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After beating cancer, battling Fox News isn't all that harrowing
As a rookie salesman for CNN in New York City two decades ago, Greg D'Alba faced a ban on taking taxis to call on clients. Times were so tough that salespeople were forced to ride the subway. The upside was that sometimes the young account executive got to take the train with his tight-fisted boss, Ted Turner.
At the time, the flamboyant CNN founder was quietly facing a financial crisis. But to the public, Turner was a rock star, well known from his frequent appearances on TV and magazine covers.
"He'd have people from the other end of the car yelling, 'Hey Ted! How ya doin', Ted!'" says D'Alba. "He'd be high-fiving people. He'd look at me and say, 'See, what's wrong with this? This is great!'"
Selling with Turner was a high point for D'Alba, who stuck with the network through the lean years. Today, he's COO of CNN's advertising sales and marketing unit, with responsibility for more than $400 million worth of domestic ad sales for CNN, Headline News and CNN.com and reporting to network President Jim Walton.
During his time at CNN, D'Alba has survived two mergers, when parent Turner Broadcasting System was acquired first by Time Warner and then by America Online. And he has stuck through the fallout from a nasty fight with rival Fox News Channel, which is trouncing CNN in the ratings.
But he counts as his biggest personal...