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Friday, July 11, 2008
Bill Tush tells a Ted Turner-Bob Hope story
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For years, Bill Tush was the entire news staff for Ted Turner’s embryonic media empire.
When Turner spoke at the Atlanta Rotary Club this past Monday, he shared a couple of Bill Tush stories. Since he couldn’t afford a news staff, Turner hired Tush to do the news late at night at WTCG-TV, which later became the SuperStation on Channel 17.
Turner said Tush would basically just read the headlines from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. But he would provide a humorous angle on the news, in some ways a precursor to Jon Stewart’s Daily Show.
Interestingly enough, after my column on Turner’s talk appeared on Thursday, I got an email from Tush, who lives in Atlanta.
Tush found it funny that at Monday’s lunch, Turner was being interviewed by Bob Hope, who had done public relations for the Atlanta Braves during the early years of Turner’s media empire.
Here is Bill Tush’s email:
Maria,
I read and enjoyed your story on Ted at the Rotary in this mornings AJC.
I thought I wuld pass this story along and hopefully give you a laugh. I was the original so called “talent” hired back in 1974 long before it was the empire it is today and was just WTCG-TV. My career lasted there for thirty years.
Anyway, shortly after Ted bought the Atlanta Braves and Bob Hope was the PR person for the team Ted and I were in the parking lot walking to our cars. He said to me, “Hey! Bill, I’m going up to Nashville to have dinner with Bob Hope.
I said, “So what’s the big deal?”
Ted came back with, “No! The real one.”
Have a nice day.
Bill
