Lyndon Evans, has had several “careers” but is best known for his work in radio broadcasting.
His first round in radio was in 1977 when he joined Danbury’s radio stations WLAD/WDAQ as sports director, reporter and anchor.
During his tenure he was sports director, producer of all live local sporting events and oversaw studio production on the local end during such events as coverage of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament broadcast live from England.
Besides doing several daily sports reports on both stations, he also produced and hosted a weekly sports program.
During the 1980 Winter Olympics from Lake Placid, NY, Evans produced and voiced over 70 reports utilizing the AP Wire Service and AP Radio.
Aside from his sports reporting, he would on occasion anchor the hourly newscasts and also do street reporting.
Each year he was at WLAD/WDAQ he was the anchor/reporter at Democratic Headquarters in Danbury during the station’s election night coverage.
He was asked by Danbury Democrats if he would consider entering politics based on his local popularity and said, “thanks but I would rather be reporting political news than be making political news”.
He was a contributor to the AP Wire Service and AP Radio, did stringer work for WPOP-AM in Hartford which at the time was an all news station, did occasional stringer work for WCBS-AM in New York City and the ABC Sports Radio Network. Many of his reports for AP Radio and ABC Radio were aired on various radio stations around the United States.
For three consecutive years, 1977 – 1979, he was cited for his reporting by the Associated Press in Connecticut, reaching his highest honor in 1979 for providing Best Sports Coverage.
In 1981 he left radio broadcasting to pursue other interests.
20 plus years later he returned to radio broadcasting, this time behind the scenes when he went to work for CBS Broadcasting in 2003.
While with the CBS Radio Division he worked at the four station radio group in Hartford serving as continuity manager for all National advertising, paid and barter.
Unfortunately, in July 2006, he was among 100 plus CBS Radio employees who were downsized across the United States.
After the downsizing and as an effort to continue to use his computer and writing skills he began blogging in 2007.
Regarding his entry into blogs for the LGBT community, he said, “I fell into creating LGBT blogs both as link sources and commentary, plus spotlighting LGBT news and issues. To be honest I could be doing blogs on any subject including pork belly futures but prefer the subject this walk through life’s little opportunities has given me”.
LGBT Rainbow Links, a link site to LGBT websites and blogs was the first “blog” he developed for LGBTs in 2007.
“Blogging has become a great way to test and use my creativity although all the blogs except LGBT Rainbow Links have been discontinued or on hiatus due to the time and work involved with Focus On The Rainbow.
There is also a sports edition of Focus On The Rainbow – Sports at SportsFags.com and another blog has been developed on another LGBT website published by the publishers of SportsFag.com .
The website is OutLoudBlogs.com and Evans has been asked to participate on the website as a featured writer.
That blog is all commentary and is titled, Focus On The Rainbow – Opine. “There’s an old saying that a newspaper’s “heart and soul” is its op-ed page. This new blog will be the “heart and soul” of Focus On The Rainbow.”
When asked if he would write a blog for CT/Hearst Newspapers based on his writings on LGBT issues and news, he agreed, “but wasn’t quite sure how it would be received. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the readership since it first began in July. Even more so that Focus On The Rainbow appears on all four websites of CT/Hearst Newspapers”.
He ia a regular guest co-host on BlogTalkRadio’s Gay Agenda hosted by James Hipps discussing the LGBT community, its issues and rights of equality, and is also a contributor to the website Gay Agenda where some of the postings from Focus On the Rainbow are cross-posted.
Would Evans return to broadcasting ?
“Given the right opportunity, either behind the scenes or back on-air as anchor, reporter, host or as a commentator for radio and/or TV, the answer would be yes. Although I would have to honestly say I would have no interest going back into sports, however, news would certainly be something I would have to take a very serious look at”.
“But if it were to never happen again, I’ve had more than my share of 15 minutes of fame. After all, how many people can say Paul Newman took them for a ride in his race car ?”
You can send comments or questions, LGBT news tips or press releases regarding “LGBT topics” to Lyndon Evans at focusontherainbow@yahoo.com .
Evans was born in Huyton, England in 1953 and at the ripe old age of 6 months came to the US when his Dad who was in the USAF and his “mum” came back to the States to finish up his Dad’s USAF service.
Evans has lived in Danbury most of his life, attended Mill Ridge and Great Plain elementary schools and Broadview Jr High (first eighth grade class at the school) and graduated (barely) from Danbury High School in 1972.
He attended the RCA TV Studio School in NYC in 1972 and The Connecticut School of Broadcasting in 1976. Having never attended college nor any other formal education aside from the two broadcasting schools, “I’ve learned the expertise of my varied work related background the old fashion way, learning on the job, teaching myself and taking advantage of opportunities.”
“I have a good old fashion “swamp Yankee” dry sense of humor which often is taken as being sarcastic and does enter into my commentary at times. That sense of humor has been passed down thorugh the generations from the Rutledge side of the family and woe-be-it to the spouses, friends or partners of the Rutledge clan who don’t “get” the sense of humor. A thick skin on their part is most definitely needed. It’s one of the reasons when the TV show was popular my nickname was Maude”
In the “Mission Statement” of Focus On The Rainbow Evans writes, The direction of this blog could have taken various forms, but with the potential of so many heterosexuals in the United States and indeed the world being able to view this blog, it gives opportunity to see the issues, struggles and sometime accomplishments the LGBT community has made, and been made through active participation of others.
Hopefully the day will come when we, just like you, can be equal, and when it won’t matter what we are, but who we are.
Evans is now a regular guest co-host on The Gay Agenda, Wednesday evenings 8 PM to 9 PM (ET) at BlogTalkRadio
Member – Society of Professional Journalists - New England Chapter, Gay Writers.ning and National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association
