Tom Merritt

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Tom Merritt
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Merritt.jpg
Merritt at a convention in 2010
Born Thomas Andrew Merritt
(1970-06-28) June 28, 1970 (age 42)
Greenville, Illinois
Nationality American
Notable work(s)
Spouse(s) Eileen Rivera
Website
www.tommerritt.com

Thomas Andrew "Tom" Merritt (born June 28, 1970 in Greenville, Illinois [1]) is a technology journalist and broadcaster who hosts a daily show on Leo Laporte's TWiT.tv Netcast Network Tech News Today. Merritt was formerly an Executive Editor for CNET and developer and co-host of the daily podcast Buzz Out Loud. [2]

Contents

Early life [edit]

Born in Greenville, Illinois, Merritt's father worked on the Coffee-Mate project as a food scientist.[3] Merritt received a BS in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and pursued graduate work in communications at the University of Texas at Austin.[4]

Career [edit]

Tom's foray into the world of radio began in 1986 as a DJ for WGEL, a country music station located in Greenville, Illinois.[4] In 1993, Merritt worked as an intern for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition".[4] From 1999 to 2004 Merritt worked for TechTV in San Francisco as an Executive Web Producer and served as a radio host with TechTV until 2003.[4]

CNET [edit]

Merritt started with CNET in 2004.[4] In addition to his duties as co-host of Buzz Out Loud with Molly Wood, Merritt also had a regular column & podcast (co-hosted with Rafe Needleman) dealing with consumer technology. He also co-hosted the tech support call-in program CNET Live with fellow editor Brian Cooley, 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, and that he would be joining the TWiT.tv Network as a full-time daily host beginning June 1, 2010.[5] During his last 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.[6]

TWiT Network [edit]

Prior to joining TWiT as an employee, Merritt had a long standing working relationship with former TechTV colleague 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, East Meets West, also featured on TWiT Live.[7]

Tech News Today launched on 1 June 2010. Merritt is a regular host along with Sarah Lane, Iyaz Akhtar and Jason Howell.

Upon joining TWiT.tv, Merritt brought with him two shows previously produced by cartoonist Scott Johnson'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.[8] 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, Merritt 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.

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 July 2012 he stopped hosting the show because he "wanted to work on other projects".[9]

In addition to these regular shows, Merritt has hosted live breaking news coverage of major technology events on TWiT Live such as WWDC, Google I/O and the resignation & passing of Steve Jobs. These are later released as "TWiT Live 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.

On 22 October 2012, Merritt announced that he would be moving to Los Angeles to accommodate his wife's new employment at YouTube, but would still continue to present on the TWiT network.

Other Projects [edit]

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.[10]

On June 22, 2010, Tom launched a new show for Revision3, entitled Tom's Top 5.[11] The show counts down a new Top 5 list every week, and is released every Tuesday. Its final episode was published on November 1, 2011. He did a similar show on CNET.

Merritt has written a sci-fi novel, Boiling Point, which describes a near future United States civil war.[12] He later narrated it as an audiobook.[13]

In 2006 he wrote another novel, United Moon Colonies, of which he posted chapters on his blog.[14] Both novels were published on Lulu.com with a Creative Commons license.[citation needed]

Tom appeared in 2 early episodes of his Frame Rate co-host Brian Brushwood's Revision3 show Scam School.

Personal life [edit]

Merritt is married to Eileen Rivera and they live in Los Angeles, California,[15] with their dogs Jango and Sawyer, having formerly lived in Marin County and Oakland. Merritt is a fan of Major League Baseball's St. Louis Cardinals.

References [edit]

  1. ^ Tom Merritt at the Internet Movie Database
  2. ^ "CNET launches Podcast Central". The Online Reporter (494): 10. 2006-05-27. Retrieved 2007-11-23. 
  3. ^ Molly Wood and Tom Merritt (2007-09-18). "Buzz Out Loud 577: Steve Jobs' pants". http://bol.cnet.com (Podcast). http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6776212.html. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Resume / CV". http://tommerritt.com. 2007-07-21. Retrieved 2007-10-21. 
  5. ^ "I’m changing some things. UPDATE". Tom Merritt .com. 2010-04-16. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 
  6. ^ "Coming June 1- Tech News Today with Tom Merritt". Tom Merritt .com. 2010-05-14. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 
  7. ^ Roger Chang and Tom Merritt (2007-10-21). "East Meets West". http://www.subbrilliant.com/emw/ (Podcast). http://www.subbrilliant.com/emw. Retrieved 2007-10-21.
  8. ^ Scott Johnson and Tom Merritt. "FourCast". http://www.fourcastpodcast.com/ (Podcast). http://www.fourcastpodcast.com/.
  9. ^ Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt. "Triangulation". http://twit.tv/tri (Podcast). http://twit.tv/tri.
  10. ^ http://www.swordandlaser.com
  11. ^ "Tom's Top 5: Most wanted products - Tom's Top 5". Revision3.com. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 
  12. ^ Merritt, Tom. Boiling Point. Subbrilliant Media. ISBN 978-0-615-15790-0. 
  13. ^ "SuBBrilliant Blog » Boiling Point". Subbrilliant.com. 2006-07-15. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 
  14. ^ "SuBBrilliant Blog » UMC". Subbrilliant.com. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 
  15. ^ "Twitter / acedtect: Traffic in San Francisco was". Twitter.com. 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2013-02-27. 

External links [edit]
Podcasts
Hosts
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