I just read a linked page I saw on [H] that just has me very very saddened.  It took me to Leo Leporte’s website where it was announced by Leo that the TechTV channel, its employees, and station itself based in San Fransisco, are to move to LA along with the entire current staff to be let go with 60 day notice.  Now, I’m not one to usually go into a topic like this, but this one bugs me a bit and to be honest, I just wanted to tell someone and well..  consider yourself the sucker for me to spew off on for the next few moments. 

It was nearly 3 years ago (2 years and 11 months to be precise), back on June the 7th of 2001 that I first found this new tv station called TechTV.  As it just so happens on that particular night I started watching some crazy show with a couple of zany characters on it, Leo, a middle aged guy a bit older than I, that knew PCs as I did and Patrick, this mellow and sometimes dramatic Joiseyan (its the accent, live with it :p) such as myself who was born, raised and did everything short of stopping the sun to get out of New Jersey.  This seemed like a perfect fit for me.  Geek talk, that I knew, understood, and lived with nearly all my life, at that point 24 years since my Tandy Model #1 in 1977.  I loved the show and it only took 5 minutes to be hooked. 

So, here I was, just happened to be looking for new rigs to replace my old ones(the aging K62-266 and K62-300 of my wife’s) that were long overdue at that point.  As you might imagine, I had already given up on Intel at that point and was looking for more news on current AMD products.  As luck would have it, TechTV’s The Screen Savers on June the 7th 2001 had a spotlight guest, a red-headed, geeky looking (Sorry my friend, you was 😉 ) kid talking about AMD motherboards and his website Amdmb.com.  Its amazing what can happen with just a single chance encounter.

Now to come and find out today via [H], a show, station, and personnel,  I have come to enjoy is being put out to pasture.  Now, I think even those of us geeks know there was a downside to the channel for us, as people who watched it thought they knew as much as a skilled, trained, and experienced tech, but most of us muddled through that part of it.  I know many a time I have sent clients to TechTV’s website or channel to watch Call for Help, a show designed for the AOL generation (:eek: did I just say that).  The Screen Savers (TSS) were for the rest of us techies to get some tidbits here and there, an occasional something new we didnt know, and of course, the occasional laugh at some of the funny questions that would make any Helpdesk Technician bust a gut.

Its a shame to me to see such an ensemble of shows and characters torn up and apart as the way Leo has reported on his website.  IF in fact this does come to pass, it will be a very very sad day for me, as it will end the era for TechTV in any incarnation.  Replacing the staff alone will diminish not only its effectiveness to teach the masses, but will also take away from the tech community that made TechTV so popular in the first place.

To all the fellow TSS watchers, you have my sympathys at our loss, to the Staff of TechTV and TSS in particular, you have my prayers and hopes for a better tomorrow for yourselves and your families.