• Business Week, Friday, May 19, 2006 11:45 AM

With Ted Turner stepping down from the board of Time Warner on Friday, Business Week's Tom Lowry pays tribute to the man who did so much to make cable TV what it is today. "Even though Turner has been relegated to background status these past years, his footprints are all over the media landscape," he writes. "A complicated mix of arrogance and vulnerability, Turner is one of the rare visionaries, like his arch-nemesis Rupert Murdoch, who trusts his gut over financial models." Turner also came up with the idea of dual revenue streams by starting with an ad-supported broadcast model and adding on the take from distribution fees. "Cable pioneer John Malone may have coined the phrase '500-channel universe,' but Turner helped make it a reality," Lowry says.

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