Ted Turner, a flamboyant Southern entrepreneur and sportsman, first came to prominence in 1977 when, as the skipper of the winning yacht in the America's Cup race, he shocked the rather staid community of Newport Rhode Island with his wild celebrations and partying. Yet, this notoriety masked the fact that he was also in the process of creating television's first "superstation," a local television station that, through the power of satellite communications, could broadcast its signal to cable-equipped households across the United States and ultimately around the world. In the process, he reinvented television viewing patterns for most Americans and forced the networks to rethink their traditional broadcasting options.

His career, in fact, began very quietly in 1970 when his Turner Communications, a small family-owned and billboard-oriented advertising agency, merged with Atlanta's Rice Broadcasting and took over a controlling interest in local television station WTCG. During...