[Steve Mehs]

Yep. Microsoft's Bill Gates, Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway and a bunch of Wal-Mart heirs are still the wealthiest individuals in the country, according to the Forbes list of the 400 Richest People in America. And, of course, EchoStar's Charlie Ergen was among some of the richest people in satellite TV/multichannel circles.

However, Ergen's rank of 33 and estimated worth of $4.4 billion was beat by News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch, who was listed at No. 28 with a worth of $5 billion. Paul Allen, a Microsoft co-founder and backer of cable operator Charter Communications, was at the top of the multichannel industry list with a rank of No. 3 and an estimated worth of $21 billion.

Sumner Redstone earned the No. 18 spot with worth estimated by Forbes to be $9 billion. Ted Turner fell to No. 80 with a worth valued at $2.2 billion. John Malone of Liberty Media was No. 61 with an estimated worth of $1.4 billion.

From SkyReport (Used with Permission)

 

[jrjcd]

charlie's rich, but he ain't as rich as was this time last year...

 

[Guest]

An you can read the list right HERE!

One of my ex-customers made the list. I never actually met him. He owns a house in Washington, DC that no one has used in about five years. But he keeps staffed twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week so that if he ever stops in DC for any reason, it will be ready for him: the plants watered, the brass and silver polished, the clocks wound, etc. etc.

Two years ago, he thought he'd be coming to town for a day and wanted to be able to watch CNN when he made his mid-day change of clothing, so I installed a DISH network system just for that purpose. I had to run the coax down his elevator shaft (four story townhouse) across through his wine cellar, and back up to the bedroom so that the wiring would not show. I charged about $1,000 for the job, mostly labor.

Due to a last minute change of plans, he didn't come to DC that day. Last year, one of his "personal assistants" called to have me check out the system because he might be coming to town again. I was forewarned that if he ever happened to wander in while I was there, I was not to speak to him because he didn't talk to contractors. Keep in mind that this person is not a celebrity by any stretch of the imagination. If I mentioned his name, the chances are unlikely that many of you would even recognize it

I declined the follow-up job. I understood that the "personal assistant" who called me was a well-paid flunkie whose job was always on the line, and if any problem developed with that system, I would be expected to pop in out of thin air to remedy it or he likely would be fired. Since it is inconvenient for me to assume that kind of responsibility, I advised him to call a company that had a few technicians on 24-hour call.

 

[Richard King]

Your customer sounds like he thinks he is a rock star. I used to do some work for the purple one from Minneapolis (not on staff) and would occasionally sit in on rehearsals. He was often terribly abusive to most of his non band staff (guitar techs, etc.). One time when I was there he was working on a song with the band and three times got about 30 seconds into the song, stopped everything and handed the guitar to his guitar tech telling him "it doesn't sound right", even though it was perfectly tuned. He refused to give the guy an idea of what he thought didn't sound right, even after attempting to "tune" it three times. His studio engineer (Susan Rogers) was tied to a pager (no cell phones back then) and he would call her at any time of the day or night to "set up" the studio if he came up with an idea for a song. Susan has gone on to have quite a career on her own after leaving the purple one... http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/appears/0,,486476,00.html

I sure hope I don't get that way when I'm a rock star.