Leo Laporte (/ləˈpɔːrt/; born November 29, 1956)[1] is the former host of The Tech Guy weekly radio show[2] and founder of TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology author. On November 19, 2022, actor, writer, musician, and comedian Steve Martin called into Laporte's radio show to announce Leo's retirement from The Tech Guy radio show.[3] Laporte's last new radio show was December 18, 2022 with reruns for the remainder of the year. Rich DeMuro later appeared on the show to announce that he will be taking over in January with a weekly show, recorded on Saturdays, called "Rich On Tech."[4]
Background
Laporte was born in New York City,[5] the son of geologist Leo F. Laporte. He studied Chinese history at Yale University before dropping out in his junior year to pursue a career in radio broadcasting,[6] where his early on-air names were Dave Allen and Dan Hayes.[7] He began his association with computers with his first home computer, an Atari 400.[5] By 1984 he owned a Macintosh and wrote a software review for Byte magazine.[8]
Television and radio
Laporte has worked on technology-related broadcasting projects, including Dvorak on Computers in January 1991 (co-hosted with technology writer John C. Dvorak), and Laporte on Computers on KGO Radio and KSFO in San Francisco.[9]
In 1998, Laporte created and co-hosted The Screen Savers,[10] and the original version of Call for Help on the cable and satellite network ZDTV (later TechTV).[11]
Laporte hosted the daily television show The Lab with Leo Laporte, recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The program was formerly known as Call for Help when it was recorded in the US and Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The series aired on G4 Canada, on the HOW TO Channel in Australia, on several of Canada's Citytv affiliates, and on Google Video. On March 5, 2008, Laporte confirmed on net@nite that The Lab with Leo Laporte[12] had been canceled by Rogers Communications. The HOW TO Channel did not air the remaining episodes after it was announced the show had been canceled.[13][14]
Laporte owns and operates a podcast network, TWiT.tv with his wife[19] Lisa Laporte. Before the expansion to new facilities in 2011, Laporte said TWiT earned US$1.5million (equivalent to $2,030,000 in 2023) annually on a production cost of US$350,000 (equivalent to $474,000 in 2023).[20] In a 2012 Reddit posting, he commented that revenue was approaching US$4million (equivalent to $5,420,000 in 2023).[21] The TWiT studios are located in Petaluma, California,[10] where Laporte lives.[22]
References
^— (December 4, 2021). "The Tech Guy #1849". TWiT.tv (Podcast). Event occurs at 17:37. Retrieved December 31, 2021.
