Technology podcaster oversees an expanding empire
Leo Laporte landed Aug. 19 at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.
On Friday morning he arrived at the office of KFI-AM 640, the radio station that airs his syndicated “The Tech Guy” program. At 3:42 p.m., he was back at the airport, ready to fly home to Petaluma, Calif.
How do we know? Every time the tech-savvy broadcaster checks into a place using a service called Foursquare, some 13,000 followers receive an alert on their phones.
Laporte, 53, runs his own online broadcasting company and travels frequently. Location, for most of what he does, is irrelevant.
“Thank goodness there’s Skype and the Internet,” Laporte said. “We don’t have to be anywhere.”
In January, Laporte was in Las Vegas, shooting live video from the Consumer Electronics Show. In March, he was in Austin, Texas, with live-streaming video equipment strapped to his back and a camera in hand. Then in June, he covered L.A.’s Electronic Entertainment Expo.
Known in some circles as “President of the Internet,” Laporte wields major influence in the consumer-technology industry. From the phones he uses (the Verizon Wireless Droid X) to the websites he supports (he was a big proponent of Twitter early on) Laporte’s habits are worth watching.
Indeed, hundreds of thousands of people tune in to his podcasts and radio program. When he’s not traveling, Laporte runs a network of online talk shows called TWiT out of his two-story office in Petaluma, a city about an hour north of San Francisco.
The company is named after its flagship podcast, “This Week in Tech.” On it, reporters and pundits in the technology industry discuss the week’s news, and episodes net hundreds of thousands of downloads.
Two dozen other programs cover topics such as food, law and science, but most deal with more specialized areas in technology, including recently launched shows about green tech and Apple’s iPad.
TWiT has been expanding steadily — it now has about 10 employees and about three dozen contractors. “We’ve outgrown our studio,” Laporte said.
The control room contains two desks, mixing boards, a multi-camera setup, monitors, chairs in the corner for occasional guests and a giant rubber ball Laporte sits (and bounces) on while shooting hours of live Internet video daily. Programming is constantly streaming at Live.TWiT.tv.
Despite some complaints from city-dwelling employees not enamored with the commute to Petaluma, the next step for the 5-year-old company is to build an even bigger studio in Laporte’s favorite small town, he said.
A radio broadcaster of 34 years with a six-year stint on TV, Laporte has won over fans with his booming voice, love of Hawaiian shirts and ability to distill complex topics into easily digestible bites. Radio listeners often call in with tech-support questions, and he obliges.
As a businessman, he can talk a big game, but it’s obvious he’s making some of it up as he goes along.
“If you want to understand my business, you just have to come from the point of view of: What did Leo want to do?” he said half-jokingly. “I wanted to be my own boss. I didn’t want to commute. I wanted to choose the shows.”
Laporte’s psyche isn’t the only beneficiary. TWiT’s revenue was $2.25 million last year and is on track to reach $3 million this year, Laporte said.
The chief TWiT, as he calls himself, doesn’t take his salary from the old-style ads he reads between discussions, which account for the majority of revenue. He’s paid by donations from fans, netting $120,000 annually.
A testament to how sustainable Laporte’s business is: Jason Calacanis, who helped launch the blogging phenomenon with his Weblogs Inc., which AOL acquired for $25 million, is getting into the online broadcasting game. Even the name of Calacanis’ company, ThisWeekIn, is just four letters off from Laporte’s signature show’s title.
For TWiT, Laporte asserts that location isn’t important for his breed of Web broadcasting. Most panelists call in using a mic and a webcam connected to their computers.
However, Laporte contemplates uprooting parts of the business and moving to San Francisco, Los Angeles or New York.
But not being saddled by the costs of operating in expensive cities is what initially made the company successful. Broadcasting from nowhere while being able to reach just about anywhere has worked well. TWiT can be watched live using a computer, on TV using a set-top box, or on the move with a smart-phone app.
If you really care about where Laporte hangs out, you can always keep an eye on Foursquare, his blog or Twitter profiles. (On the latter, he has a page for his bathroom scale at twitter.com/leos_scale. Just FYI.)
But no matter where in the world Laporte is situated, fans know where to find him.
mark.milian@latimes.com
