Howard Hughes Had His Own Private TV Station, Programmed for His Pleasure

I've sometimes used the sad but common adage "there is no problem that can't be solved by throwing enough money at it." I'm sure you have seen that played out in real life, but Howard Hughes had enough money to make his everyday annoyances disappear, and he did not hesitate to do it. When he moved into the Desert Inn in Las Vegas in 1966, the innkeeper was annoyed that he stayed through the holidays. Hughes solved that problem by buying the hotel for $13.25 million.

Hughes rarely left his room, because by the 1960s, he was a chronic pain patient, suffering from addiction, OCD, and paranoia. He didn't sleep at night, and he was frustrated that his favorite TV station, CBS affiliate KLAS, signed off at 11 PM. So did the other TV stations. What was a billionaire to do? He bought KLAS. Not only did the station begin broadcasting overnight, but Hughes treated it as his personal movie projector. The problem was that the CBS station also had plenty of regular folks in Las Vegas watching, and what Hughes demanded from the station was chaos for everyone else. Read about Howard Hughes' personally programmed TV station at Mental Floss.