Former TV host finds a niche on the web

Leo Laporte on the set of 'The Screen Savers,' which was TechTV's signature show. The current G4 program 'Attack of the Show' is descended from 'The Screen Savers' but has quite different content. (Photo from Leoville.com) [Click to enlarge]

In its heyday, TechTV had a variety of programs on computer topics. The amiable Leo Laporte hosted "Call for Help," an entry-level show for people seeking advice about computer problems, and co-hosted "The Screen Savers," a more advanced show that covered a variety of computer and tech topics. Curmudgeonly John C. Dvorak, a columnist for PC Magazine, hosted "Silicon Spin," a panel show about the latest developments in tech news. There was "Internet Tonight," about Internet sites, and "Extended Play," a video game show.

However, the channel tried at one point to become a tech-oriented version of CNBC, concentrating on financial news about the computer industry during the daytime hours. That experiment was a flop -- probably because CNBC and existing news sources already provided plenty of coverage of tech industries from a financial perspective. Eventually, Allen sold TechTV, which was based in San Francisco near Silicon Valley, to a Los Angeles-based channel called G4, which focuses on computer gamers and which has a much younger demographic. The merged channel operated for a while as "G4-TechTV," but eventually dropped the TechTV name and had long since shed itself of most of TechTV's personalities and best shows. Today, only "X Play," a renamed version of "Extended Play," remains on the G4 schedule from the TechTV days.

But a funny thing happened -- many of the best personalities from the glory days of TechTV can still be watched and/or listened to, talking about the latest in technology news. It's just that they're not on cable anymore: They're on the Internet.

Leo Laporte was my favorite TechTV personality and was in many ways the face of TechTV. After the U.S. version of TechTV ended, he hosted a version of "Call for Help" for a while on the Canadian affiliate of G4/Tech TV.

But today, his content isn't on cable TV but on the net. He has his own mini-network of shows, some of which he hosts, some of which he co-hosts, and some of which he merely produces. He sells sponsorships and does live paid endorsements during the shows for sponsors like the audio book site Audible.com.

The flagship show is called "This Week in Tech," and it lends its acronym, TWiT, to the network. They started out as simply audio podcasts, but then Laporte built a small studio in some inexpensive rental space. (It's not actually in his home, as stated by some news reports.) He has TV cameras set up so that you can watch live as the audio podcasts are produced. He uses a switcher to cut between cameras and professional graphics equipment to generate on-screen title cards identifying the participants. The cameras keep rolling, so you can hear Leo's discussions with his guests before the official start and after the official conclusion of the podcast. (Leo is too much of an old radio man to curse on the air, but occasionally a guest will say something on the live video feed that will have to be bleeped for the audio podcast.)

It's not a slick, polished TV production. But I suspect most of Laporte's fans couldn't care less.

Other shows on TWiT cover a wide variety of topics, from food to law.

And Laporte is far from the only TechTV personality who can now be watched or listened to on the net. Laporte's old "Screen Savers" co-host, Patrick Norton, hosts shows at Revision3. Dvorak, besides being a frequent guest on "This Week in Tech," has audio podcasts at his own site, dvorak.org. And there are a variety of other TechTV personalities online at various sites.

It's an interesting glimpse at the way in which the Internet is changing the world of communications. TV networks, for the moment, still have a lot of power. But they're no longer the final word, and new distribution models are going to make it easier for people to take their content directly to the masses, where it will rise or fall on its own merits.

--John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government. He is also the author of the self-published novel "Soapstone." His personal web site is lakeneuron.com.

On the web

TWiT audio podcasts: twit.tv; TWiT video stream: live.twit.tv