Techie TV is coming on strong
01/26/99- Updated 08:29 PM ET

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When Las Vegas' Prime Cable system celebrated its rollout of cable modems, the company decided to invite some television stars to the ceremony.

Not George Clooney or Tim Allen. Not Heather Locklear.

Instead, Prime Cable brought in Leo Laporte and Kate Botello, co-hosts of The Screen Savers, a techie information show on ZDTV, the 3-month-old, 24-hour cable TV computer channel from Ziff-Davis.

"They cheered as they arrived," recalls ZDTV president Larry Wangberg. "And much to Leo and Kate's surprise, they were asked to sign 250 photographs."

While most of the USA hasn't had the same reaction, it may be only a matter of time. Computer talk, once the province of hobbyists and trade magazines, has more mainstream outlets than ever explaining the tantalizing new medium to the masses.

From TV programs by CNET and ZDTV to mainstream magazines such as Wired and Yahoo! Internet Life to numerous radio shows — not to mention daily newspapers including USA TODAY — there's a rising tide of new-media coverage that's not geek-centric.
A fast-growing market

There's definitely a market, Forrester Research analyst Bill Bass says. "About 51 million people in the U.S. are on the Internet, and that will double to 100 million in the next five years. Name another hobby or anything that is going to double in that time frame, yet alone double from 50 million to 100 million."

Newbies don't want to know as much as readers of the trade press, Bass says. "But they are interested in knowing something. It opens up a new realm of programming where you can go after the broader audience."

The rapid rise of the World Wide Web is the key to proliferation of computer-oriented media, say many in the field.

With Web addresses now frequently touted in TV commercials and print ads, "just the concept of looking at the Web is much more in the forefront," says Jaclyn Easton, co-host of Log On USA, a syndicated radio show that pioneered on-line coverage in August 1994. While there may now be a saturation of information "for the true geek," she says, "there's not enough for the mainstream."

Easton claims 700,000 listeners for the show, syndicated to 60 cities. The demographics closely resemble the established profile of most computer users, skewing to relatively wealthy white males. "But we're getting more women."
A crossover media empire

CNET founder Halsey Minor built his computer information empire with a tech-savvy audience in mind.

"Our goal right from the beginning has been to do exactly what CNN or ESPN has done," Minor says. "Build a network which targets a particular demographic or area of interest and eventually build a community around it."

CNET now has six television shows and 10 Web properties, including News.com, a leading source of up-to-the-minute technology news. An estimated 10.8% of home computer users visited CNET's sites in June, according to Net research firm Media Metrix. An estimated 9% visited ZDNet sites.

Minor says the link to the Web is the key to keeping the TV programming enjoyable. "No one on TV would ever sit through 30 product reviews of printers," he says. "So we thought the best place to do the very deep stuff would be as an on-line companion."

ZDTV also is capitalizing on an on-line name. Publishing giant Ziff-Davis has 28 publications with a combined circulation of 8 million; its ZDNet.com Web site uses the resources of those publications. ZDTV now offers six hours a day of original programming in news, how-to information, gaming tips, reviews and general entertainment coverage centered on computers.

The channel also has a companion Web site (www.zdtv.com) that supplements broadcast information. Surfers have been encouraged to build a community, assisted by a summer giveaway of 10,000 Netcams, which allow voice and visual interaction on line.

Jim Louderback, editorial director of ZDTV, says the transition from trade magazines aimed at a technical audience to TV has posed some challenges. He recently used a stuffed cow, a toy automobile and a plastic computer calculator to demonstrate how an e-mail virus works.

"We're covering things that people may hear about in the general press and be concerned about," Louderback says. "We try to explain things in layman's terms, that there's something out there, but here's some easy solutions to it."

Ultimately, the key for all computer-oriented media is to gradually turn casual interest into enthusiasm for new technology products.
A self-selecting audience

"I think one of the really interesting things about CNET on the Internet is that everybody who's connected to the Internet is a computer user," Minor says. "It's the one content area that every user will be interested in that topic at some point. You can't say that about sports, and you can't say it about news. At some point they're going to upgrade their monitor or download a new piece of software. There's never been anything quite like that in television or radio before."

And it's just the beginning. ZDTV's Screen Savers notwithstanding, the computer-talk media have yet to spawn techie stars with cult followings comparable to those that have emerged around CNBC's Maria "Money Honey" Bartiromo or former NBC correspondent Arthur "Scud Stud" Kent.

"I think that will happen over time," Louderback says.

"We get a lot of e-mail" on various personalities, he says, and notes that news anchor Victoria Recano, a former reporter and host at KPLR-TV in St. Louis, "is developing a cult."

To date, Soledad O'Brien, who hosted the now-canceled MSNBC show The Site, has come the closest to becoming a tech-talk cultural icon. Her relatively high profile in the geek community launched her to the NBC network, where she concentrates on regular news.

Minor says his programming emphasizes the CNET brand name over personalities. "There will always be personalities who are part of the brand, but it's really the brand that's the most important thing."

By Bruce Haring, USA TODAY