I think his level of infamy far exceeded PG's before Digg. Check his bio.
He sheepishly reviewed his company on the geek-dense Screensavers program on TechTv (now Attack of the Show, I think, on G4).
I miss Screensavers from the ZDTV era. Tech was ok, G4 is unwatchable.
He had his own segment on The Screen Savers, a fairly popular geek/tech show, for some time. That's where he plugged Digg. So yeah, he was pretty well known.