Wired News
March 31, 2003
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Internet Radio's Biggest Geek
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,58231,00.html
By Elisa Batista
To say that Ken Rutkowski loves technology is an understatement.
Rutkowski, the host of online technology radio show, KenRadio, is
obsessed.
Every day, Rutkowski, 36, peruses 120 newspapers from around the
world for the latest tech headlines. He owns two Wi-Fi-enabled laptops,
a Wi-Fi-enabled Pocket PC cell phone, two media servers with
TiVo-recording capabilities, another separate TiVo recorder, 5 desktop
computers, 4 MP3 players, including Apple's iPod (his favorite),
GPS in his Lexus sports utility vehicle, a phone to make broadband
Internet phone calls and a 42-inch high definition television set -- all
for him, his wife of seven years, Angela Evangelopoulos, and their
20-month-old baby son, Nicolai.
"It’s crazy," Evangelopoulos said. "I told him, 'Why
can’t I have an on and off button for the TV?' He makes it sound
so easy, but it's impossible to switch on the VCR to play."
But it's this crazy habit and relentless energy -- eccentric, yet
entertaining -- that has kept Rutkowski on the air for seven years.
With 110,000 listeners, he's managing to make ends meet at a time
when many Internet radio stations are fighting for their lives. As the
recording industry attempts to squeeze royalty fees out of struggling
online stations, these same stations are losing listeners to war
coverage on television.
Despite very little sleep at night -- his co-host Andy Abramson
admits to having received his fair share of 3 a.m. phone calls from
Rutkowski to discuss that morning's radio show -- Rutkowski exudes so
much energy that one must wonder what he puts in his coffee in the
morning.
In a recent 30-minute morning show, Rutkowski moved briskly from
cracks about Connie Chung's breakup with CNN to the availability of a
voice-messaging service by AOL -- which Rutkowski refers to as
"A-Zero-L." Then he moved on to a rant about consumers soon being able
to switch cell-phone carriers without giving up their phone numbers and
a bit about wireless network hacking. Sandwiched between those items
were a bunch of other -- sometimes arcane -- tech trends.
"No, I am not a coffee guy," Rutkowski said. "I love teas -- all
kinds of teas. Earl Grey has to top my list. Maybe four big cups of tea
I down during the morning, but I must tell you I started hanging out
more at Starbucks, and I’m kind of fond of their white chocolate
mocha. Yummy."
Actually, he said, the real reason he entered a Starbucks in the
first place was for its Wi-Fi service. Rutkowski's listeners would agree
-- he doesn’t need any coffee, the technology is enough to keep
him going.
While Rutkowski has a unique spin on the news -- he coined phrases
such as "Enrob" for Enron, "Andersin" for Arthur Andersen and "WorldCon"
for WorldCom -- he can come off as abrasive to radio guests and those
who are the butt of his jokes.
"When Ken moderates a panel in an Internet show, there are no
softball questions," Abramson said. "When people try to duck the
answers, Ken is ready to throw them off the stage."
His listeners, however, seem to enjoy his curtness.
Mark Frieser, CEO of telecommunications consulting and business
development firm Consect, has tuned into Rutkowski’s tech radio
shows since 1998. He likes Rutkowski’s international perspective
on the news. "What’s going on with mobile technology in Africa is
the kind of information that doesn’t come to you from anywhere
else," he said.
According to those closest to him, Rutkowski has always been a tech
junkie.
His wife, Evangelopoulos, who attended the same junior high school
as Rutkowski in Orland Park, Illinois, recalled the time he used a
walkie-talkie-like radio to intercept the phone calls in his home. "He
bugged the house internally," she said.
What Evangelopoulos remembers most about a younger Rutkowski was his
enthusiasm for technology and his drive. To get her attention in school,
he joined every club she did, including the cross-country track team.
Despite earning an associates degree in business, he admits that he
never liked school much.
"It was a waste of time, a waste of money," Rutkowski said. "College
is so slow and boring."
Still, he managed to carve out a career in radio. His first stint
was at MSNBC in Australia where he briefly hosted a 30-minute technology
show in 1995. At that time, he hosted an online version of what KenRadio
is today, a show called T-Talk, which had just 5,000 listeners.
In 1999, after several years of reporting on technology issues for
Chicago-area radio stations, Rutkowski approached Abramson, a publicity
manager with a keen interest in wireless technology, to do a radio show
on the Internet.
He and Abramson launched KenRadio the following year. Since then,
the duo said it has claimed about 110,000 listeners. While Abramson runs
his own marketing and advertising communications agency on the side,
Rutkowski makes his living at KenRadio from sponsorships and speaking
engagements.
Because he doesn't play commercial music on the newscast, Rutkowski
isn’t saddled with royalty fees. He is also a charismatic,
champion marketer, who, his colleagues say, will enter a room and walk
away with 30 business cards.
"Ken is the ultimate guerilla webcaster," said Alan Wallace, a
public relations and marketing consultant who used to listen to KenRadio
when he worked at Live365.com, a website that lets its users create
their own online radio stations.
Live365.com laid off Wallace go a year ago when it found itself on
the losing end of a battle to lower royalty fees that online
broadcasters have to pay to the record companies.
Rutkowski may not play music, but he claims his tech news show has
mainstream appeal. He sprinkles politics and references to popular
culture in his interviews and into his news roundups.
"I’m not a complete geek," he said.
Every weekday, Rutkowski, who lives in Santa Monica, California,
gets up at 5:45 a.m. and spends four hours writing and recording his
show.
After the recording, he prepares his "Daily Tech News Clicks," an
online newsletter with tech headlines from around the world. The work
doesn't stop there, however.
In preparation for the following day's show, he reads the Asian and
Australian newspapers, then the European and African newspapers, finally
-- the following morning -- the papers from the Americas.
"I just want to know more than everybody else," he said. Rutkowski
stops to think about what he just said and then admits, "That sounds
pompous."
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