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Turner Classic Movie Channel launched on April 14, 1994 by Ted Turner who is a media mogul and philanthropist of this amazing time capsule that is TCM. Turner launched the channel at a ceremony in New York City in Times Square. This date was chosen because it’s the exact centennial anniversary of the first public movie showing in New York City which was April 14, 1894. In a trivial coincidence April 14th is also the date the Titanic hit the iceberg in 1912, though it didn’t sink until the 15th.
Although TCM is now the only network showing 24 hour commercial-free programming of classic films it was American Movie Classics (AMC) who actually was the first channel to do so. They launched in 1984, but in the early 90’s, AMC stopped using the commercial-free format and also played more recent films with dates ranging from 1970’s to present, leaving TCM the only channel to devote its programming entirely to classic films, uncut and commercial free.