Vale Jan Deane

Former ABC journalist and 3SR breakfast show host Jan Deane is today being remembered as a much loved and talented radio professional, following news of her death at the age of 70.

Jan was a Shepparton girl, from a well known local family in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley.

After starting out in amateur theatre, Jan hosted her own daily morning show on the local TV station GMV 6.

In the days when he was Manager at Shepparton’s 3SR, Steve Woods says he found Jan in sales, because she was so well connected around town.

He changed her hours so she could co-host the breakfast show with Mike Harris, giving away a fully furnished house and land prize – the biggest in Australian radio history.

“We used to have a live band in the studio on Friday mornings and Jan would sing live to air. She had an incredible Barbra Streisand voice.”

Jan moved to Bendigo station 3BO to become a journalist, which resulted in her moving to ABC 774 radio.  There, she realised her dream to read the news.

Jan would go on to spend two decades at the national broadcaster, as a valued news presence for ABC News across its Shepparton, Bendigo, Ballarat and Melbourne bureaus.

Jan ultimately moved to ABC radio in Shepparton to provide a local voice and, more recently, was a regular newspaper columnist, writing book reviews for the Shepparton News.

Jan put that powerful voice of hers to very good use, starring in many local musical theatre productions, playing Maria in The Sound of Music and Mary in Jesus Christ Superstar.