Adam Clark Curry (born September 3, 1964) is a broadcasting and Internet personality well known for his stint from 1987 to 1994 as a video jockey on the music video channel MTV. In the mid-1990s, Curry was a World Wide Web entrepreneur and one of the first celebrities to personally create and administer a Web site. In the 2000s, he helped pioneer podcasting. He pilots his own Cessna 182 RG. He is married to Dutch singer Patricia Paay; they have a daughter Christina.

Early radio and TV career

Curry was born in Arlington, Virginia, but lived in Amsterdam from 1972 to 1987. After a time working in Dutch pirate radio under the pseudonym "John Holdon", he got his big break in broadcasting as the host of the weekly pop-music television program Countdown. He also hosted several other radio and television programs for the Netherlands broadcast station Veronica.

In 1986, Curry became a VJ for MTV. Besides making spot appearances between music videos, he was also host of the programs Headbangers Ball and Top 20 Countdown in which he got to interview 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.

The Web and MTV.com

In the late 1980s, before the World Wide Web, in the days of Gopher, Curry began experimenting on the Net. He registered the then-unclaimed domain name "mtv.com" in 1993 with the idea of being MTV's unofficial new voice on the Internet. Although sanctioned by MTV Networks, when Adam left to start his company OnRamp, MTV sued him for the domain name, which led to an out-of-court settlement.

Curry left MTV in 1994 and founded OnRamp, Inc., a Web design and hosting company. He eventually grew the company to 40 employees and sold it to THINK New Ideas, Inc., another company that he co-founded. He became Chief Technology Officer of THINK. In 1996, as the Internet was undergoing its legendary "bubble", the company made an initial public offering on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol THNK. It subsequently grew to employ over 400 people and have offices in seven countries, and was absorbed into Answerthink, Inc. in a later merger.

Back to The Netherlands

After having sold his business in the US, Curry and his family returned to work in The Netherlands in 1999. He pursued his radio and television career by presenting a morning talk/music show for his former employer, Veronica Radio, which was discontinued in September 2004. He carried out several loose television assignments and his family briefly starred in the reality soap Adam's Family ^*.

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 unsuccessful: a collaboration with radio and television company, Veronica, had to be settled in court. The participation in Kennisnet, a venture to introduce Internet to Dutch schools ended in a bitter argument and rumours of unlawfully signed documents. And a prestiguous content exchange project went bankrupt in 2002.

In 2000 he and his business partner Simon Cavendish, who had also participated in his earlier ventures, founded the RotorJet company which was to offer helicopter services to a select audience. The company went bankrupt in 2005. In a subsequent dispute, Cavendish (whose real name, according to Curry, was Simon Michael Jackson) seized the assets of the company. In April 2005, Adam Curry was ordered by the Dutch Court to restitute approximately two million American dollars which he had illegitimately withdrawn from RotorJet.

In 2004, the Curry family, who had resided in Belgium since 1999, moved their home to the United Kingdom. They currently reside in the affluent suburb of Guildford, Surrey, in what he refers to as "The Curry Cottage" on his podcast, The Daily Source Code. Curry also owns a condominium in San Francisco, California, ("Curry Condo," natch) which he uses for his frequent business trips to the city. In summer 2006, he and his wife began looking to purchase their own home in the UK.

On July 2nd, 2006, Adam's mother, Valerie Gail Clark (Breezy), passed away, after a 2 year battle with cancer. ^*

Podcasting

Adam Curry is involved in the development and promotion of podcasting. He produces and presents a podcast named Daily Source Code where his wife Patricia and his daughter Christina make occasional appearances. He was a key figure at BloggerCon 2004, held at Stanford Law School.

As of June 2005, Curry hosts a show on Sirius Satellite Radio, entitled "Adam Curry's PodShow", running from 6 to 10 p.m. EST on weekdays. Also in June of 2005 he started the iTunes podcast PodFinder ^*, a guide to podcasts for new listeners.

Curry founded PodShow, Inc., along with business partner, Ron Bloom, in January 2005. Venture capitalists Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital have invested nearly $9 million into PodShow.PodShow is a podcast promotions and advertising company that encompasses the Podshow Podcast Network, the Podcast Delivery Network (launched on July 4, 2006), and the Podsafe Music Network (still in beta). Some of Podshow's top podcasts are Curry's own Daily Source Code, The Dawn and Drew Show, GeekBrief.TV, and the MommyCast, who secured a $200,000 sponsorship from paper product manufacturer, Dixie cup Dixie, through PodShow.[http://pressroom.podshow.com/2006/05/23/podfather-plots-a-radio-hit-of-his-own-la-times/#more-44

Controversy

Some controversy was caused by Contributions/82.108.78.107 Curry made to Wikipedia's podcasting article during 2005, which appeared to boost his role in the creation of podcasting by removing mention of early work by others ^*.

Curry later apologized, saying he had not understood how to use Wikipedia editing functions and had been unaware of some of the prior work done by Kevin Marks. [http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/2818

In late February 2006, Adam sued the Dutch tabloid, Weekend for reprinting photos from his Flickr page and publishing details about his daughter. ^* The photos were released under a version of the Creative Commons license, which forbids commercial use and requires acknowledgement, but the tabloid printed a few of them without contacting Curry. The verdict of the lawsuit did not reward Curry, but required the tabloid to pay a fine for each photo used if they published the photos again.

Dave Winer, another controversial internet celebrity, has accused him of exaggerating his contributions to podcasting and claiming to invent things he had not.^*

References

• Curry, Adam. Adam Curry's Weblog - Personal Information about Adam Curry (accessed May 8 2004, dated February 24 2002)
• MTV v. Curry
• Podshow Pressroom (accessed July 14, 2006)

External links

• indiePodder.org - Community driven Podcast directory
• PodShow.com - Adam Curry's start up company dedicated to podcasting
• Daily Source Code Adam's own (almost) daily podcast
• Adam Curry's Weblog

1964 births | Living people | American radio personalities | American television personalities | American bloggers | MTV VJs | Podcasters | Sirius Satellite Radio personalities

Adam Curry | Adam Curry | Adam Curry