CNN launched the era of 24-hour cable news
On this day · 1 June 1980
When CNN signed on from Atlanta in 1980, it turned news from a fixed appointment into something always available.
At 5 p.m. on June 1, 1980, Ted Turner’s Cable News Network went live from Atlanta, becoming the world’s first channel to deliver news around the clock. The husband-and-wife team of David Walker and Lois Hart anchored the first newscast; the lead story was the attempted assassination of civil rights leader Vernon Jordan.
The idea was widely mocked. Critics nicknamed it the “Chicken Noodle Network,” and the launch reached only about 1.7 million subscribers, well below what was needed to cover costs. Turner, the brash Georgia businessman dubbed the “Mouth of the South,” bet that audiences wanted news whenever it broke, not only at fixed evening hours.
CNN dismantled the notion that news could only be reported at set times of day.
Vindication came with live, continuous coverage of the 1991 Gulf War, which made CNN essential viewing worldwide and confirmed that the 24-hour format was here to stay.
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