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Charlie Ergen Bio, Founder of EchoStar

Charlie Ergen, born May 1, 1953, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, co-founded EchoStar in 1980, along with his wife and Jim DeFranco. A graduate of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, with an MBA from Wake Forest, he had previously worked as a blackjack player and financial analyst. EchoStar was formed to provide satellite dish television service in rural areas, where cable television -- then still a novelty -- was unavailable. It was granted its Direct Broadcast Satellite license in 1987, and launched the EchoStar I satellite in 1995, while premiering its DISH Network brand of satellite dishes.

Over the next few years, EchoStar and the Dish Network expanded, buying out assets from MCI Worldcom and ASkyB in 1998, which greatly increased its access to transponder licenses and led to the introduction of the DISH 500 system. The DISH 500 uses a multi-satellite system in order to broadcast over 500 channels to a single dish receiver, an increase that matches pace with the expansion of options available to digital cable subscribers in an era of multiple HBOs and special-interest stations. More recently, EchoStar has expanded into Canada and high-definition satellite broadcasting.

Ergen hosts the "Charlie Chat" talk show on the DISH Network.

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