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CNN was under-capitalized from the beginning. I think Ted Turner thought he would get more advertisers than he did. Consequently he ran too many PI spots which didn't pay the bills.
I remember transponder time was $500 an hour (C-band). And they didn't give out checks till after 4PM on Fridays. Insiders called it Charity News Network.
The stations who had ACR's were 5,11, and Turner (17, CNN, Headline News).
The TCR stations were 2 and 46.
I moved on to 46 when it was clear that Turner was in trouble. I got a dollar an hour raise. 46 had two TCR's. They were the 4th news station. They were owned by Tribune and a CBS affiliate.
Their Corporate Engineer was a "rock star." His philosophy was,we were going to stay on the air, no matter what, just short of a direct nuclear strike. It was great seeing all the new equipment rolling in!
He even had pocket protectors made up with the corporate logo after an unfortunate experience with a pen at the NAB. I wore mine proudly at the local SBE meetings.
And we always had beer in the transmitter building's refrigerator.
What a guy!
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