Southern Satellite Systems was founded in 1976 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was formed for the sole purpose of distributing WTCG (later WTBS), an Atlanta UHF television station (Turner Broadcasting) nationwide via satellite.
In 1978, Satellite Syndicated Systems, Inc. was founded, and established as the parent to Southern.
Southern Satellite Systems remained intact under the TEMPO Enterprises umbrella (SSS would change their name to TEMPO Enterprises in the early 1980s) as a separate wholly owned subsidiary and distributed the "Superstation WTBS" signal to cable TV systems all across the country.
TEMPO Enterprises (under its former name Satellite Syndicated Systems, Inc.) entered the arena of publicly traded companies in August 1983.
The company was part of the NASDAQ National Market System under the stock symbol TMPO.