3, 4 hours of it. There had never been a four hour general newscast! We were pretty amazed. Then we went out to dinner. We came back at 9PM and they were still STILL GOING, this one newscast. We watched Carson, then Tom Snyder, then the NBC station signed off. (Yes, stations once all signed off for the night around 1AM.) We tuned to TBS and CNN was STILL ON (!), 10 hours later. It seems idiotic now to think this was nothing short of amazing back then, but it was.
Launch of CNN-2 on 12/31/81: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX1Zd8RNoAo&sns=em
I was a videographer/editor for WRET-TV, Channel 36, Charlotte, NC, in the early 1980s. WRET was named after (Ted), R.obert E.T.urner . It’s now called, WCNC-TV-36. This was the station that gave PTL and Jim Bakker, (the Praise The Lord, network) a national platform. WRET was sold by Turner to fund his start-up network, CNN. Small Worlds.
I miss being able to turn on the TV any time of day and getting a straight up national newscast
Looks like Jeff’s right hand fingers are on the TAKE bus.
I remember watching Ted Turner at their sign on ceremonies.
I had Bob Furnad’s class at UGA. Great guy with loads of wonderful stories…
March, 1980: I was a reporter at WPTV, West Palm Beach, then spring training home of the Braves. It was a Saturday when, as I was eating lunch in the media room at the stadium with a couple of colleagues, in walks Ted Turner, who pulls up a chair and starts telling us how excited he is about his new, soon-to-launch project: a 24-hour a day news channel–on cable! He said it would have more subscribers than Time magazine! After he left, someone asked me what I thought about Turner’s idea. My response: “Who’s gonna watch news 24 hours a day–on CABLE!” My bad. Lol.
Thanks Bobby Ellerbee. You sure do bring a lot of good memories of the good ole days
CNN is 25 days older than me!! Great info thanks for sharing… 🙂
Here’ the color adjusted photo of the pit.
Jack Ormond hired me he interviewed and tested me over the phone , I started in engineering dept Feb 82!
James Earl Jones recorded “This….. Is CNN” at our studios in Dubuque. He was in town filming “Field of Dreams” at the time. I was in the next room…. nice guy!
Hard to believe it all started at a former country club. 🙂