John Evans

Johnathan William Evans (born 13 October 1968) is a Euroish broadcaster and journalist. He is currently the editor of The Saturday Independent.

Early life
Jonathan William Evans was born on 13 October 1968 to parents James and Rosemary Evans. From an early age, he was particularly interested in television and radio broadcasting - particularly enjoying comedy programmes, the news and the idents and continuity between the programmes themselves.

His interest in current affairs and the media industry was a part of him developing an interest in politics and journalism. He was a journalist and columnist for the secondary school newspaper and regularly presented morning announcements and assemblies.

Career
Immediately upon joining college in 1982, Evans was presenting on student radio station Midway FM, broadcasting on the grounds of Midway College. His first programme, titled Good Evans, was a weekly programme that combined reviews, features and satire with rock and indie music. The programme, initially transmitted on Friday lunchtimes later transferred to a Wednesday and Friday evening show by 1983, entitled The Tank, in which he discussed political matters with his fellow Midway pupils, most of whom were studying either media studies or politics.

By 1985, John was presenting Mediawatch for Midway FM, a programme which reported on news in the worlds of journalism and broadcasting. Both of these programmes came to an end in December 1987 when Evans left college,

Evans had left college to join EBC Radio to report and present for Radio 3's youth oriented news and current affairs programme Newsbeat in January 1988. Evans began his career in national print journalism later that year as a media and broadcasting columnist and correspondent for The Euro Independent - covering the launch of TV3 in a weekly series published in the paper each Friday in the months and weeks leading up to the channel's launch.

Evans was soon making appearences on Radio 1 - and beginning in September 1990 was an arts and culture correspondent for the AM programme - the flagship news programme on the station, and was also presenting Friday and Saturday evening editions of the 11pm bulletin 24 Hours.

In early 1991, John Evans drawn up proposals for reviving his Midway FM programmes The Tank and Mediawatch for national transmission on EBC Radio 1. The station immediately shown interest in Mediawatch and accepted with a caveat - which Evans had incorporated in the contract, that all of the original Midway FM production team would be offered the same roles for the Radio 1 versions. The Tank - whilst rejected by Radio 1, was picked up - albiet now with more of a pop culture focus, by Radio 3FM. The programmes returned to broadcast in June and August 1991 respectively, with Evans leaving AM at the same time.

His dry wit on both programmes had proved a massive success, and soon enough he was being offered more high profile jobs within EBC Radio. After cover work that had began in February as well as increased prominence on 24 Hours, Evans permanently became Frances O'Donnell's secondary presenter on Tonight - Radio 1's early evening current affairs programme in September 1992, stepping into the main presenter's chair in her absence. Evans continued to present Mediawatch at this time but had quit The Tank at 3FM to focus on Radio 1.

His on-air prominence in Tonight gradually increased throughout 1992 & 1993 before he was given the full-time job of flagship presenter of Tonight in November 1994 when Frances O'Donnell announced she was to move to AM in January 1995. His more liberal agenda also led to a contrast with O'Donnell's extremely conservative slant.

Despite being a well-known leftist, Evans said of his job:"'There is always the right to freedom of speech to be displayed throughout the broadcast medium, however the right to impartial journalism belongs to everybody, and therefore as a journalist, at the end of the day, reporting the true facts and treating all those involved with respect yet challenging them when need be is the most important part of being a quality news broadcaster, saying what you think about the news is topical discussion and debate, but it isn't always true fact and therefore isn't news.'"During his initial five-year tenure as presenter of Tonight, he gained a cult following for his dry wit and satirical commentary of the day's events, gaining a mainstream reputation for quality thanks to his often hard, brutal and exposing questions during interviews with politicans, a far cry from the programme's older years as a lighter, more laid back magazine programme.

This is believed to have reached it's climax when he challenged then Deputy Prime Minister Judy Thomson in 1996 to admit that millions of pounds that had been saved by privatisation of rail, buses and water was spent by herself for luxuries for her MP's, and that she was about to announce a new ban against any form of immigration in the country, after an investigation by Tonight uncovered government files confirming there were to be "foreigner camps" built where immigrants would be forced to shocking conditions for the rest of their lives. The investigation and interview won a series of prestigious awards, with Tonight winning "Best Current Affairs Programme" in the 1997 Euroish Radio Academy Awards. It was similarly highly influential in the National party's defeat in the 1999 General Election.

Evans believed that Tonight should have more fun than it's other counterpart programmes, as the programme's target demographic were more likely to be laid back and relaxed at the time of it's 6.00pm broadcast with the work day wrapping up and many workers either on their way home or already back. Therefore the programme shown a different angle to news - which whilst not downmarket and tabloidy, was lighter and more offbeat, with a focus on unique members of the public and arts and cultural entertainment. His witty, sharp and cutting style of comedy played a major part of his time at Tonight, often at the expense of politicians who had found themselves in controversy, and especially during the programme's lighter stories.

Evans made the decision to leave Tonight in October 1999, to join Channel 4 as the host of it's new flagship evening news programme. His final edition of Tonight at the time was broadcast on Thursday 23rd December 1999.