CNN Closes Atlanta Control Room

The gradual move out of CNN Center this year in downtown Atlanta hit another milestone Friday. CNN anchor Kate Bolduan, who is based in Manhattan, told the audience that the control room for her show in Atlanta was using CNN Center for the final time, according to Atlanta media watcher Rodney Ho at AJC.com.

“We anchor the show out of New York, but the control rooms of this show and much of our editorial staff has always been in Atlanta at that iconic building at the CNN Center, also known as CNN’s World News Headquarters,” said Bolduan on air Friday.

“Starting Monday, our team there will move to a new home just a couple miles away. But…the new home is actually the place where CNN founder Ted Turner started the network back in 1980.”

Indeed, Turner in 1980 started at the Techwood campus in Midtown. When CNN outgrew that space, Turner leased the space in 1987 by the Omni Hotel and turned it into a massive tourist destination replete with a CNN Tour. The CNN signage became an iconic Atlanta image over the years.

But CNN’s former owner AT&T sold the building in 2021, and CNN earlier this year began moving back in stages to the Midtown campus. The campus has been renamed after Turner and includes some operations for other Warner Bros. Discovery properties like TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies.

Although the control room is going to be in Midtown, the Atlanta-based weekend anchors Frederick Whitfield, Victor Blackwell and Amara Walker will continue to anchor from CNN Center studios for the time being.