May 18, 1980 was a Sunday. 

The eruption of Mount St. Helens caught the entire Seattle area with the speed of events. Massive on-shore air flow blew the volcano's ash to the east, away from the large cities close to the Pacific Ocean.

But the story of a volcano blowing it's top highlighted something media critics were complaining about - our "Television News Networks" are club-like institutions that pass out headlines in a tidy 18-munite package at the dinner hour. Great for scheduling, not so great for news.

In a one-two punch, Ted Turner kicked the major netwoks in the head with the launch of his Atlanta Superstation, quickly followed by the launch of CNN. 

1980 became the year the public began asking questions. What is television news? Can anything about broadcastng be changed? All of a sudden, a line had been drawn in history. The 70's vs. the 80's - Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan - soccer vs. football.

This was the start of rule changing for media standards resulting in the 80's becoming quite a different animal from the 70's.