When you think of the Atlanta Braves becoming "America's Team," one name stands above the rest: Ted Turner. His vision didn't just change a franchise—it transformed how millions of fans across the country experienced Major League Baseball.

It all started in the late 1960s, when Turner began snapping up small radio stations across the South, including several in Georgia. By 1969, he had sold those stations to purchase a struggling UHF television station in Atlanta called WRJR. He soon rebranded it as WTCG, filling its airwaves with old movies and classic TV shows.

The game-changing moment came in 1976, when the FCC gave WTCG the green light to use satellites to beam its programming to cable stations nationwide. Turner immediately branded it the WTCG-TV Super Station, broadcasting straight from Atlanta. As cable TV exploded in popularity, providers eagerly carried the station to fill their schedules. Subscribers quickly soared to 2 million, boosting Turner's net worth to $100 million.

That same year, Turner bought the Atlanta Braves, adding the Atlanta Hawks two years later. He soon changed the station's call letters to WTBS, using his "superstation" to air Braves and Hawks games across the country. Suddenly, fans in places far from Atlanta could watch every game—long before the team's legendary 1990s and 2000s championship runs.

Turner negotiated a deal that brought Braves baseball into 24 states. As Turner Sports Broadcaster Ernie Johnson recalled, "When the superstation came along, no matter where you went, you'd hear, 'Hey, we watch the games all the time—in Idaho.'"

Former Braves legend Dale Murphy put it perfectly: "There's a lot of baseball fans around the country, in the world, because of what Ted did through TBS." He added, "Remember back then, growing up, the game of the week was about it. It was just a different kind of thing to have a game on every night."

From a small UHF station to a national phenomenon, Ted Turner's bold move made the Braves a household name—and proved that with the right game plan, you can bring America's pastime to every corner of the country.