Planting seeds, cultivating dreams: Exclusive tour of Turner Broadcasting, home of CNN and NBA TV!

As educators, mentors, parents, big brothers, uncles and everyone else in between, when it comes to making a lasting impact on our youth, one of our main responsibilities is seed planting. Of course I don't mean that literally, unless you're a farmer or something like that, but the seeds I'm talking about are seeds of hope, of dreams, aspirations, goals, guidance, and direction. I would like to say that we helped sow a few of these on our recent trip to Turner Broadcasting’s headquarters in Atlanta thanks to Mr. Rodney Kellum. (Sidenote: Kellum is responsible for a few of our fun outings: Atlanta Thrashers hockey game, Atlanta Hawks game, Turner Broadcasting) 

I didn’t know what to expect from this tour and neither did any of our young me; to our amazement, however, this turned out to be one of the most exciting field trips that any of us had ever been on. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but I must add this: there were several of our boys that pulled me to the side and said, “Mr. Shakespeare, I think I know what I wanna do when I get older.” Or, “Shakespeare, what I gotta do to go to college for a job like this?”  

We were not allowed to take pictures when inside the facility, but I do have just a few to share. Make sure you read the captions...

 

I don't think my brothas realized the expansiveness of the Turner Corporation, founded by Mr. Ted Turner, one of the most wealth men in America. Turner Broadcasting brings many of our favorite tv programs to our televisions everyday including some BET shows such as The Monique Show (but I don't think anyone actually enjoys watching that one).




This replica of Conan O'Brien is made completely of Lego pieces. I thought it was pretty cool. Who would sit there and do something like this?  





The Ben10 bike from the cartoon show. I don't watch cartoons, but the boys knew what it was. I thought it was Ted Turner's bike or something. SMH.

 



I had to sneak in a shot after we toured one buildings of the Turner campus. It's called a campus for reason, the facility is huge, like a college campus. That's Bro. Kellum with the purple shirt on, graduate of Alabama &M and now some kind of video technician for Turner Broadcasting. I just figured I'd add that in there somewhere. It seems apropos.

 



The highlight of the evening.  We actually were on the set of NBA TV, the same studio where Charles Barkely and Kenny Smith give the game commentary! We all took turnes sitting in Barkley's chair pretending to host the show as he does. Behind them is the huge touchscreen that Kenny Smith uses for his play-by-play analysis. The backstage mechanics told us it costs $2.5 million!!

 


This is on the set of NBA Game time, another show broadcasted by Turner. We didn't get a chance to sit at the round table here because the show personalities were getting ready to go on and they didn't want us to mess up something.




Here's another look at the NBATV studio we were in.



Turner requires highly educated techinical professionals to man the audio and video equipment. The technicians, editors, and producers we met all encouraged the boys to pursue careers in computer information technology, media production, and even art to secure a job at Turner. I really appreciate them taking the time out of their schedules, on the clock, to speak to the boys about how cool their particular job was. For instance, there is a crew whose sole job is to watch NBA game after NBA game and determine which highlights to show during playbacks! Imagine that; getting paid to watch professional sports contests. Some of them even get flown out to NBA Allstar Weekend and the Finals to do "techy" stuff.



Afterwards, we took them out to Pizza Hut for a little fraternizing and eating.
Pictured left to right: Matthew, Tariq, Damonne (showing off his shirt), Steven, and Travis (cut off the pic)




L to R: Belal, Sadiq (the funniest kid I ever met), John David




Here's another crew playing Uno while we waited on our pizza, wings, and cheesesticks.
L to R: (top): Phillip, Xander, Timothy
L to R (bottom): Mekhi, Rashad



L to R: Belal, Sadiq, Xander, Damonne, Phillip, Bro. Rodney Kellum, Steven, Timothy, Tariq, Matthew, Rashad, Travis, Pastor Scott McCrary, Mekhi, Johnathan. Pastor Scott is co-pastor of The Faith Church, Atlanta, Georgia along with his wife, Prophetess Tyear Scott. He's a great guy. If you're ever in the Atlanta area, look him up and make sure you hear the man speak!