Tom Merritt - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Merritt (born June 28, 1970 in Greenville, Illinois

Greenville, Illinois

Greenville is a city in Bond County, Illinois, United States, east of St. Louis. The estimated population as of July 2009 is 7,284. The population was 6,955 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Bond County....

) is a technology journalist and broadcaster who hosts a daily show on Leo Laporte

Leo Laporte

Léo Gordon Laporte is an Emmy Award winning, American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur. A former resident of Providence, Rhode Island, he now lives in Petaluma, California with his wife Jennifer and two children, Abby and Henry....

's TWiT.tv Netcast Network Tech News Today. Merritt was formerly an Executive Editor for CNET

CNET

CNET is a tech media website that publishes news articles, blogs, and podcasts on technology and consumer electronics. Originally founded in 1994 by Halsey Minor and Shelby Bonnie, it was the flagship brand of CNET Networks and became a brand of CBS Interactive through CNET Networks' acquisition...

and developer and co-host of the daily podcast Buzz Out Loud

Buzz Out Loud

Buzz Out Loud, "CNET's podcast of indeterminate length," or BOL, as it is affectionately titled by its fans, is a weekly podcast about technology produced by CNET. The show is hosted by Molly Wood, Brian Tong, and producer Stephen Beacham and various rotating guest hosts. Veronica Belmont...

Early life

Born in Greenville, Illinois

Greenville, Illinois

, Merritt's father worked on the Coffee-Mate project as a food scientist. Merritt received a BS in journalism

Journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...

from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

and pursued graduate work in communications at the University of Texas at Austin.

Career

Tom's foray into the world of radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

began in 1986 as a DJ for WGEL, a country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

station located in Greenville, Illinois

Greenville, Illinois

. In 1993, Merritt worked as an intern for National Public Radio's

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

"Morning Edition

Morning Edition

Morning Edition is an American radio news program produced and distributed by National Public Radio . It airs weekday mornings and runs for two hours, and many stations repeat one or both hours. The show feeds live from 05:00 to 09:00 ET, with feeds and updates as required until noon...

". From 1999 to 2004 Merritt worked for TechTV

TechTV

TechTV was a 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming...

in San Francisco as an Executive Web Producer and served as a radio host with TechTV until 2003.

CNET

Merritt started with CNET in 2004. In addition to his duties as co-host of Buzz Out Loud

Buzz Out Loud

with Molly Wood

Molly Wood

Molly Kristin Wood is an executive editor at CNET.com and previously a writer for Associated Press, MacHome Journal magazine, and O'Reilly Media. Wood hosted the "Gadgettes"...

, Merritt also had a regular column & podcast (co-hosted with Rafe Needleman

Rafe Needleman

Rafe Needleman is a magazine and website editor and published author. He wrote a Star Trek trivia book in 1980 and has covered technology and business since 1988...

) dealing with consumer technology. He also co-hosted the tech support call-in program CNET Live with fellow editor Brian Cooley

Brian Cooley

Brian Cooley is an Editor at large for CNET and their senior pundit, seen frequently on CNN, ABC News, CNBC as well on the TV screens in most major tech retailers around the U.S...

, and was the host of CNET Top 5.

On April 16, 2010, Tom announced he would be stepping down as co-host of Buzz Out Loud

Buzz Out Loud

, and that he would be joining the TWiT.tv Network as a full-time daily host beginning June 1, 2010. During his last Buzz Out Loud

Buzz Out Loud

episode on May 14, 2010 Tom announced that his main focus at TWiT.tv would be a new daily show, Tech News Today.

Twit.tv

Prior to joining TWiT as an employee, Merritt had a long standing working relationship with former TechTV colleague Leo Laporte

Leo Laporte

's network having regularly appeared on This Week in Tech as either a guest or as a relief host. His general discussion podcast with Roger Chang

Roger Chang

Roger Chang is a computer enthusiast and American television personality most notably known from his time as a segment producer and appearances on TechTV's Call for Help and The Screen Savers. He is currently a senior producer at Revision3.-Early life:Chang attended Thomas Downey High School in...

, East Meets West, also featured on TWiT Live.

Tech News Today launched on 1 June 2010. Unlike Buzz Out Loud, Merritt is the truly regular host with Sarah Lane

Sarah Lane

Sarah Christina Lane is an American television and Internet personality. She is most notably known for her appearances on TechTV's The Screen Savers, G4's Attack of the Show!, and Revision3's popSiren...

, Iyaz Akhtar

Iyaz Akhtar

Iyaz Akhtar is an internet personality. While he is a graduate of the New York University School of Law , he is better known for hosting podcasts such as TWiT.tv's Tech News Today with Tom Merritt, Sarah Lane, and Jason Howell. Iyaz also appears on This Old Nerd, and Finite Comedy.-External...

& Jason Howell.

Upon joining TWiT.tv, Merritt brought with him two shows previously produced by cartoonist Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson (cartoonist)

Scott Blaine Johnson is a cartoonist, illustrator, designer and podcaster. He lives in Eagle Mountain, Utah with his wife Kim, daughters Taylor and Carter, and son Nick. In 2008, Johnson launched , an illustration and audio production company. Johnson is the creator of the popular...

's Frogpants Studios. Originally started on July 7, 2009, "Fourcast" features Merritt and Johnson inviting various guests to discuss the future and what it might contain in a so-called virtual fireside setting. Meanwhile "Current Geek Weekly" is a weekly discussion of geek culture stories and the companion podcast to the Current Geek podcasts still produced by Frogpants Studios.

On 10 November 2010, Merrit officially launched his second new show on TWiT, FrameRate. Focusing on video in its many and varied forms (TV, Film, Internet), Merritt co-hosts the show with magician and NSFW podcast host Brian Brushwood

Brian Brushwood

Brian Brushwood is an American magician who performs nationwide. He is especially well known for his display of bizarre magic. He is known to perform fire-eating, escapes, breaking a cinder block over his head, sticking nails in his eyes and nose, sticking needles through his palm, reading minds,...

.

On 20 January 2011, TWiT officially launched "Triangulation", a new show with Merritt co-hosting with Leo Laporte and interviewing a notable figure in technology.

In addition to these regular shows, Merritt has hosted live breaking news coverage of major technology events on TWiT Live and later released as "TWiT Specials" podcasts. He has acted as a relief host for Laporte on TWiT, Windows Weekly, Security Now and other shows when Laporte has been unavailable.

Other Projects

Since 4 February 2008, Merrit has hosted Sword & Laser, a sci-fi based book club podcast, co-hosted with his former CNet colleague, Veronica Belmont

Veronica Belmont

Veronica Ann Belmont is the co-host of the Revision3 show Tekzilla alongside Patrick Norton, and the former host of the monthly PlayStation 3-based video on demand program Qore. Formerly she was the host for the Mahalo Daily podcast and a producer and associate editor for CNET Networks, Inc...

.

On June 22, 2010, Tom launched a new show for Revision3, entitled Tom's Top 5. The show counts down a new Top 5 list every week, and is released every Tuesday. He did a similar show on CNET

CNET

called Top 5 which Brian Cooley now hosts.

Merritt has written a sci-fi novel, Boiling Point, which describes a near future United States civil war. He later narrated it as an audiobook.

In 2006 he wrote another novel, United Moon Colonies, of which he posted chapters on his blog. Both novels were published on Lulu.com with a Creative Commons license.

Personal life

Merritt is married to Eileen Rivera and they live in Marin County, California

Marin County, California

Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...

, with their dogs Jango and Sawyer, having formerly lived in Oakland. Rivera now works alongside her husband as a producer at TWiT.tv.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.