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 Bethlehem College was an Independent School, Independent Roman Catholicism in Australia, Roman Catholic Comprehensive School#Australia, comprehensive Single-sex school, single-sex Secondary School, secondary day school for girls, located in Bla ...

and received a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

from the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

.''Who's Who in Australia 2016'', ConnectWeb.

Media career

In 1984, she joined the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

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 commonly 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 ...

in Los Angeles, and two years later to the

1986 Commonwealth Games The 1986 Commonwealth Games were held in Edinburgh, Scotland, between 24 July and 2 August 1986. This was the second Commonwealth Games to be held in Edinburgh. Thirty two of the eligible fifty nine countries (largely African, Asian and Caribbe ...

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''. In 1987 she was a judge on ABC's '' Theatre Sports''. From 1990 to 1995, Spillane co-hosted the

drive time Drive time is the daypart in which radio broadcasters can reach the most people who listen to car radios while driving, usually to and from work, or on public transportation. Drive-time periods are when the number of radio listeners in this c ...

program ''Hard Coffee'' with Ian Rogerson for

Triple J Triple J is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

. 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'' ...

's '' Live and Sweaty'' program from 1991 to 1994. In 1995, Spillane left the ABC and became the media manager of the

Bulldogs The Bulldog is a British breed of dog of mastiff type. It may also be known as the English Bulldog or British Bulldog. It is a stocky, muscular dog of medium size, with a large head, thick folds of skin around the face and shoulders and a rel ...

national rugby league team. She continued in several sports/media-related endeavours including as media manager of the

West Sydney Razorbacks The West Sydney Razorbacks (known in its final season as the Sydney Spirit) were an Australian professional basketball team that competed in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The club was based in Sy ...

basketball team; as a sports columnist for ''

The Sun-Herald ''The Sun-Herald'' is an Australian newspaper published in tabloid or compact format on Sundays in Sydney by Nine Entertainment. It is the Sunday counterpart of the ''Sydney Morning Herald''. In the six months to September 2005, ''The Sun-H ...

'' and ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

''; 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 ABC NewsRadio, since 2017 broadcast under the ABC News brand and for a short time known as ABC News on Radio, is a 24-hour news radio service broadcast by the Australian public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). ABC ...

, and in 2012 became the host of ABC Radio's ''

Grandstand A grandstand is a normally permanent structure for seating spectators, typically at sports stadiums and including both auto racing and horse racing. The grandstand is in essence like a single section of a stadium, but differs from a stadium i ...

'' program. She was awarded 2017 Australian Sports Commission Media Award for Lifetime Achievement. On 12 December 2021, Spillane was inducted to the

Sydney Cricket Ground The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) is a sports stadium in the Moore Park, New South Wales, Moore Park suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is used for Test cricket, Test, One Day International and Twenty20 cricket, as well as, Australi ...

Media Hall of Honour, alongside 11 others added to the inaugural 15 media personalities who were celebrated in 2014.

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 became one of the leading publishers of the twentieth century and established an Australian ...

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