Wow, this is the end of an era. Leo's been on KFI in LA for as long as I remember.
As much as I like the guy, I think this is for the best. I haven't listened to his podcasts, but I think podcasts and online content creation have a greater potential for a better quality audience.
Not gonna lie, one of the reasons I've listened to "The Tech Guy" a lot less than I used to is that most of the people calling in these days need to get their printer to work or simply have someone listen to them. That's all well and good, but it doesn't make for nearly as good of listening as back in the heyday when computer tech was hot and people under the age of 60 were calling in. Just sayin'. I don't want to be ageist, but I also cannot avoid it here. When I'm in the car on the weekend, I'll tune into KFI and Leo's talking to a guest who's totally clueless about basic computer skills in 2022. It's good that Leo's been there for these people, but it's more cringe than entertaining.
On the other hand, Leo's an older guy himself, and I'm usually impressed with how he's kept up his general tech knowledge. Other hosts might get too comfortable over the years, but I can usually tell that Leo's been reading things that are relevant.
Leo actually got me into Linux. I remember a show back in 2006 where he was recommending someone try out Ubuntu to give new life to an old computer, so that's how I learned about Ubuntu.
The pitch to potential TWIT advertisers is that they can reach a highly engaged, influential (and affluent) tech-savvy audience. The syndicated terrestrial radio show hurts that positioning more than the wider exposure helps.
I listened not for the advice, but for the "how will Leo answer this one" factor. He's very patient!
He would end up spending 5-10 minutes explaining to someone how to recycle power to a router or demystifying the basics of OTA television.
Thanks for the kind words. No I'm not dead. I'm just not on the radio any more. I've been podcasting for longer than most (started in 2004) and plan to continue as long as I am able.
Leo, thank goodness you are alive! That headline had me worried.
It's unlikely you would remember me, but we met sometime around the late 1970s or early 1980s. We were attending some kind of est spinoff workshop in San Jose. It may have been Playground or Summit Workshops or some such? There were so many of them that I have lost track.
I do seem to recall that people at this workshop were promoting the latest pyramid scam, Circle of Gold or something like that. You would be expected to bring in ten of your friends, and then they would each bring in ten of their friends, etc.
I tried to use simple logic to explain to one of the promoters that the math just didn't work out. Exponential growth, anyone? I said that after a very few generations, we would have signed up every human being on Earth. And then what do you do?
Their response was "That's not a problem. Everyone can just sign up again!"
A few of us went out to lunch and sat at a round table at the corner of the restaurant. You were sitting near the corner and I was across from you.
Memory is a funny thing. Mine is very positional. I don't remember the name of the workshop, the restaurant or type of food, but I do remember where we sat. (If it jogs your memory, I had a fuzzy red Afro thanks to my Neanderthal heritage - wish I still had hair like that! - and I was probably wearing some kind of South American jacket.)
You may have just been starting your radio career around that time, and I distinctly remember thinking "this guy has a radio voice!"
I don't suppose you happen to remember what workshop that was? Don't worry, no offense taken if none of this rings a bell. :-)
I don't remember the Circle of Gold and, like you, would have been very unlikely to support such a thing. I did take est in San Jose in 1978 and participated in quite a few graduate seminars for some years after so your story checks out. Sorry I don't remember your red afro. I'm amazed you remember me!
As scammy as it probably was (Werner Erhard mostly just cribbed from Alan Watts and others) est was a very formative experience for me as a 21-year-old. I think it has stayed with me ever since. I was just thinking about that the other day, in fact.
Seriously, I read that title and panicked. I remember watching ZDTV in high school, and listening to twit podcasts up until 2011-ish? We're taking about the foundation of my love of tech. The early-90's to early 2000's pre crash was an amazing time to come up in the internet. Even the post crash boom was like the wild west compared to today. You were there producing content through it all.
I got off the habit of tuning in after I abandoned itunes and the iphone for Android. There just wasn't as a robust podcasting network on Android at the time.
It sounds like twit is still going strong. Time to check back in!
Leo, I've listened to all of your podcast (Security Now, Twit, even Windows Weekly as a non windows user) for ages (maybe since I was 15?). Pre-vista (I remember you and paul going on about that). I think I came across you while watching diggnation (though obviously you stand on your own).
Been a fan since your techtv days on the screensavers. Used to watch your shows religiously as a young kid. Just wanted to say thanks for all of the entertainment and knowledge throughout the years.
I apologize for the confusion. I really didn't mean the original title in the way it came out. I did enjoy the day on the show. If you would like the post removed, I'll do so.
I was lucky enough to visit the broadcast studios seven or so years ago for a taping of windows weekly. It was a bucket list item of mine after I started listening to Leo in 2008 during grad school.
It beat my wildest expectations, getting to watch live one of the best in the business. Even after taping for nearly two hours, with a fast turn around to his next show, he was kind enough to grab me his fez hat, take a couple of photos behind the desk, and chat with me about life.
I still look at that photo from time to time, and remember the joy I felt that day. Those are those special moments that make life so beautiful.
Same story for me! I had just moved to San Francisco in ~2014 after landing my first Silicon Valley tech job. One of the first things I did was head up to the studios to watch This Week in Tech live. Leo was so nice and we chatted for a bit after the show and took pictures. I love that photo! I’ve been a fan since TechTV!
Leo in many ways has spawned a whole industry with podcasting and youtubers covering tech. Kevin Rose did a great interview years back with Leo as the subject and it was fascinating hearing about how it all came to be. Much respect!
I'm pretty sure I can say I've listened to every episode of This Week in Google¹ since the very beginning. It's a pause whatever else I'm listening to and start listening to it event whenever it hits my podcast player.
Glad to hear you plan to keep the podcast going, it's practically an institution. Growing up in rural Australia, your shows were one of the only connections I had to technology education, and you were the only one making it look fun and exciting! I used to spend hours watching TechTV (when perhaps I should have been at school even). Technology has become my career, and I can fairly say you were a big part of how I got here. So thank you for that, Leo and I am glad to hear the show will go on.
First thing I thought reading the title. He's a bay area native. Glad to see he's not dead, but his radio show was terrible and hope that he can pivot to something more interesting.
This guy helped me find my love for computers and all things tech back in the late 90s. Call for Help and The Screen Savers sent my life in a very particular direction, and I regret none of it.
So yeah, the bs headline gave me a mini panic and quite frankly pissed me off. Sad to see the current state of what gets posted on HN.
I had only known Leo from TV and the web. I was on vacation and during a long drive and found him on AM radio in the car and was delighted. Forget Howard Stern, Leo LaPorte is the King of all media.
Until COVID I was in the Valley almost yearly. I have family in Marin and it's still on my bucket list to be an audience member on Leo's show some day. I have a close friend here in Michigan who has done it and she told me not to question whether it would be worth it or not.
I love Leo and have been a fan since TechTV days. His inability to remove political opinions from his netcasts, primarily the loathing echo chamber that he fosters, make it very difficult to listen to TWIT regularly. But I still power through it occasionally because it's a good show and his guests are very informed.
What are his political views? I used to follow him way back in the TechTV days and the very early TWiT.tv days and I can’t say I have the slightest clue what his political views are. A quick Google doesn’t reveal anything either.
He states pretty clearly that he's fairly liberal. However, in the occasional times there's an important politics angle to a tech story, he does a reasonably good job of discussing it objectively. Even when there are guests across the political spectrum, the discussion never degrades to mud-slinging or name-calling.
Strongest political stance I can remember him making lately is ridiculing the idea the last presidential election was stolen.
Honestly, I think any complaints about the "politics" in his netcasts says more about the person complaining than about the actual contents of his podcasts.
As a regular listener of many of the TWIT shows, this comment really doesn't make sense to me. Politics do often surface due to the increasing intersection of politics and tech, but I'd hardly call it a loathing echo chamber, and have generally found the guests to keep things honest.
Leo, Dick & Steve are some of the most personable and knowledgable hosts I ever had the privilege of listening to. I'll also forever be a fan for calling out Calacanis
(author) It's also a very kind show. I think the folks he gets (or got) on the radio are a different audience than those who might call into an Internet streaming show. I suspect the experience on the new show will lack some of that variety even though it'll still be the same great people, unfortunately.
I started watching Leo when I discovered ZDTV (which became TechTV). I watched him build up twit and used to watch him record ever show.
But over the last 5 years I have basically stopped paying any attention to him. He pushed out the people I liked and I just found myself with less and less patience for him.
I feel the same way. I was done by the time Tom Merritt left. But I will forever have gratitude towards Leo for all the things he taught me on ZDTV/TechTV growing up. I probably owe my entire career to him and Patrick Norton.
The idea of a call-in radio show for computer help seems impossibly quaint nowadays, but in the old days, before you kids had your TikToks and your broadbands, these really were valuable resources.
Kim Komando is on my local FM/AM talk station every Saturday and she sounds the same as she did 20 years ago. It's comfy listening, sometimes. The main problem is as another poster mentioned is that most of the callers are elderly folk (or people my age who simply don't "get" technology) asking the most simplistic questions over and over such as "how do I back up my family photos" and "how do I stop my grandkids from using my credit card on Roblox" or similar. The second problem is the dissonance - in one segment she will discuss the hazards of privacy threats and cookie tracking, and in the other she will shill an advertiser that does even worse. I can't tell anymore whether she cares.
I had occasion to listen to Kim Kommando once or twice back in the late '90s.
My impression at the time was that she didn't seem to actually know _that_ much about computers and software. But she knew which words to say so that she sounded competent to anyone who didn't know any better (which was almost everyone back then).
Presumably, she's had some time to brush up on things since then...
Readit News
As much as I like the guy, I think this is for the best. I haven't listened to his podcasts, but I think podcasts and online content creation have a greater potential for a better quality audience.
Not gonna lie, one of the reasons I've listened to "The Tech Guy" a lot less than I used to is that most of the people calling in these days need to get their printer to work or simply have someone listen to them. That's all well and good, but it doesn't make for nearly as good of listening as back in the heyday when computer tech was hot and people under the age of 60 were calling in. Just sayin'. I don't want to be ageist, but I also cannot avoid it here. When I'm in the car on the weekend, I'll tune into KFI and Leo's talking to a guest who's totally clueless about basic computer skills in 2022. It's good that Leo's been there for these people, but it's more cringe than entertaining.
On the other hand, Leo's an older guy himself, and I'm usually impressed with how he's kept up his general tech knowledge. Other hosts might get too comfortable over the years, but I can usually tell that Leo's been reading things that are relevant.
Leo actually got me into Linux. I remember a show back in 2006 where he was recommending someone try out Ubuntu to give new life to an old computer, so that's how I learned about Ubuntu.
The pitch to potential TWIT advertisers is that they can reach a highly engaged, influential (and affluent) tech-savvy audience. The syndicated terrestrial radio show hurts that positioning more than the wider exposure helps.
I listened not for the advice, but for the "how will Leo answer this one" factor. He's very patient!
He would end up spending 5-10 minutes explaining to someone how to recycle power to a router or demystifying the basics of OTA television.
It's unlikely you would remember me, but we met sometime around the late 1970s or early 1980s. We were attending some kind of est spinoff workshop in San Jose. It may have been Playground or Summit Workshops or some such? There were so many of them that I have lost track.
I do seem to recall that people at this workshop were promoting the latest pyramid scam, Circle of Gold or something like that. You would be expected to bring in ten of your friends, and then they would each bring in ten of their friends, etc.
I tried to use simple logic to explain to one of the promoters that the math just didn't work out. Exponential growth, anyone? I said that after a very few generations, we would have signed up every human being on Earth. And then what do you do?
Their response was "That's not a problem. Everyone can just sign up again!"
A few of us went out to lunch and sat at a round table at the corner of the restaurant. You were sitting near the corner and I was across from you.
Memory is a funny thing. Mine is very positional. I don't remember the name of the workshop, the restaurant or type of food, but I do remember where we sat. (If it jogs your memory, I had a fuzzy red Afro thanks to my Neanderthal heritage - wish I still had hair like that! - and I was probably wearing some kind of South American jacket.)
You may have just been starting your radio career around that time, and I distinctly remember thinking "this guy has a radio voice!"
I don't suppose you happen to remember what workshop that was? Don't worry, no offense taken if none of this rings a bell. :-)
As scammy as it probably was (Werner Erhard mostly just cribbed from Alan Watts and others) est was a very formative experience for me as a 21-year-old. I think it has stayed with me ever since. I was just thinking about that the other day, in fact.
Seriously, I read that title and panicked. I remember watching ZDTV in high school, and listening to twit podcasts up until 2011-ish? We're taking about the foundation of my love of tech. The early-90's to early 2000's pre crash was an amazing time to come up in the internet. Even the post crash boom was like the wild west compared to today. You were there producing content through it all.
I got off the habit of tuning in after I abandoned itunes and the iphone for Android. There just wasn't as a robust podcasting network on Android at the time.
It sounds like twit is still going strong. Time to check back in!
Thanks a lot.
And I got a little peak at what it will be like when I actually do die. Not many get that privilege. ;-)
It beat my wildest expectations, getting to watch live one of the best in the business. Even after taping for nearly two hours, with a fast turn around to his next show, he was kind enough to grab me his fez hat, take a couple of photos behind the desk, and chat with me about life.
I still look at that photo from time to time, and remember the joy I felt that day. Those are those special moments that make life so beautiful.
Leo in many ways has spawned a whole industry with podcasting and youtubers covering tech. Kevin Rose did a great interview years back with Leo as the subject and it was fascinating hearing about how it all came to be. Much respect!
¹ https://twit.tv/shows/this-week-in-google
¹ Has been an increasingly inaccurate show title for many years now - covers many areas in the world of online companies and journalism these days.
Kidding, kinda. Seriously though, thanks for all that you've done.
He definitely helped kindle my early interest in tech.
So yeah, the bs headline gave me a mini panic and quite frankly pissed me off. Sad to see the current state of what gets posted on HN.
Thankfully, in this case this is neither the end of the world nor the end of Mr. Laporte.
Until COVID I was in the Valley almost yearly. I have family in Marin and it's still on my bucket list to be an audience member on Leo's show some day. I have a close friend here in Michigan who has done it and she told me not to question whether it would be worth it or not.
Strongest political stance I can remember him making lately is ridiculing the idea the last presidential election was stolen.
Honestly, I think any complaints about the "politics" in his netcasts says more about the person complaining than about the actual contents of his podcasts.
But over the last 5 years I have basically stopped paying any attention to him. He pushed out the people I liked and I just found myself with less and less patience for him.
I don’t believe I ever heard Leo Laporte before podcasts—can’t recall Tech Guy Show being syndicated where I grew up in central Illinois.
But this prompted to see if Kim Komando is still on the air, and, yup!
https://www.komando.com/the-show/
The idea of a call-in radio show for computer help seems impossibly quaint nowadays, but in the old days, before you kids had your TikToks and your broadbands, these really were valuable resources.
My impression at the time was that she didn't seem to actually know _that_ much about computers and software. But she knew which words to say so that she sounded competent to anyone who didn't know any better (which was almost everyone back then).
Presumably, she's had some time to brush up on things since then...
Did you not have TechTV in your area? That’s probably by far what he was most known for and was a good decade and a half before podcasts.