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Leo Laporte

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Leo Gordon Laporte (born November 29, 1956 in New York City, New York)[1] is an American technology broadcaster and author. A native of Providence, RI, he now lives in Petaluma, California with his second wife Jennifer and two children, Henry and Abby.[2]

Leo Laporte
File:LeoLaporte.jpg
Born
Leo Gordon Laporte
Career
ShowThe Tech Guy
StationPremiere Radio Networks
Time slotSaturdays and Sundays Live at 11:00AM PST
Websitehttp://www.leoville.com/

http://www.labwithleo.com http://www.techguylabs.com http://www.twit.tv http://www.twitlive.tv

http://army.twit.tv

Background

Laporte studied Chinese History at Yale University before dropping out in his junior year.[3] He began his association with computers with his first home PC, an Atari 400.[4] He operated one of the first Macintosh-only bulletin board systems, MacQueue, from 1985 to 1988.[5] Leo also helped out with the starting of CNET Networks and was a catcher for the Montreal Expos in the late 1970's.

Television and radio

Laporte was the host of the daily television show The Lab with Leo Laporte, recorded in Vancouver, Canada. On March 6, 2008, Laporte confirmed on net@Nite #46 that The Lab with Leo Laporte had been canceled by Rogers Communications. The HOW TO Channel refused to air the remaining episodes after it was announced the show had been canceled.[6][7]

The program was formerly known as Call for Help when it was recorded in Toronto and, prior to that, in the U.S. The series aired on G4techTV Canada, in Australia on the HOW TO Channel, on several of Canada's Citytv affiliates, and on Google Video some weeks after initial broadcast.

He also hosts a weekend technology-oriented talk radio program show titled Leo Laporte: The Tech Guy. The show, once an exclusive to KFI AM 640 (Los Angeles), is now syndicated on Premiere Radio Networks. Laporte appears semi-regularly on Showbiz Tonight,[8] Live with Regis and Kelly,[9] World News Now, and briefly with Bill Handel on Friday mornings on KFI. He has also been a guest technology expert on numerous talk radio programs in local markets across the U.S. and Canada.

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. In addition, Laporte also 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.

In 1998, he created and co-hosted The Screen Savers and the original version of Call for Help on the cable and satellite network ZDTV (later 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. Laporte has also pursued acting, playing Uncle Charlie in the movie Phoenix Rising.[10]

TWiT Live

File:Twit.svg
TWiT logo

Leo now hosts an online tech-oriented videostream TWiT Live.[11] It is currently broadcast through Stickam, and is live every day from about 2-7 EST, excluding Monday. On Friday, there is a competition for the UGM or Ultimate Gaming machine, and every week a new part gets chosen. The machine will subsequently be given away to a lucky viewer. A complete, official programming schedule can be found on Google Calendar

On July 11 2008 he did a special 24 hour show about the release of the iPhone 3G. It received 271,733 views, with a peak of 10,000 viewers.[12]

Most TWiT live broadcasts achieve over 2000 visitors at peak watching times.

Books

Laporte has authored a number of technology-oriented books 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 Mac 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.

Throughout his career, he has contributed to a number of periodicals such as BYTE, InfoWorld, and MacUser. Laporte announced in October, 2006 that he will not renew his contract with Que Publishing and has retired from publishing his long series of books. He said, "Writing books is hard work and, love-starved groupies aside, the compensations are scant. I’ll put my energies into something I love to do, talking for a living."[13]

Netcasting

Laporte currently owns and operates a netcast network, TWiT.tv. The name is derived from the network's award winning, flagship podcast This WEEK in TECH, or TWiT, which is hosted by Laporte along with a rotating panel of guests usually made up of several other former TechTV employees. This show remains one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes and other podcast 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 280,000 weekly downloads.

Laporte prefers to call his shows "netcasts," saying "I've never liked the word podcast. It causes confusion … people have told me that they can't listen to my shows because they 'don't own an iPod' … I propose the word 'netcast.' It's a little clearer that these are broadcasts over the Internet. It's catchy and even kind of a pun."[14] With the addition of TWiT.tv's live video feed, the shows are no longer audio-only.

Some of his other "netcasts" include Security Now! with Steve Gibson, MacBreak and MacBreak Weekly, both hosted in a fashion similar to TWiT, The Daily Giz Wiz with Dick DeBartolo, Munchcast with Cammy Blackstone, Windows Weekly with Paul Thurrott, FLOSS Weekly, net@nite with Amber MacArthur, and Roz Rows The Pacific (launched June 3, 2008).


 
Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte

References

  1. ^ Leo Laporte Information. TV.com
  2. ^ Leo Laporte. "Leo Laporte's Official Biography".
  3. ^ On the Record...Online with Leo Laporte of This Week in Tech
  4. ^ Focus On: Leo G4
  5. ^ Kava, Brad (2007-02-14). "Leo Laporte back on KGO-AM, replacing Michael Finney". The Mercury News. Retrieved 2007-03-13. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Lab with Leo off TV in Australia - Let us See the Remaining Episodes
  7. ^ Response from How-To Channel Australia Regarding The Lab with Leo
  8. ^ Showbiz Tonight: Transcript for July 25, 2005
  9. ^ Leoville: Live with Regis and Kelly
  10. ^ imdb: Phoenix Rising
  11. ^ TwitLive Official Site
  12. ^ Hopkins, Mark 'Rizzin' (2008-07-11). "Leo Laporte Does 24 Hours of iPhone to Over a Quarter Million Viewers". Mashable: Social Networking News. Retrieved 2007-07-15. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. ^ Don't Buy My Book - Vox
  14. ^ The TWiT Netcast Network with Leo Laporte
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