Daniel Richler
Encyclopedia
Daniel Richler is a Canadian
arts and pop culture broadcaster
and writer
. He is the stepson of author Mordecai Richler
.
, England
, his family moved back to his stepfather's hometown of Montreal
when Daniel was 15. He became a punk rock
er as a teenager and was lead singer of the Alpha Jerks - the only local band with an anti-Secessionist agenda at the time of the 1980 Quebec Referendum
. He also joined the Ontario
biker gang, The New Hegelians, which were "encouraged" to quit the road by the Toronto
Hell's Angels chapter in the early 1990s .
From 1977 through the early 1980s, Richler was a deejay
, presenter and critic on a variety of major market radio stations including CHOM-FM
in Montreal and CJCL, CFNY-FM
"The Edge" in Toronto. He also joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
where he was a cultural commentator on CBC Radio
's Morningside
with Peter Gzowski
.
He moved to CITY-TV
in 1985 becoming co-host and eventually producer of the The NewMusic, the internationally syndicated, pioneering weekly rockumentary show that pre-dated MTV
and later gave rise to MuchMusic
. The show fused international field journalism and in-depth interviews with rock videos to create an occasionally tough rockumentary newsmagazine geared at 15 to 30 year-olds. Items and documentaries included those on Band-Aid
, post-revolutionary music in Zimbabwe
, the Japan
ese pop industry, Andy Warhol
’s art video work, William Burroughs, Frank Zappa
at the PMRC hearings in Washington
, the death and legacy of Bob Marley
, Yoko Ono
post-John
, and Malcolm McLaren
’s manufacture and manipulation of the Sex Pistols
.
In 1987 and 1988 Richler was Chief Arts Correspondent on The Journal, CBC’s national news program. His international profiles and docs included those on Anthony Burgess
, Keith Richards
, Art Spiegelman
, Pat Nixon
and numerous others. He subsequently moved to TVOntario
where he became Creative Heads of Arts Programming and launched the long-running literary program Imprint, which he later served as host and Executive Producer. At that time Richler also oversaw the schedule, acquisitions, commissioning and original programming of the channel's arts sector. He developed and launched Prisoners of Gravity
with Mark Askwith and host/comedian Rick Green
- a prize-winning, weekly half-hour, hybrid magazine/documentary/veejay show devoted to science fiction
, fantasy
, comics
, and horror
.
In the mid-to-late 1990s he was producer/director and presenter of the counterculture show, Big Life, on CBC Newsworld
. Subjects included trepanation
, anti-Frankenfood activism, digital downloading, auto-erotic asphyxiation, the Furries, anti-G8
anarchism, Burning Man
, Genesis P-Orridge
, the true nature and history of ecstasy, turntablism, etc. In 1998, he won Best Presenter Gemini
.
In 2001 he moved back to ChumCity
as Editor-in-Chief/Executive Producer of its new literary specialty channel BookTelevision
, which launched September 1, 2001 as a digital service across Canada. There he conceived and developed the channel format, oversaw development of its schedule, budget of original in-house programming, acquisition selection and overall design. He served as Executive Produced and/or Director for The Word News, The Word This Week, Richler, Ink., Writers on the Road, Authors at Harbourfront, Lust, The Electric Archive and a variety of full-length documentaries. He also developed literary video and literary ad/EPK initiatives and was credited with boosting sales of new books, including Alice Munro’s Runaway.
Richler has published one novel, Kicking Tomorrow (1991), a bestseller in Canada for 13 weeks, which was named one of New York Times Book Review’s Best Books of 1992.
He presently resides in London, England, where he works as a freelance TV director and writer. He has most recently directed episodes of Wag TV / Discovery UK’s How Do They Do It?
and Real Vampires, a 2-hour factual/dramatic documentary for Discovery UK and Canada that examines the scientific and historical underpinnings of the vampire
myth.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
arts and pop culture broadcaster
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
. He is the stepson of author Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler, CC was a Canadian Jewish author, screenwriter and essayist. A leading critic called him "the great shining star of his Canadian literary generation" and a pivotal figure in the country's history. His best known works are The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Barney's Version,...
.
Biography
Born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, his family moved back to his stepfather's hometown of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
when Daniel was 15. He became a punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
er as a teenager and was lead singer of the Alpha Jerks - the only local band with an anti-Secessionist agenda at the time of the 1980 Quebec Referendum
1980 Quebec referendum
The 1980 Quebec referendum was the first referendum in Quebec on the place of Quebec within Canada and whether Quebec should pursue a path toward sovereignty. The referendum was called by Quebec's Parti Québécois government, which strongly favoured secession from Canada...
. He also joined the Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
biker gang, The New Hegelians, which were "encouraged" to quit the road by the Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
Hell's Angels chapter in the early 1990s .
From 1977 through the early 1980s, Richler was a deejay
Deejay
A deejay is a reggae or dancehall musician who sings and toasts to an instrumental riddim .Deejays are not to be confused with disc jockeys from other music genres like hip-hop, where they select and play music. Dancehall/reggae DJs who select riddims to play are called selectors...
, presenter and critic on a variety of major market radio stations including CHOM-FM
CHOM-FM
CHOM-FM is an English language radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned and operated by Astral Media, it broadcasts on 97.7 MHz from the Mount Royal candelabra tower, with an effective radiated power of 41,200 watts using an omnidirectional antenna.The station has a mainstream rock...
in Montreal and CJCL, CFNY-FM
CFNY-FM
CFNY-FM, promoted under the branding 102.1 The Edge, is a Canadian radio station, broadcasting at 102.1 FM. The station rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s due to its freestyle DJing format and unique choice to play alternative music...
"The Edge" in Toronto. He also joined the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
where he was a cultural commentator on CBC Radio
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
's Morningside
Morningside (radio program)
Morningside was a nationally broadcast Canadian radio program, which aired on CBC Radio from September 20, 1976 to May 30, 1997. It was broadcast from 9AM to 12 Noon, Monday to Friday...
with Peter Gzowski
Peter Gzowski
Peter Gzowski, was a Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter, most famous for his work on the CBC radio show Morningside. His first biographer argued that Gzowski's contribution to Canadian media must be considered in the context of efforts by a generation of Canadian nationalists to understand...
.
He moved to CITY-TV
CITY-TV
CITY-DT, Channel 57 , is a television station based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada owned and operated by Rogers Media...
in 1985 becoming co-host and eventually producer of the The NewMusic, the internationally syndicated, pioneering weekly rockumentary show that pre-dated MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and later gave rise to MuchMusic
MuchMusic
MuchMusic is a Canadian English language Category A specialty channel owned by Bell Media. MuchMusic is dedicated to music-related programs, pop and youth culture.-History:...
. The show fused international field journalism and in-depth interviews with rock videos to create an occasionally tough rockumentary newsmagazine geared at 15 to 30 year-olds. Items and documentaries included those on Band-Aid
Band-Aid
Band-Aid is a brand name for Johnson & Johnson's line of adhesive bandages and related products. It has also become a genericized trademark for any adhesive bandage in Australia, Brazil, Canada, India and the United States....
, post-revolutionary music in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
, the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese pop industry, Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
’s art video work, William Burroughs, Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
at the PMRC hearings in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, the death and legacy of Bob Marley
Bob Marley
Robert Nesta "Bob" Marley, OM was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and musician. He was the rhythm guitarist and lead singer for the ska, rocksteady and reggae band Bob Marley & The Wailers...
, Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
post-John
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
, and Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm McLaren
Malcolm Robert Andrew McLaren was an English performer, impresario, self-publicist and manager of the Sex Pistols and the New York Dolls...
’s manufacture and manipulation of the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
.
In 1987 and 1988 Richler was Chief Arts Correspondent on The Journal, CBC’s national news program. His international profiles and docs included those on Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, Keith Richards
Keith Richards
Keith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
, Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman
Art Spiegelman is an American comics artist, editor, and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning comic book memoir, Maus. His works are published with his name in lowercase: art spiegelman.-Biography:Spiegelman was born in Stockholm, Sweden, to Polish Jews...
, Pat Nixon
Pat Nixon
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. She was commonly known as Patricia or Pat Nixon.Born in Nevada, Pat Ryan grew up in Los Angeles, California...
and numerous others. He subsequently moved to TVOntario
TVOntario
TVOntario, often referred to only as TVO , is a publicly funded, educational English-language television station and media organization in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario Educational Communications Authority, a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario...
where he became Creative Heads of Arts Programming and launched the long-running literary program Imprint, which he later served as host and Executive Producer. At that time Richler also oversaw the schedule, acquisitions, commissioning and original programming of the channel's arts sector. He developed and launched Prisoners of Gravity
Prisoners of Gravity
Prisoners of Gravity was a Canadian public broadcasting television news magazine program that explored speculative fiction — science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic books — and its relation to various thematic and social issues...
with Mark Askwith and host/comedian Rick Green
Rick Green
Rick Green is a Canadian comedian, satirist, and writer. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Waterloo. From 1975 until 1979, he worked as a presenter at the Ontario Science Centre. In 1979, he helped found the Toronto-based comedy troupe The Frantics...
- a prize-winning, weekly half-hour, hybrid magazine/documentary/veejay show devoted to science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
, comics
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
, and horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
.
In the mid-to-late 1990s he was producer/director and presenter of the counterculture show, Big Life, on CBC Newsworld
CBC Newsworld
CBC News Network is a Canadian English language Category C specialty news channel owned and operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . It broadcasts into over 10 million homes in Canada. It is the world's third-oldest television service of this nature, after CNN in the United States and...
. Subjects included trepanation
Trepanation
Trepanning, also known as trephination, trephining or making a burr hole, is a surgical intervention in which a hole is drilled or scraped into the human skull, exposing the dura mater in order to treat health problems related to intracranial diseases. It may also refer to any "burr" hole created...
, anti-Frankenfood activism, digital downloading, auto-erotic asphyxiation, the Furries, anti-G8
G8
The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...
anarchism, Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
, Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis P-Orridge
Genesis Breyer P-Orridge is an English singer-songwriter, musician, writer and artist. P-Orridge's early confrontational performance work in COUM Transmissions in the late 1960s and early 1970s along with the industrial band Throbbing Gristle, which dealt with subjects such as prostitution,...
, the true nature and history of ecstasy, turntablism, etc. In 1998, he won Best Presenter Gemini
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
.
In 2001 he moved back to ChumCity
CHUM Limited
CHUM Limited was a media company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1945 to 2007. Immediately prior to its acquisition, it held full or joint control of two Canadian television systems — Citytv and A-Channel — comprising 11 local stations, and one CBC Television affiliate, one...
as Editor-in-Chief/Executive Producer of its new literary specialty channel BookTelevision
BookTelevision
BookTelevision is a Canadian, English-language, Category A specialty channel that broadcasts programming relating to books, literature, and various media...
, which launched September 1, 2001 as a digital service across Canada. There he conceived and developed the channel format, oversaw development of its schedule, budget of original in-house programming, acquisition selection and overall design. He served as Executive Produced and/or Director for The Word News, The Word This Week, Richler, Ink., Writers on the Road, Authors at Harbourfront, Lust, The Electric Archive and a variety of full-length documentaries. He also developed literary video and literary ad/EPK initiatives and was credited with boosting sales of new books, including Alice Munro’s Runaway.
Richler has published one novel, Kicking Tomorrow (1991), a bestseller in Canada for 13 weeks, which was named one of New York Times Book Review’s Best Books of 1992.
He presently resides in London, England, where he works as a freelance TV director and writer. He has most recently directed episodes of Wag TV / Discovery UK’s How Do They Do It?
How Do They Do It?
How Do They Do It? is a television series produced by Wag TV for Discovery Channel. Each programme explores how 2 or 3 ordinary objects are made and used...
and Real Vampires, a 2-hour factual/dramatic documentary for Discovery UK and Canada that examines the scientific and historical underpinnings of the vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
myth.