Lon McEachern (; born ) is an American

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

most known for his hand-by-hand commentary of the

World Series of Poker The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Paradise, Nevada, and since 2004, sponsored by Eldorado Resorts, Caesars Entertainment. It dates its origins to 1970, when Benny Binion invited seven of the best ...

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. He is known as the "voice of poker".

Early life and education

McEachern was born in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

, one of four children. His family later relocated to the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

and McEachern was raised in Corte Madera in

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

until the age of 19. He attended Redwood High School and played baseball while a student. He was teammates with future MLB shortstop Buddy Biancalana in his senior year and graduated in 1975. McEachern attended Santa Barbara City College and was a baseball teammate of future-MLB player

Jesse Orosco Jesse Russell Orosco (born April 21, 1957) is an American former professional baseball relief pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball from 1979 to 2003 for the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, Baltimor ...

. He later attended the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Tracing its roots back to 1891 as an ...

and graduated in 1980 with a B.A. in communications. While enrolled at UC Santa Barbara, he worked at the campus radio station KCSB-FM.

Career

Out of college, McEachern worked radio at KTMS, the former home of another UCSB graduate in

Jim Rome James Phillip Rome (born October 14, 1964) is an American sports radio host. His talk show, '' The Jim Rome Show'', is syndicated by Westwood One. Broadcasting from a studio near Los Angeles, California, Rome hosts ''The Jim Rome Show'' on r ...

, before entering the television industry with

KCOY-TV KCOY-TV (channel 12) is a television station licensed to Santa Maria, California, United States, serving the Central Coast of California as an affiliate of Telemundo and The CW. It is owned by VistaWest Media, LLC, which maintains a shared se ...

. He moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990s to work at

KGO-TV KGO-TV (channel 7) is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It has been owned and operated by the American Broadcasting Company, ABC television network through its ABC Owne ...

and

KPIX-TV KPIX-TV (channel 5), branded on-air as CBS Bay Area, is a television station licensed to San Francisco, California, United States, serving as the CBS network outlet for the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS ...

. He also freelanced for

, including covering play-by-play of the

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

. By 2002, McEachern had left the television industry. In 2002, ESPN reached out to McEachern, who was working as a mortgage banker at the time, to cover poker. He was brought back in 2003 alongside

Norman Chad Norman Chad (born 1958) is an American sportswriter and television poker commentator. Biography Chad grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, the son of Seymour and Cuban-born Perla Chad. Chad attended Northwood High School before graduating from t ...

for the 2003 World Series of Poker. The tournament was won by Chris Moneymaker and led to the Moneymaker effect and a corresponding surge in poker's popularity. McEachern continued as a mortgage banker for nearly five years, doing poker coverage for ESPN on the side. As of 2017, he has covered every World Series of Poker main event since ESPN acquired the broadcasting rights. McEachern also covered play-by-play of the

PBA Tour The PBA Tour is the major professional tour for tenpin bowling, operated by the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). Headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia, over 3,000 members worldwide make up the PBA. While most of the PBA members are Reg ...

during the 2012–13 season alongside color analyst

Randy Pedersen Randy Pedersen (born May 28, 1962) is an American sportscaster and former professional Bowler (ten-pin), bowler as a member of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). He is currently a color analyst for Fox Sports (United States), Fox Sports ...

. In 2007 McEachern was the commentator for Pride 33 along with fighters Frank Trigg and Josh Barnett.

Personal life

McEachern married Carol Czyzewski, a fellow UC Santa Barbara alumna, in 1981 and has two children. His nephew, Matthew Wood, is a sound engineer for Skywalker Sound and has worked on numerous

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

films.

References

External links

ESPN biography
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Lon McEachern Interview (audio + transcript)
{{DEFAULTSORT:McEachern, Lon Living people Poker commentators University of California, Santa Barbara alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Mass media people from Memphis, Tennessee People from Corte Madera, California People from Santa Clara, California Bowling broadcasters Redwood High School (Larkspur, California) alumni