In like a Lyon

Alicia Robinson

In the 30 years that Curt Lyon has had his radio and TV production

company in Newport Beach, the only thing that hasn’t grown is his

mustache, which he dispensed with in 1981.

A Daily Pilot photo from 1974 shows a shirtless Lyon with long

hair and a push-broom mustache preparing his new facility, the

eponymous Lyon Studios. The company celebrated its 30th anniversary

last week and will soon be moving from its Newport Boulevard studio

to a nearby building Lyon is buying.

In the past, Lyon recorded famous musicians including Stevie

Wonder and Kenny Loggins, but his focus for the last 15 years has

been advertising production. Lyon and his team of eight employees

have traveled the world to shoot TV commercials for clients like

weight-loss magnate Jenny Craig and Alamo Rent-A-Car.

“There’s almost no product that we have not had some connection

with,” Lyon said, from Chicken of the Sea to breast implants.

People thought he was foolish for starting a production company so

far from Los Angeles, but he’s outlasted many competitors, and he has

long-standing partnerships with a number of his clients, he said.

“I’ve built a relationship with them over the years and still feel

very comfortable going back to them,” said Anne Coleman, broadcast

producer for Johnson/Ukropina, an Irvine ad agency. “I know they’re

solid. They’ll get the job done.”

Coleman worked for Lyon for seven years before joining the ad

agency. While her agency does its own creative development, Lyon

Studios can handle that aspect of the business too.

“Why should I go to L.A.?” she said. “They supply everything that

the L.A. production companies do, and at a better price.”

Lyon has strong relationships with many of his employees as well.

Sound designer and editor Marvin McNeil has been with the company off

and on for about 25 years.

“When the record business started to go into the doldrums in the

mid-1980s, [Lyon] went into advertising,” McNeil said. “He’s always

been able to sort of look ahead and see where we need to be.”

When Lyon started the business, he thought he could work and then

write his own music on the side. He now knows better.

“At the time, I naively thought having my own business would also

mean I had a lot of freedom,” Lyon said. “The realities of running a

business made whatever personal projects I had insignificant compared

to the challenges of making money and keeping a business going.”

While he hasn’t been able to live his initial musician’s dreams,

he satisfies that urge writing commercial jingles. It’s gratifying to

hear something he wrote on the radio or see one of his commercials,

he said.

“It happens every time I get in the car and almost every time I

turn on the television,” he said.

Lyon Studios is at 2212 Newport Blvd. in Newport Beach.