Terry Lane (born 1939) is a retired Australian radio broadcaster and newspaper columnist based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. Lane was born at Williamstown in South Australia and was educated at Gawler High School. After studying for the ministry at the Churches of Christ College of the Bible in Melbourne, Lane was a minister for six years before working for the Methodist Department of Christian Education and the ABC's religious department. He began a radio talk-back program for the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

in Melbourne in 1977, which ran for eleven months. ''The Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia'' describes Lane as "a capable and empathetic interviewer, though often expounding controversial views". Geraldine Doogue has called him "an interviewer's interviewer; he's self-effacing, but probing, and these days

005 ''005'' (pronounced "''double-o five''") is a 1981 arcade video game by Sega. They advertised it as the first of their RasterScan Convert-a-Game series, designed so that it could be changed into another game in minutes "at a substantial savings. ...

certainly not afraid of expressing his own opinions. He's gloriously unpredictable, offends listeners of both liberal and conservative inclinations, and delights just as many others." Lane is probably best known for his daily radio program, which ran from 1982 to 1993 on

3LO ABC Radio Melbourne (official callsign: 3LO) is an ABC Local Radio station in Melbourne, Australia. It began transmission on 13 October 1924 and was Melbourne's second licensed radio station after 3AR. The other ABC Local Radio stations in Vict ...

, 2BL, 7ZR and 2NC. In 1995, he returned to the ABC's

Radio National ABC Radio National, more commonly known as Radio National or simply RN, is an Australian nationwide public service radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). From 1947 until 1985, the network was known as ABC Radio 2. ...

to present a weekly program, ''

The National Interest ''The National Interest'' (''TNI'') is an American bimonthly international relations magazine edited by American journalist Jacob Heilbrunn and published by the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank based in Washington, ...

'', from which he retired in 2005 after 10 years of hosting the program. He published a collection of his interviews with famous Australians about their childhood experiences in ''As the Twig is Bent'' (1979) and is also the author of ''More than Meets the Ear'' (1987), ''Hobbyhorses'' (1990) and ''God: The Interview'' (1993, second edition 2004). In 1993 he published his first novel, ''Hectic'', which was followed by ''Tit for Tat'' (1994) and ''Sparrows Fall'' (1995). ''The First Century'', a history of Australia's federal elections co-authored with fellow broadcaster Doug Aiton, was published in June 2000. In 1979, Lane was awarded the

Rostrum Rostrum may refer to: * Any kind of a platform for a speaker: **dais **pulpit ** podium * Rostrum (anatomy), a beak, or anatomical structure resembling a beak, as in the mouthparts of many sucking insects * Rostrum (ship), a form of bow on naval ...

Award of Merit, for excellence in the art of public speaking over a considerable period and his demonstration of an effective contribution to society through the spoken word.Rostrum Victoria, Media Release, 18 July 1979 From 2003 he reviewed digital photography hardware and software for ''

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...

'' and ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'', a position from which he retired in December 2016. Lane was secretary of the anti-censorship organisation Free Speech Victoria. He also is the winner of the

Douglas Wilkie Medal The Douglas Wilkie Medal was an award presented to those who did the least for Australian rules football, in the best and fairest manner. An accolade presented by the Anti-Football League, it was named after Douglas Wilkie, a '' Sun News-Pictor ...

, awarded by the Anti-Football League for doing the least for

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

in the best and fairest manner.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lane, Terry 1939 births Living people Australian columnists Douglas Wilkie Medal winners Journalists from Melbourne Radio personalities from Melbourne