Jason Dasey

Jason Dasey (born Sydney, April 11, 1962) is an Australian journalist and broadcaster, a former CNN International and BBC World anchor who is a co-host of the Pacific Rim and Atlantic editions of SportsCenter on ESPN International.

Early career

Jason grew up in Sydney where he attended North Sydney Boys High School. During his final two years at school, he was also a freelance reporter for Australian Associated Press. In early 1980 at the age of 17, Jason became a cadet journalist with The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia’s oldest newspaper.

Towards the end of his four year stint with the Herald, Jason stumbled on his biggest story in September 1983 when a personal vacation to New York City coincided with Australia winning sailing’s America’s Cup. Jason borrowed a blazer and talked his way into the New York Yacht Club before sending back an insider’s account to the Herald on the night the United States lost the America’s Cup for the first time after 132 years.

Move to Television

Partly as a result of that story, 21-year-old Jason was offered a job at Australia’s Seven Network in Sydney where he worked between late 1983 and mid-1985 as an on-air reporter for Seven News and its nightly current affairs show. After leaving Seven, Jason was a researcher for six months for BBC News in London and then a sports producer/reporter for two years at Australia’s SBS TV network. In late 1987, Jason left Australia to base himself in London. After working as a freelance producer for Reuters TV and BBC TV, Jason became a sports producer and reporter for European satellite network Sky News in January 1989 as it launched in Britain. A year later at Sky, he gained his first experience in the studio, as a weekend sports presenter.

BBC and CNN Jobs

At the end of 1994, Jason biggest break came when, as a freelance producer and occasional presenter for BBC World Service Television in London, he was plucked from obscurity to become a senior sports anchor on BBC World in January 1995, making him the first Australian newsreader on the re-launched, global news network.

After three years at the BBC, Jason moved to the United States in mid-1997. After working as a freelance reporter for BBC World Service and Denver local station, KUSA-TV 9-News (NBC), Jason re-located to Atlanta in early 1999 to take up a job at CNN International. He initially worked as a news producer/writer, but in May 1999, Jason became the first Australian sports anchor on CNN International’s World Sport, the twice-daily, "live" programme broadcast to more than 200 countries.

ESPN career

In late 2001, Jason left CNN to become the senior news presenter at Asian network ESPN Star Sports, based in Singapore. As a host of more than 1000 daily news shows and live sporting events over five years including the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Jason became a well-known regional broadcaster, particularly in India, where the popularity of shows like Sportsline and SportsCenter India was supported by catchy Hindi-language commercials. In 2003, SportsCenter Asia, hosted by Jason and Andrew Leci, was voted Best Sports Programme at the Asian Television Awards. Two years later, SportsCenter Asia, co-hosted by Jason and Colette Wong, received a commendation for Best News Programme at the 2005 Asian Television Awards.

At the end of 2006, Jason moved from Singapore to work at ESPN’s world headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut as an anchor/reporter for two more international versions of SportsCenter. He has conducted in-depth SportsCenter Conversations with sporting legends including George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard and Nadia Comaneci and interviews at 2008 Grand Slam tennis tournaments with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Serena Williams. Jason is also one of the anchors on the web-casts, Cricinfo Sportscenter and Soccernet SportsCenter as well as a writer for the ESPNsoccernet and Cricinfo websites.

Trivia

* Jason's debut broadcast was calling a rugby match in 1979 with the Falcon Video Team at North Sydney Boys High School.
* He speaks English, French, conversational Indonesian/Malay and a few phrases of Mandarin Chinese and Cantonese.
* In late 2006, Jason served as a radio trainer/producer for the BBC World Service Trust's Burma project
* In 2007 and 2008, Jason appeared as an actor in productions for the Theatre Guild of Simsbury in Connecticut.

External links

* [http://www.jasondasey.com Official Jason Dasey website]
* July 2008 interview for Indian newspaper [http://theviewspaper.net/interviews/2008/07/3657]
*Jason interviews Roger Federer at 2008 U.S. Open [http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3577657]
* CNN Profile [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/archives/jason_dasey/index.html]
*Jason leaves SportsCenter India - article [http://www.hinduonnet.com/tss/tss2831/stories/20050730003802600.htm]
*India promos [http://www.jasondasey.com/clips.html?sentClip=SCIndia.flv]
*2006 Showreel [http://www.jasondasey.com/clips.html?sentClip=ShowReel.flv&vidNum=0]