Sabra Lane

Last updated
Sabra Lane
Sabra Lane 2015.jpg
Lane in 2015
Born1968 (age 5556)
OccupationJournalist
Years active1989–present
Known forworking for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, serving as president of National Press Club
Notable work 7.30 , AM

Sabra Lane (born c.1968) is an Australian journalist and radio presenter, best known for her work at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [1]

Contents

Lane currently hosts the current affairs program AM on ABC Local Radio and ABC Radio National. [1]

Early life

Lane was born in Melbourne, Victoria and grew up the regional city of Mildura where she attended Catholic school St Joseph's College. [2]

After completing Year 12, Lane spent a year in Norway on a Rotary Youth Exchange program where she lived on an island on the southwest coast of Norway and learnt how to speak fluent Norwegian in the local dialect. [3]

Career

While studying on the Magill campus of the University of South Australia in Adelaide in the late 1980s, Lane got a job with Network Ten's local Adelaide station where she was initially required to listen to police scanners on Friday and Saturday nights before becoming an assistant chief-of-staff for twelve months. [3] Lane then got a job with the local ABC station in Adelaide where she worked as a reporter. [2] In 1995, Lane transferred to the ABC's Sydney station where she became chief of staff of the newsroom. [2]

From late 1997 to 2005, Lane worked for the Seven Network as a producer. [3] She helped produce the network's coverage of the Sydney Olympics and served as the executive producer of Sunday Sunrise . [3]

Lane returned to the ABC in 2006 to work for the network's radio current affairs department after studying an audio engineering course at night school. [1]

In 2008, she moved to Canberra to work as a reporter in the press gallery at Parliament House, covering federal politics for ABC programs AM, The World Today and PM , during which time she was promoted to chief radio current affairs correspondent. [3]

From 2013 to 2017, Lane was a political correspondent for ABC Television's 7.30 program, succeeding Chris Uhlmann. [4] [5]

In 2014, she was elected to the board of the National Press Club in 2014, becoming its president in February 2018. [6] In 2019, she moderated a leader's debate at the National Press Club between prime minister Scott Morrison and Opposition leader Bill Shorten, prior to the 2019 Australian federal election. [7]

Lane moved back to radio in 2017 after she was named as the new host of AM, succeeding Michael Brissenden and taking over the show in its 50th year on air. [8] [9]

She received praise in 2019 for her raw emotional response live on air immediately following the broadcast of a story by foreign correspondent Samantha Hawley about a Ukrainian girl who was allegedly abandoned by her American surrogate parents. [10] After the story had gone to air, Lane was overcome with emotion breaking down in tears while attempting to read that day's finance report. [10]

In late 2020, Lane relocated to Tasmania where she continued to host AM from the studios of ABC Radio Hobart. [6] She relinquished her position as president of the National Press Club prior to relocating to Hobart. [3]

In 2021, Lane commenced curating a fortnightly collection of stories for ABC viewers, listeners and readers called The Bright Side which uses constructive journalism to cover solution-focused news stories to provide "a broader picture" to "inspire, engage and create hope" aiming to balance out the large amount of negative conflict-based stories Australians are subject to in the traditional news cycle. [11]

In 2022, Lane co-anchored ABC Radio's coverage of the 2022 Australian federal election with Rafael Epstein. [12]

Lane has listed her two most memorable interviews from her career to date as being the ones she conducted with Barry Cohen about his struggle with Alzheimer's disease, and with Craig Laundy about his push for a change in government policy to enable more refugees into Australia. [1]

Lane has lamented the loss of newspapers in many Australian towns and the subsequent loss of jobs in Australian journalism, describing it as "a huge tragedy". [2] She stated: "The diversity of views and, importantly, the basic requirement of factual and balanced news, has never been more critical in this era when so much false material and 'fake news' is circulating online. It is shocking that so many towns have lost their regular newspapers and sources of reliable information. It's also another reason why the ABC has never been more crucial. We can't possibly fill the void entirely, but we can help provide reliable, credible, and factual reporting to keep communities informed." [2]

Personal life

As a teenager, Lane was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome and was incorrectly told by a doctor that she would be unable to have children despite many women being able to do so with the help of fertility treatment, a fact that she didn't learn until much later in life. [1] Lane joined the committee of the Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Association of Australia in 2004, eventually becoming president. [1] [13]

Lane has also been diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia. [1]

Related Research Articles

Sunrise is an Australian breakfast show program. It is broadcast on the Seven Network, and is currently hosted by Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington. The program follows Sunrise Early News, and runs from 5:30 am to 9:00 am. It is followed by The Morning Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ray Martin (television presenter)</span> Australian journalist and television presenter

Raymond George Martin AM is an Australian television journalist and entertainment personality. Having won the Gold Logie five times, he is the most awarded star of Australian television, along with Graham Kennedy.

Christine Bath is an Australian journalist, radio and television presenter and news anchor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1116 SEN</span> Sports radio station in Melbourne, Victoria

1116 SEN is an Australian radio station in Victoria, Australia. Owned and operated by Sports Entertainment Group, it broadcasts a sports radio format. It commenced broadcasting on 29 November 1931 as 3AK, the station currently broadcasts from studios in South Melbourne.

Monica Ann Attard is an Australian journalist and academic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Jones (news journalist)</span> Australian journalist and TV presenter (born 1955)

Anthony William Jones is an Australian television news and political journalist, radio and television presenter and writer.

AM is an Australian radio program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC News (Australia)</span> News services produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation

ABC News, also known as ABC News and Current Affairs and overseas as ABC Australia, is a public news service produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcasting within Australia and the rest of the world, the service covers both local and world affairs.

Emma Alberici is an Australian journalist and former foreign correspondent who was the chief economics correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television network.

Jennifer Victoria Byrne is an Australian journalist, television presenter and former book publisher. She hosted the monthly ABC television program The Book Club, originally titled First Tuesday Book Club.

Sally Jane Sara AM, is an Australian journalist and TV presenter.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation had its origins in a licensing scheme for individual radio stations administered by the Postmaster-General's Department established in 1923 into a content provider in radio, television and new media. From 1928 the National Broadcasting Service was established to take over 12 radio licences as a national broadcaster, while the Australian Broadcasting Company was responsible for supplying programs to the service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of ABC Radio (Australia)</span> Radio output from Australian Broadcasting Corporation

ABC Radio and Regional Content, later ABC Radio, was the division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for radio output and regional content. This was the first public radio station in Australia, which opened in Sydney at 8:00pm on 23 November 1923 under the call sign 2SB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ABC Radio Hobart</span> Radio station

ABC Radio Hobart is the ABC Local Radio station for Hobart, Tasmania, owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamish Macdonald (broadcaster)</span> Australian broadcast journalist and news presenter

Hamish Macdonald is an Australian broadcast journalist and news presenter. As of 2023 he is a presenter on the TV panel show The Project on Network 10, and on ABC Radio National's RN Breakfast.

Kelli Underwood is an Australian radio and television sports journalist and sportscaster specialising in Australian rules football, netball and tennis.

<i>7.30</i> Australian nightly television current affairs programme

7.30 is an Australian nightly television current affairs program which broadcasts on ABC and ABC News at 7:30 p.m. on Monday to Thursday nights. The program is the flagship for the network and is currently hosted by Sarah Ferguson.

Fran Kelly is an Australian radio presenter, current affairs journalist and political correspondent who hosted the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National program Breakfast from March 2005 to early December 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Tingle</span> Australian journalist and author (born 1961)

Laura Margaret Tingle is an Australian journalist and author.

Dominique Schwartz is an Australian communications specialist and former television journalist and news presenter.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Johnson, Natasha (21 March 2021). "ABC journalist Sabra Lane on political journalism, hosting AM from Hobart and coping with PCOS and infertility". ABC News . Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Bailey, Sue (28 November 2020). "Sabra Lane will present the ABC flagship radio program AM from Hobart from January". The Examiner . Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Williams, Stephanie (May 2021). "Why Sabra Lane now calls Hobart home". The Hobart. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  4. Clarke, Jenna (10 September 2013). "7.30 to feature an all-star, all-female line up". The Sydney Morning Herald . Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  5. Lallo, Michael (26 October 2016). "Sabra Lane quits 7.30 to host the ABC's flagship radio show, AM". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  6. 1 2 "AM and PM presenters Sabra Lane and Linda Mottram on the move". radioinfo. 11 September 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  7. Salisbury, Chris; Dodd, Andrew; Sawer, Marian (8 May 2019). "Shorten and Morrison make their final cases in third leaders' debate: our experts respond". The Conversation . Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  8. "Sabra Lane to host ABC Radio's AM program". Mediaweek . 26 October 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  9. "New host, new sound for AM in its 50th year". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 25 January 2017. 22 May 2022
  10. 1 2 Meade, Amanda (20 August 2019). "ABC's Sabra Lane breaks down on air over child abandoned by surrogate parents". The Guardian . Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  11. Lane, Sabra (11 August 2021). "Sabra Lane on why the ABC is looking on the bright side to balance out the bad news". ABC News. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  12. "ABC announces electioin day coverage across television, radio and digital". TV Blackbox. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
  13. Fawcett, Anne (15 March 2007). "Don't let us be misunderstood". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 May 2022.