Leo Laporte
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Leo Gordon Laporte (born November 29, 1956 in New York City, New York) <ref>Leo Laporte Information. TV.com</ref> is a technology broadcaster and author. He studied Chinese History at Yale University but did not earn a degree. He currently resides in Petaluma, California, with his wife Jennifer and two children, Henry and Abby. His first home PC was an Atari 400.<ref>Focus On: Leo G4</ref>
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[edit] Television and radio
Laporte is the host of G4techTV Canada's daily television show Call for Help, which also airs in Australia on the HOW TO Channel, and Google Video. Every month he travels to Toronto for one week to the G4TechTV Canada studios to host Call For Help (where all personnel except Laporte are Canadian). He also hosts a technology-oriented talk radio show on station KFI AM 640 in Southern California from his home studio. He appears semi-regularly on Showbiz Tonight, Live with Regis and Kelly and World News Now.
Laporte has created, hosted, and contributed to a number of technology-related broadcasting projects. He created and co-hosted Dvorak On Computers in January 1991, and hosted Laporte On Computers on KGO Radio and KSFO in San Francisco. Laporte hosted Internet! on PBS, and The Personal Computing Show on CNBC. In 1997 he earned an Emmy Award for his work on MSNBC's The Site, a daily Monday through Saturday hour-long newsmagazine he helped create and appeared on in the role of a computer-generated character named Dev Null. Laporte spoke of his Emmy Award on This Week in Tech episode 77, at 21 minutes and 25 seconds[1].
In 1998, he created and co-hosted The Screen Savers and the original version of Call for Help on the cable and satellite network TechTV. Laporte left The Screen Savers in 2004 due to a dispute with TechTV's then-outgoing owner Vulcan Ventures over stock ownership. His contract ended on March 31, and his absence from The Screen Savers on April 1 was originally believed to be an April Fool's Day joke.
[edit] Books
Laporte has authored a number of technology oriented books writings such as 101 Computer Answers You Need to Know, Leo Laporte's 2005 Gadget Guide, Leo Laporte's Guide to TiVo, Leo Laporte's Guide to OS X Tiger and Leo Laporte's PC Help Desk.
Laporte has also published a yearly series of technology almanacs: Leo Laporte's Technology Almanac and Poor Leo's Computer Almanac. Laporte's latest and last book is Leo Laporte's 2006 Technology Almanac, ISBN 0-7897-3397-8 (left).
Throughout his career, he has contributed to a number of periodicals such as BYTE, InfoWorld, and MacUser.
[edit] Netcasts/Podcasts
Laporte currently owns and operates a podcast network (though he uses the term Netcast) of shows named "TWiT.tv," named after his widely popular franchise "This WEEK in TECH" (aka TWiT). This WEEK in TECH is hosted by Laporte along with several other former co-hosts of The Screen Savers. This show remains one of the most popular netcasts on iTunes and other netcast subscription services, as evidenced by winning an award at the November 2005 Podcasting Expo in California for the year's best podcast and by its over 250,000 weekly downloads. TWiT was given an estimated advertisement value of $1,000,000 USD a year. To offset the bandwidth for this show, bandwidth is provided by AOL.
In August 2005, Laporte created the netcast Security Now! with computer enthusiast and software engineer Steve Gibson, which is dedicated exclusively to security in technology. Then in November 2005, Laporte extended the new TWiT network with a podcast called Inside the Net with Amber MacArthur, dedicated to covering the latest trends on Web 2.0 technologies.
In December 2005, Laporte created Triangulation, a podcast experiment featuring the columnist and broadcaster John C. Dvorak and Lawrence Lessig. The pilot's topic covered Google's attempt to create a search service for books; Google Book Search. Triangulation was never extended past the pilot. Dvorak moved on to host a similar show, CrankyGeeks, for Ziff Davis Media.
In January 2006, Laporte created "MacBreak", a video podcast which explores many interesting topics regarding Apple Computer's Macintosh computers. His co-hosts are Amber MacArthur, Alex Lindsay, and Emery Wells.
On Monday, February 20, 2006 Laporte created a daily podcast called Daily GizWiz with Dick DeBartolo. Laporte was quoted as saying: "The Daily GizWiz is our first daily podcast. It will be released every weekday morning - high in fiber, low in calories, it's a great way to start your day."'
In April 2006, Laporte created the podcast FLOSS Weekly, a weekly podcast about Linux, BSD, and other open source software, with Chris DiBona. Laporte also added This Week in Media to the TWiT.tv lineup, a new podcast dedicated to the production of digital media. The podcast is hosted by Alex Lindsay and others.
In June 2006, Laporte created a podcast called Futures in Biotech. Co-hosting with Dr. Marc F. Pelletier, they interview prominent figures in biotechnology.
On August 10, 2006, Laporte created "MacBreak Weekly". It is an audio version of "MacBreak" that will be released every week in the same style of This Week in Tech, with the same topics and co-hosts as MacBreak. Video normally takes longer to produce, so this audio version offers an alternative for visitors not wishing to wait for the MacBreak releases.
On Leo's The Tech Guy on KFI show #271 on August 5, 2006, he announced that there will be another podcast released in the coming weeks entitled Countdown to Vista, a podcast dedicated entirely to the new Microsoft Windows release due in January, 2007. This podcast was later renamed to its final name Windows Weekly With Paul Thurrott and was released on September 28, 2006.
On October 23, 2006, Laporte released "This Week in Law" (aka TWiL) on the TWiT.tv network, hosted by Denise Howell and dedicated to discussion of issues in technology law.
On November 8, 2006, Laporte began doing a new show called "net@nite" with Amber MacArthur which was a replacement/continuation of "Inside the Net". The focus of "net@nite" is still on things happening on the internet, but is hosted live every Sunday night on Talkshoe[2], while the recording of the show is released as a podcast on Tuesday as with the previous show "Inside the Net".
Laporte refers to these additional podcasts as TWiT extensions.
For the first time in the history of the network, Laporte introduced advertising into the TWiT network. The first sponsors were T-Mobile, Astaro, Visa, and Dell. Each of the ad spots is typically a minute or less, and any combination of ads may appear in any TWiT program. Laporte has stated that the money will be used to pay the podcasting guests for their contributions.<ref>Welcome Dell and Visa! TWiT.tv</ref>
On 11/18/2006 Laporte announced that he will not be renewing his contract with KFI. His last radio show will be on 12/31/2006.<ref>Leo's show is ending on KFI Leoville Town Square</ref>
[edit] Trivia
- Leo Laporte is known as Pruneface Spatula on the game Second Life.
- Leo Laporte plays Uncle Charlie on the upcoming movie Phoenix Rising.
[edit] References
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