Adam Clark Curry (born September 3, 1964) is an American podcaster, announcer, Internet entrepreneur and media personality, known for his stint as a VJ on MTV and being one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer Web sites.[3] Also known for co-hosting the No Agenda show, in the 2000s, he first became involved in podcasting, and has been called the 'Podfather' because of his efforts.[4]
Curry was born in Arlington, Virginia, but lived in Amstelveen, Netherlands, from 1972 to 1987. After a time working in Dutch pirate radio at Radio Picasso in Amstelveen and Radio Decibel[nl] in Amsterdam in the early 1980s under the pseudonym "John Holden", he got a break in broadcasting as the host of the Dutch weekly pop-musictelevision programCountdown, and the English version of the same show, which was broadcast on pan-European music channel Music Box. He also hosted several other radio and television programs for the Dutch broadcast station Veronica. Aside from Countdown, in the Netherlands Adam Curry is mostly known for his part in the Curry and Van Inkel radioshow (together with Dutch DJ Jeroen van Inkel), broadcast on Radio 3 for Veronica between 19:00 and 22:00 on Friday.
In 1987, Curry became a VJ for MTV. Besides making spot appearances between music videos, he was also host of the programs Headbangers Ball and MTV Top 20 Video Countdown in which he interviewed stars like Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney. While working for MTV, he also did radio work, including drive-time host for the New York City radio station WHTZ, and host of the national program HitLine USA.
Curry hosted the radio countdown show "Adam Curry's Top 30 Hitlist" for Entertainment Radio Networks from November 1991 to June 1994.[5]
Web and MTV.com
Curry registered the then-unclaimed domain name "mtv.com" in 1993 with the idea of being MTV's unofficial new voice on the Internet. Although this move was sanctioned by his superiors at MTV Networks at the time, when Curry left to start his own web-portal design and hosting company, OnRamp Inc, MTV subsequently sued him for the domain name.[6]
OnRamp eventually grew to 4,000 employees and was sold to Think New Ideas Inc., another company that he co-founded, becoming Chief Technology Officer of Think. In 1996, as the Internet was undergoing its "bubble", the company made an initial public offering on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol THNK. It subsequently grew to employ over 7,400 people, with offices in seven countries, and was absorbed into Answerthink Inc. in a later merger.
In 2005, Curry founded a video-sharing site called PodShow, which later changed its name to Mevio, with Ron Bloom. In May 2008, Mevio claimed to have reached 9million unique visitors. It offers advertisers "brand-safe" content on a large scale. It raised a US$15million third round in July 2008, bringing the total amount it has raised since its launch to over US$38million.[7] Mevio later rebranded as Bitesize Entertainment[8] and ultimately BiteSizeTV, located in Los Angeles, CA.[9]
Enterprises in the U.S. and Europe
After selling his business in the United States, Curry and his family moved to the Netherlands in 1999, where Curry hosted a morning talk/music show for Radio Veronica. He also landed various television assignments and his family briefly starred in the reality show Adam's Family.[10]
Curry and two business partners founded the multimedia company United Resources of Jamby in 1999. It was to act as an incubator and cultivator for new Internet-related businesses. The business was ultimately unsuccessful. Curry's participation in Kennisnet, another venture to introduce the Internet to Dutch schools, ended in a bitter argument and lawsuits.[11] Sportus.nl, an online webshop in collaboration with Dutch athletes like Marcel Wouda, Jacco Eltingh, Ron Zwerver and Daniëlle Overgaag, started in 1999, went bankrupt in 2001.[12] Another content exchange project, Freedom Controller,[13] was cancelled in 2002.[14]
In 2000 he and business partner Simon Cavendish, a participant in his earlier ventures, founded the RotorJet company to offer helicopter services. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2005. In the subsequent dispute, Cavendish seized the assets of the company, and in April 2005, Curry was ordered by a Dutch court to repay approximately US$3million that he had withdrawn from RotorJet.[15]
In 2002 he produced and starred in the reality soap Adam's Family: een kijkje in het leven van de familie Curry (A Glimpse into the Life of the Curry Family) which was aired by the Dutch SBS6 network.
On June 14, 2010, Curry was interviewed by Howard Stern on The Howard Stern Show about being an Internet Entrepreneur. During the interview, Curry discussed a previous investment of $65,000 in AskJeeves.com, which he had forgotten until his lawyer called with news of a windfall. “That went public and all of a sudden I had $150 million,” he explained.[16]
Podcasting
Curry founded PodShow, now Mevio, with his business partner Ron Bloom, in January 2005. PodShow is a podcast promotions and advertising company that encompasses the Podshow Podcast Network, the Podcast Delivery Network, and the Podsafe Music Network. Some of Podshow's top podcasts are Curry's own Daily Source Code, The Dawn and Drew Show, and GeekBrief.TV.[17]
From June 2005 to May 2007, Curry hosted a weekday evening show on Sirius Satellite Radio called 'Adam Curry's PodShow'.[18][19]
Since October 2007, he has hosted the twice-weekly podcast the No Agenda Show with John C. Dvorak, discussing recent news whilst deconstructing mainstream news media.
Curry has heavily promoted his podcasting endeavors. He promoted his podcast Daily Source Code in Second Life under the name 'Adam Neumann',[20] along with a Second Life island called Podshow Island. Curry used podcasting to endorse 2008 Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul.[21] He also uses his show to discuss alternative takes on topics in the daily news, as well as conspiracy theories such as Free energy suppression[22] and the 9/11 Truth Movement.
Curry is widely credited for popularizing the podcast medium. As Annalee Newitz noted in Wired, "Every new medium needs a celebrity, and Curry is happy to fill that role."[23]
On March 4, 2020, Curry appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast The Joe Rogan Experience[24] and later re-appeared on September 8, 2020. During the September show, he discussed having Tourette syndrome. Curry returned to the podcast for a third time on July 6, 2021. Adam Curry made a fourth appearance on the show on January 8, 2022, and a fifth on January 25, 2023.
Creative Commons licensing
In February 2006, Curry sued the Dutch tabloid Weekend for reprinting photos from his Flickr page and publishing details about his daughter.[25] The photos were released under a version of the Creative Commonslicense that forbids commercial use and requires acknowledgement, but the tabloid printed a few of them without contacting Curry.[26] The verdict did not award Curry any damages, but forbade the tabloid from reprinting the photos in the future, setting a fine of €1,000 for each subsequent violation. It was one of the first times the license was tested in court.[26]
In May 2009, Curry posted on his blog that another Dutch tabloid had published another Creative Commons-licensed photo from Curry's Flickr account.[27] After Curry asserted Creative Commons license requirements, the publisher settled on Curry's terms.[28]
Curry was married to Dutch television/radio personality Patricia Paay from 1989 to 2009. They have a daughter, Christina.
In July 2012, Curry married Micky Hoogendijk. On January 29, 2015, Curry announced on the No Agenda show that he and Hoogendijk had separated.[29] Hoogendijk and Curry divorced in 2015.
Curry married his girlfriend of four years, Tina Snider (dubbed "The Keeper" by John C. Dvorak on the No Agenda Show), on May 19, 2019, in Austin, Texas.[30]
John C. Dvorak is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio, and has been a host on TechTV and TWiT.tv. He is currently a co-host of the No Agenda podcast.
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. Podcasts are primarily an audio medium, with some programs offering a supplemental video component.
Whole Wheat Radio was a not-for-profit, listener-driven online community radio station from Talkeetna, Alaska. It was centered around independent music, and aired 24 hours a day.
Cipha Sounds is an American DJ, comedian, and radio and television personality of Puerto Rican descent. He is mostly known for his work as a DJ, a VJ for MTV, and as a comedian.
The Dawn and Drew Show is a podcast starring and produced by a married couple, Dawn Miceli and Drew Domkus.
The Daily Source Code (DSC) was a podcast by Adam Curry, known as the "Podfather", often considered a pioneer of podcasting. Curry talked about his everyday life and events in the podcasting scene or the news in general, as well as playing music from the Podsafe Music Network and promotions for other podcasts. He had regular returning segments which were mostly contributions from fellow podcasts and his daughter Christina occasionally made guest appearances. The show had more than 500,000 subscribers at its peak.
Madge Bertha Weinstein is a fictional Internet personality who maintains Yeast Radio, which has developed a cult following and was among the 50 most-subscribed-to podcasts in 2005. Weinstein is the creation and alter ego of underground filmmaker Richard Bluestein and was described by USA Today as "representative of the type of over-the-top content that would never see the light of day at a mainstream media outlet".
Richard Bluestein is an American entertainer, performance artist, and videographer. His most notorious persona is Madge Weinstein, a "bloated, Jewish lesbian" who hosts the indie podcast Yeast Radio, which Bluestein writes and produces.
Podsafe Music Network (PMN) was the primary archive of podsafe music on the internet. It was established by Mevio, a podcast production company founded by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom, in the summer of 2005. The network's website provided tools for musicians and for podcasters, and also made streamed music available to the casual listener.
Juice is a podcast aggregator for Windows and OS X used for downloading media files such as ogg and mp3 for playback on the computer or for copying to a digital audio player. Juice lets a user schedule downloading of specific podcasts, and will notify the user when a new show is available. It is free software available under the GNU General Public License. The project is hosted at SourceForge. Formerly known as iPodder and later as iPodder Lemon, the software's name was changed to Juice in November 2005 in the face of legal pressure from Apple, Inc.
Charles "C.C." Chapman is an American author, marketing consultant, and frequent speaker about content marketing.
Podcasts, previously known as "audioblogs", have roots dating back to the 1980s. With the advent of broadband Internet access and portable digital audio playback devices such as the iPod, podcasting began to catch hold in late 2004. Today there are more than 115,000 English-language podcasts available on the Internet, and dozens of websites available for distribution at little or no cost to the producer or listener.
Lovespirals is an American dream pop and electronic music band from Southern California, featuring husband and wife, multi-instrumentalist/producer Ryan Lum and lyricist/vocalist Anji Bee.
Mevio Inc. was an American internet entertainment network, founded in San Francisco, California in October 2004 by Adam Curry and Ron Bloom.
An aftershow or after-show is a genre of television talk show whose topic is another television program. An aftershow is typically broadcast immediately after a new episode of its corresponding program, to help retain the audience, and to provide additional discussion and content related to the program. Aftershows may also include guest appearances by a show's staff or cast, and emphasize viewer contributions. A similar, earlier concept in sports broadcasting is the post-game show.
Spark is a Canadian radio talk show about "technology and culture." Hosted by Nora Young, the program made its CBC Radio One début on September 5, 2007. The show is also broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio 159 and, since January 9, 2010, on Vermont Public Radio's network of stations in the United States. It is also broadcast in Australia on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National network. Spark is produced in Toronto by Young and a team that currently consists of Michelle Parise, Adam Killick, and Kent Hoffman.
Hometown Tales began as a Public-access television cable TV program in the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania area in 2002. It was created by a producer from New Jersey, Gene Fitzpatrick and a writer from New Mexico, Bryan Minogue. It soon expanded into a popular podcast, radio program and website.
No Agenda is a podcast hosted by Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak that is recorded twice a week on Thursdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. Pacific Time. The show is primarily focused on mainstream media deconstruction.
Micky Hoogendijk is a Dutch actress, presenter, model and professional photographer.
FantasyGuru.com, launched in 1995, is a subscription-based fantasy football website. The company, which originated as a newsletter published by owner John Hansen, entered its 17th year in business in 2011. Specializing in the National Football League, the site provides projections, statistical analysis, player rankings, and other tools for subscribers. The site's staff also produces regular podcasts and is active in social networking, with accounts on Facebook and Twitter.
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