Broadcasting
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RuPaul Andre Charles was born to Ernestine “Toni” Fontenette and Irving Charles in San Diego, California, on November 17, 1960. His parents, who relocated from the South during the Great Migration, named him after roux, a mixture of flour and fat common in Creole cooking.
Courtesy of Paula Gately Tillman
In 1996 RuPaul became the first drag queen and the first openly gay person to host a national television show with the debut of The RuPaul Show on VH1. The show that launched RuPaul into superstardom, RuPaul’s Drag Race, aired its first episode in 2009. The show’s popularity has helped destigmatize the LGBTQ+ community and provided a platform for gay people to publicly discuss experiences of conversion therapy, becoming HIV positive, and coming out to their families and loved ones, among other important issues.
Courtesy of Paula Gately Tillman
The television version of The American Music Show debuted on Atlanta’s People TV cable station in early 1981. Dick Richards and James Bond co-hosted, with camerawork and production by Potsy Duncan. When Bond left the show in the early 1980s, Potsy Duncan took over as co-host alongside Richards, while Bud “Beebo” Lowry ran the camera and simultaneously co-hosted, made visible on a monitor between Richards and Duncan.
Courtesy of Paula Gately Tillman
Known as the “world’s most famous drag queen,” RuPaul George is a prominent entertainer and television personality. Though he’s most famous for hosting the award-winning RuPaul’s Drag Race, his career began with public access television and club performances in 1980s Atlanta.
Courtesy of Paula Gately Tillman
The American Music Show was a weekly television series created and broadcast in Atlanta from 1981 until 2005. One of the longest-running public access cable television programs, it acquired cult status and helped launch the career of RuPaul, who was an early regular on the show.
From Atlanta Studies
The American Music Show's storylines and characters reflect southern tropes, often outrageously rendered, from the perspective of Atlanta’s urban milieu. The fictional Peek family multiplied comically until the family reached mythological proportions. DeAundra Peek, pictured here, went on to host her own cable access show, “DeAundra Peek’s Teenage Music Club,” and perform regularly in Atlanta throughout the 1990s.
Courtesy of Paula Gately Tillman
The Walking Dead televsion series is adaptated from a comic book created in 2003 by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore. The series premiered on the AMC cable network on October 31, 2010.
The Walking Dead comic book series, created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Tony Moore, was first published in 2003. The popularity of the comic increased dramatically with the premiere of The Walking Dead television series in 2010, and two years later it had become the best-selling independent comic book series.
The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame was founded in 2007 to honor the work of Georgia's radio professionals and to preserve the history of Georgia radio.
Courtesy of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame
Elmo Ellis's 1950s campaign, "Removing the Rust from Radio," encouraged the revitalization of radio in the wake of television's growing popularity. Ellis was honored with a Peabody Award and was inducted into the Georgia Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
Courtesy of History of WSB Radio
Sam Hale, cofounder of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame, welcomes guests to the organization's inaugural induction awards ceremony, held in Atlanta in 2007.
Courtesy of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame
John Long (left), cofounder of the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame, accepts a commendation from Georgia governor Sonny Perdue (not pictured) at the organization's inaugural induction awards ceremony, held in Atlanta in 2007.
Courtesy of Georgia Radio Hall of Fame
Albany native Paula Deen, a well-known restaurateur and television personality, is the host of Paula's Home Cooking, which premiered on the Food Network in 2002. Her restaurant, The Lady and Sons, is a popular tourist destination in Savannah.
Photograph from Paula Deen
Paula Deen's iconic restaurant The Lady and Sons opened in downtown Savannah in 1996 and features such southern favorites as fried green tomatoes and hoecakes. In 2004 she opened another restaurant in Savannah, Uncle Bubba's Oyster House, with her younger brother.
Image from Steven Miller
Paula Deen published her first cookbook, The Lady and Sons: Savannah Country Cookbook, in 1997, one year after opening The Lady and Sons restaurant in Savannah. She became well known outside the South by selling the cookbook on QVC, a home-shopping television network.
Atlanta-based Alton Brown, the host and producer of the Food Network's television series Good Eats, has written numerous books about cooking, including I'm Just Here for the Food (2002) and Good Eats: The Early Years (2009).
Alton Brown, raised in White County, is a food television personality and producer based in Atlanta. His cooking show, Good Eats, premiered in 1999 and received a George Foster Peabody Award from the University of Georgia in 2007.
Photograph from UGA Today
Journalist Deborah Norville, pictured in 2007, is a native of Dalton and a graduate of the University of Georgia. She became host of the news and entertainment television program Inside Edition in 1995.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Deborah Norville is pictured in 1997 at a signing for her self-help book Back on Track. A Georgia native, Norville is the host of the television news program Inside Edition and the author of several books.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Journalist Deborah Norville, a native of Dalton, published her third motivational book, The Power of Respect, in 2009. Norville has also published knitting and children's books.
The headquarters for Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB), which comprises GPB Television, GPB Radio, and the Education and Technology Services Division, are located in Atlanta. As of 2006 the network operated nine television stations and sixteen radio stations across the state.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Masani (left), the host of The Jazz Spot, a series on GPB Radio, conducts an interview. The studios for GPB Radio, one component of the Georgia Public Broadcasting network, are located in Atlanta.
Courtesy of Georgia Public Broadcasting.
The headquarters for Cox Communications, pictured in 2006, are located in Atlanta. The third-largest cable-television provider as of 2006, the company serves 6.7 million customers around the country. In addition to cable television, Cox offers telephone and Internet services.
Courtesy of Cox Communications
Cox Communications employee Paul Voutsinas talks with elementary students in Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of the company's Careers on Wheels program. Cox is also involved with public education through its Cable in the Classroom program, which provides commercial-free programming to schools.
Courtesy of Cox Communications
The headquarters for Turner Broadcasting System, founded by Ted Turner in 1970, are located in Atlanta. Today the system comprises a variety of television networks, including TBS Superstation, CNN, Turner Classic Movies, and Cartoon Network, as well as Internet sites and radio networks.
Courtesy of Turner Broadcasting
In 1970 Ted Turner bought WJRJ-TV, an independent television station in Atlanta, and changed the call letters to WTCG, for Turner Communications Group. In 1976 the station became the first national "superstation," distributing its programs via satellite to cable stations around the country.
Courtesy of Turner Broadcasting
Cable News Network, or CNN, began broadcasting news twenty-four hours a day in June 1980. The network was conceived by Ted Turner, the founder of Turner Broadcasting System in Atlanta, and reaches around 1 billion people worldwide.
Courtesy of Turner Broadcasting
Hapeville native Jeff Foxworthy performs at Chestnut Mountain in 2005. A stand-up comedian and writer, Foxworthy is best known for his You Might Be a Redneck If . . . comedy routines and book series.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The financier and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, a native of Columbus, made significant contributions to the University of Georgia beginning in the late 1800s. In 1906 he was named a life trustee of and awarded an honorary degree by the university.
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia Libraries, John Brown Gordon Family Papers.
George Foster Peabody (left) and University of Georgia chancellor David C. Barrow (right) honor Harry Hodgson, a businessman and trustee of the University of Georgia, for his leadership of an endowment campaign for the school, circa 1920.
The George Foster Peabody Award is given annually by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia to honor "distinguished achievement and meritorious service" by individuals, networks, stations, and organizations in the media industry.
Courtesy of University of Georgia Photographic Services
A WSB television broadcast van painted with call signs and channels for WSB's stations.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Popular Music and Culture Collection.
During a bus driver strike in 1949, Atlanta television station WSB broadcast Rich's in Your Home, a call-in program filmed at Rich's Department Store that allowed customers to place orders for merchandise to be delivered directly to their homes. From left, unidentified cameraman, producer Elmo Ellis, engineer Oliver Heely, and emcee Dwight Horton.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WSB-TV Archives.
The original headquarters for CNN were located in a former country club in Atlanta. CNN was based at the club from its start in 1980 until 1987, when it moved into its current headquarters: the Omni International complex.
Courtesy of Georgia Info, Digital Library of Georgia.
Nathalie Dupree's practical sensibility and guileless approach to teaching helped her cooking shows and books to gain wide popularity. Dupree published fifteen cookbooks and appeared in more than 300 half-hour television episodes.
Photograph by Chris Rogers
Nathalie Dupree (left) works with a student at her cooking school, which opened at Rich's Department Store in 1975. The school ran for almost ten years and enrolled more than 10,000 students.
Courtesy of Nathalie Dupree
Ted Turner, a media magnate, philanthropist, and restauranteur, played a significant role in the Atlanta business and entertainment communities with the establishment of his Turner Broadcasting System in 1970. As the creator of CNN, the owner of the Atlanta Braves, and cofounder of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Turner influenced a variety of arenas from the local to the international.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Businessman Ted Turner launched CNN, the world's first twenty-four-hour news television network, in 1980.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Ted Turner carries the World Series trophy in 1995 after the Braves win the series for the first time since relocating from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Atlanta in 1966. Turner began broadcasting the Braves' games in 1973 and purchased the team in 1976.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Members of the board for the Nuclear Threat Initiative include, back row, left to right: Fujia Yang, Eugene E. Habiger, Hisashi Owada, Susan Eisenhower, Sam Nunn, Ted Turner, Andrei Kokoshin, Jessica Mathews, Charles B. Curtis, Prince El Hassan bin Talal. Front row, left to right: William Perry, Rolf Ekeus, Richard G. Lugar, Nafis Sadik.
Courtesy of Nuclear Threat Initiative
The company logo of Ted's Montana Grill adorns the exterior of the restaurant in Midtown Atlanta. Turner established the restaurant chain, which specializes in bison meat, in 2003.
Courtesy of Ted's Montana Grill
Ted Turner (center), selected in 2010 as a Georgia Trustee, is pictured at the induction ceremony in Savannah with U.S. senator Johnny Isakson (left) and Georgia Historical Society president Todd Groce. The Georgia Trustees honor is bestowed annually by the Georgia Historical Society and the Office of the Governor.
Courtesy of Georgia Historical Society.
The Peabody Awards for excellence in broadcasting, given by the Grady College of Journalism at the University of Georgia, are named for George Foster Peabody. Peabody, born in Columbus, was a banker and philanthropist who provided substantial support to the university.
From George Foster Peabody, by L. Ware
Gordon Hight's 100-watt transmitter was used by WSB to transmit the first commercial radio broadcast in Georgia on March 15, 1922.
Courtesy of Michael H. McDougald
Lambdin Kay was the WSB station manager from 1922 to 1940. During station breaks Kay would play a three-note chime, which was adopted by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1927, when WSB became an affiliate of that network. The chime is still used by NBC today.
Efrem Zimbalist Sr. (far right) sits in the WSB studio with his wife, singer Alma Gluck, and engineer Walter Tison in the 1920s. Zimbalist's first radio performance was broadcast by WSB.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
The WSB station moved from the Biltmore Hotel in 1956 to "White Columns" on Peachtree Street. Today White Columns also houses WSB-TV and other Cox Radio properties.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
Jesse B. Blayton Sr., known as the "Dean of Negro Accountants," speaks in 1928. Blayton worked as both a bank president and a college professor before purchasing WERD in 1949. In 1995 he was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame.
During the 1960s, the WERD radio station shared the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge on Auburn Avenue with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
In 1956 disc jockey and social activist Zenas Sears established the Atlanta radio station WAOK, one of the first in the country to play blues, rhythm and blues, and soul music as the primary format.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
Ray Charles, a performer and recording artist, pioneered a new style of music in the 1950s and 1960s called "soul," a blend of gospel, blues, and jazz.
This amateur radio gear is typical of the 1925-30 era and is more sophisticated in the transmittal of sound than the earliest equipment built around 1900.
Courtesy of Michael H. McDougald
These heavy-duty "power" tubes, built around 1929, transmitted radio signals. Stations often used a combination of ice and fans to keep the tubes cool.
Courtesy of Michael H. McDougald
Located in heavily draped studios above a furniture store on Broad Street in Rome, the radio transmission room at WRGA (formerly WFDV) provided a "soundproofed" studio. The younger man is believed to be Jimmy Kirby, who became a popular announcer.
Courtesy of Michael H. McDougald
Industrialist Henry Ford (seated) visits the WSB studio in Atlanta, circa 1922. Ford was the guest of Major John Cohen (right), the editor of the Atlanta Journal who is credited with spearheading the effort to transmit the first commercial radio signal in the South.
Courtesy of Michael H. McDougald
A musical group performs in 1955 for the popular WSB Barn Dance program.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
Bob Hope, who broadcast his own radio program for U.S. troops from military bases during World War II (1941-45), is interviewed in 1946 for the Atlanta radio station WSB.
Courtesy of Special Collections & Archives, Georgia State University Library, Lane Brothers Commercial Photographers Photographic Collection.
After achieving great success as a businessman and politician, Fuqua has demonstrated significant generosity as a philanthropist.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Fuqua Orchid Center at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, next to Piedmont Park, is named for the philanthropist J. B. Fuqua.
Image from Brett Weinstein
Charlayne Hunter and Hamilton Holmes, the first Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia, are pictured here at the end of their first day on campus in January 1961.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault became a CNN correspondent in 1999, reporting from South Africa.
Image from Charlayne Hunter-Gault
Charlayne Hunter returns to campus following demonstrations in 1961. She was one of the first two Black students to enroll at the University of Georgia.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Journalist Walter J. Brown graduated from the journalism school at the University of Georgia and went on to establish his own news bureau and eventually his own broadcast empire in Georgia and South Carolina. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives, housed in the main library at UGA, are named in his honor.
Courtesy of the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc.
CNN founder Ted Turner became vice chair of Time Warner after the media giant bought Turner Broadcasting System in 1995. In 2001 Time Warner merged with the Internet service provider America Online, creating the world's largest media conglomerate.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Turner's CNN began to gain respectability throughout the 1980s. Its all-news format allowed the time for specialty shows focusing on medical news, sports, and other topics. Its focus on live coverage, much of it from cameras on the scene, gave CNN's broadcasts a special sense of urgency.
Courtesy of Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
