ATLANTA, Sept. 15, 2010, 11 p.m. - "We Ourselves" host Ambrose I. Lane Sr., who was 75, passed away on Tuesday night, according to two sources. Lane had been sick. Funeral arrangements are unclear.
Lane's show was heard for a time on XM 169 The Power and he was pillar on WPFW-FM and Pacifica stations.
"Ambrose and I worked together at Radio One for years," XM and WOL-AM morning host Joe Madison said. "He taught me how to read with a third eye and listen with a third ear and train my mind to comprehend what wasn't always obvious. There was a well-schooled, erudite sagness about him."
"He is one of the strongest men that I have ever had the opportunity to work with," said Ralph Cooper, who produced his show on XM. "He taught me that you could live a healthy and strong life while bucking the system....and he was all about giving young folks opportunities."
Here is his biography taken from his website:
Reverend Lane has been a Washington, D.C. radio Talk Show personality and political and religious commentator since 1978 on the Pacifica Foundation’s WPFW-FM, a 50,000 watt station in the nation’s capitol. He has also been hosting a similar show on Radio One XM Satellite’s Power Channel 169 since March 2006.
Lane co-anchored Pacifica’s nation-wide, live gavel-to-gavel coverage of the U.S. Senate’s confirmation hearings on the nominations of David Souter, Anthony Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also co-anchored Pacifica’s daily national six weeks live coverage of the Persian Gulf War, giving daily political commentary, as well as the Million Man March. His weekly show, “We Ourselves,” airs one hour daily on Monday and Friday on WPFW and three hours daily on XM Satellite’s Power Channel.
Lane has managed several human services agencies as Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, with annual budgets exceeding $16.5 million and staff of more than 200. Among these agencies was the National Center for Community Action, Inc., serving as Think Tank and training agency for more than 2,000 governmental and non-profit agencies in every State, plus Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and Micronesia. He recently came out of retirement to manage Pacific Foundation, its five major market radio stations and more than 80 affiliate stations, while the Board conducted a nation-wide search for an Executive Director to replace its resigned Executive Director.
Lane has written and produced several special series for Pacifica’s WPFW and its Los Angeles station KPFK. Among the specials were: “America: Never Again for White Males Only”; “Spiritual Sanity for the 21st Century for an Insane World”; “Wolves and Sheep: The Contract ON America”; and “The Epicenter of Evil: The Bush Administration.” Lane is currently an elected member of Pacifica’s national Board of Directors and WPFW’s Local Station Board.
A prolific writer, Lane has been published in the Washington Post and received lead editorial treatment by the Wall Street Journal. He has authored books, pamphlets and hundreds of editorials on the major issues of his time. He was a founder, part owner, editor and publisher and Board Chair of the Buffalo New York Challenger, serving Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, New York. While living in Buffalo, he was the first African American candidate for the office of mayor. As Director of the National Center’s Department of Research and Development and, later, its Executive Director, Lane created and was editor/publisher of its two public policy magazines, The National Center Reporter and New Spirit.
In 1992, Lane was invited by a California Indian Tribe, the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, to come to California and research and write their only authorized modern history. That history, published in 1995 entitled “The Return of the Buffalo,” was the story of how the Cabazons fought and won the right to have casino gaming on reservation lands, taking their fight all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lane’s most recent book is “For Whites Only? How and Why America Became A Racist Nation.” For seven years he was also part-time Instructor at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, teaching two three-credit courses each semester. In 1999, he was chosen as recipient of the United Black Fund’s Media Excellence Award “for 20 Years of Outstanding Service to the Community Through Superb Journalism.”
Lane earned his Bachelors Degree, an Honors Major Graduate, at the University of Pittsburgh, where he also earned his Masters Degree and attended its School of Law, doing further graduate work at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has been happily married to Joan King Lane, whom he met in college, for more than 50 years; they will celebrate their 51st married year this September. She recently retired as an Assistant High School Principal in Howard County, Maryland’s Public School System. They are parents of four adult children and five grandchildren.
