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."
