Deborah Elizabeth Spillane (born 25 December 1955) is an Australian sports journalist and commentator.

Early life and education

Spillane was born in Sydney, and was educated at

Bethlehem College, Ashfield , motto_translation = Be faithful , established = , type = Independent comprehensive single-sex secondary day school , denomination = Roman Catholic , gender = Girls , oversigh ...

and received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney.''Who's Who in Australia 2016'', ConnectWeb.

Media career

In 1984, she joined the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as a sports commentator and reporter, and was the first full-time female broadcaster hired by ABC Sport. In the same year was sent as a reporter to the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

in Los Angeles, and two years later to the

1986 Commonwealth Games The 1986 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a 'Cho-fhlaitheis 1986) were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 July and 2 August 1986. They were the second Games to be held in Edinburgh. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries (largel ...

in Edinburgh. She was a sideline reporter for ABC's rugby league coverage, and was the first woman to commentate cricket on ABC Radio.Debbie Spillane
''ABC Grandstand''. From 1990 to 1995, Spillane co-hosted the drive time program ''Hard Coffee'' with Ian Rogerson for Triple J. Around the same time, she was a regular panelist on

Andrew Denton Andrew Christopher Denton (born 4 May 1960) is an Australian television producer, comedian, Gold Logie-nominated television presenter and former radio host, and was the host of the ABC's weekly television interview program ''Enough Rope'' and ...

's '' Live and Sweaty'' program from 1991 to 1994. In 1995, Spillane left the ABC and became the media manager of the Bulldogs national rugby league team. She continued in several sports/media-related endeavours including as media manager of the West Sydney Razorbacks basketball team; as a sports columnist for '' The Sun-Herald'' and '' The Australian''; and on the radio stations 2GB,

2Day FM 2Day FM (call sign 2DAY) is a commercial FM radio station broadcasting in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on a frequency of 104.1 MHz, and is part of Southern Cross Austereo's Hit Network. History 1980s 2Day FM was one of three radio st ...

, New FM, KICK AM and 2BL. In 2002, she returned to the ABC as part of the broadcasting team for ABC NewsRadio, and in 2012 became the host of ABC Radio's ''

Grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators. This includes both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium in that it does not wrap a ...

'' program. She was awarded 2017 Australian Sports Commission Media Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Bibliography

In 2007,

Allen & Unwin George Allen & Unwin was a British publishing company formed in 1911 when Sir Stanley Unwin purchased a controlling interest in George Allen & Co. It went on to become one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and to establish an ...

published Spillane's autobiography, titled ''Where Do You Think You're Goin', Lady?: Adventures of a Sports-mad Redhead''.Where do you think you're goin', lady?
Allen & Unwin, 2007.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spillane, Debbie 1955 births Living people Australian sports journalists Australian women journalists Australian women radio presenters Australian sports broadcasters Triple J announcers Members of the Order of Australia University of Sydney alumni