Ten years ago I did an article for the Denver profile of multimedia journalist Eden Lane calling attention to the history of national media.
In the year 2000, Lane had self-produced five seasons of her weekly, telecast tribute towards her fellow members of the Colorado arts community, titled “In the Focus of Eden Lane,” which was aired in the state of Colorado on Colorado Public Television until the year 2018. It was believed that she was the first transgender journalist to appear regularly on a major television station within the United States.
“But I don’t see being transgender as an aspect of my identity like I don’t think that I’m left-handed,” she said to me back then.
She was just looking for work — and she’s done. As an anchor reporter, producer, and editor, her work has been featured across Rocky Mountain PBS, The Huffington Post, NewsNet, E.W. Scripps as well as on the local channel 7, 9,, and 12. She’s reported on politics, performing arts, films, LGBTQIA+ issues, community issues, home technology, fashion and much more.
In the past there was a major gap in her professional history It was that no one had provided her with a permanent position that came with the perks respect, credibility and respect associated with it: a pay scale, health insurance, and an retirement plan. Over the course of 15 years she incurred Lane more money to bring her much-loved coverage of the arts to Denver broadcasts than she made by making it.
She was a candidate for television stations across the nation. In the year 2012 Lane said she’d completed the hiring process in a way to have spoken with the top executives at more than 50 news outlets in person, but she received absolutely nothing. Curious, indeed.
All that changed in May the month that Lane was appointed as the full-time arts reporter at Colorado Public Radio. With a pay package plus health insurance, and yes, a retirement program. For Lane she was in the culmination of a personal, legitimate moment that was a second life to be made. It was also the most satisfying it was not due to be related to her gender. It was due to her having established herself as a trustworthy and well-respected journalist in the field over a long period of time.
“I think we were fortunate to have someone who shares her passion for the arts and her background working in broadcasting from Denver,” said Kevin Dale the executive editor of CPR News. “We could not have asked for a an ideal match for someone to write about the arts and culture in CPR News.”
Eden Lane has taken advantage of the occasion, displaying a signature dedication to his work that has already created more than fifty major features in the arts in the last month of May. In response to the Club Q massacre in Colorado Springs by interviewing cast participants from a production in “It’s an Amazing Life A Radio Play Live” Radio Play” who were extremely and directly affected by the tragic event — not just by examining the challenges of spreading Christmas cheer at the time, but also what it’s like for certain queer artists to reside and work within Colorado Springs.
The entire community of artists benefits not just from Lane’s writing and experience, but also from the reach of Colorado Public Radio too. CPR News attracts about 250,000 weekly viewers and 1.2 million visits to the web, Dale said, giving Lane the biggest local audience she has ever had. Everyone is a winner.
