Leo Laporte

Laporte, the son of Leo F. Laporte, a geologist, studied Chinese history at Yale University before dropping out in his junior year to pursue his career in radio broadcasting,[3] where his early on-air names were Dave Allen and Dan Hayes.[4] He began his association with computers with his first home computer, an Atari 400.[5]

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.[6]

In 1997, Laporte was awarded a Northern California Emmy for his role as Dev Null, a motion capture character on the MSNBC show The Site.

In 1998, Laporte created and co-hosted The Screen Savers,[7] and the original version of Call for Help on the cable and satellite network ZDTV (later TechTV).[8]

Laporte was the host of the daily television show The Lab with Leo Laporte, recorded in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The program had formerly been known as Call for Help when it was recorded in the U.S. and Toronto, Ontario. 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[9] 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.[10][11]

He hosts a weekend technology-oriented talk radio program show titled Leo Laporte: The Tech Guy. The show, started on KFI AM 640 (Los Angeles), is now syndicated through Premiere Radio Networks. Laporte also appears on Friday mornings on KFI with Bill Handel, and previously on such shows as Showbiz Tonight,[12] Live with Kelly,[13] and World News Now. He holds an amateur radio license, W6TWT.

Laporte has written technology-oriented books including:

• 101 Computer Answers You Need to Know ISBN 1562763393,
• Leo Laporte's 2005 Gadget Guide ISBN 0789731746[14]
• Leo Laporte's Guide to TiVo ISBN 0789731959,
• Leo Laporte's Guide to Mac OS X Tiger ISBN 0789733935
• Leo Laporte's PC Help Desk.

He has published a yearly series of technology almanacs:

• Leo Laporte's Technology Almanac
• Poor Leo's Computer Almanac ISBN 0768654920.
• Leo Laporte's 2006 Technology Almanac ISBN 0789733978.

Laporte announced in October 2006 that he would not renew his contract with Que Publishing, and had retired from publishing books.

In 2008, Laporte did a voice narration of the public domain[15] fable[16] The True History of Little Golden-hood[17] by Andrew Lang[18] from Audible (Amazon), a sponsor.[19]

Laporte owns and operates a podcast network, TWiT.tv with his wife[20] Lisa Laporte. Its shows are available on iTunes and other podcast subscription services. Before the expansion to new facilities in 2011, Laporte said TWiT earned $1.5 million annually on a production cost of $350,000.[21] In a 2012 Reddit posting, he commented that revenue was approaching $4 million.[22]

The TWiT studios are located in Petaluma, California, where Laporte lives.[23] The TWiT studios have always been in Petaluma, but in three locations. TWiT identified the first as the "TWiT Cottage", the second as the "TWiT Brick House", and the current location as the "TWiT Eastside Studios".[24][25][23]

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• Official website
• Leo Laporte at IMDb
• Leo Laporte in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by or about Leo Laporte in libraries (WorldCat catalog)