Helen Razer | |
---|---|
Born | |
Career | |
Station(s) | Triple J, Joy FM, 774 ABC |
Style | Host |
Country | Australia |
Helen Razer is a Melbourne-born and Canberra-raised radio presenter and writer. She is the author of four non-fiction books and a columnist with the Australian version of The Big Issue , Melbourne newspaper The Age and contributor to the monthly magazine Cherrie and weekly newspaper The Saturday Paper .
Razer attended Weston Creek High School (now Stromlo High School) from 1981 to 1984, [1] [2] and then Narrabundah College. [3]
Razer was a radio broadcaster on national Australian youth station Triple J from 1990 to 1998. She was partnered for most of this time with comedian Mikey Robins on the breakfast program. She also appeared on the Ladies Lounge program with Judith Lucy in the afternoons. [4] She left after being targeted by a stalker, who had been active for several years and, convinced he was her husband, managed to get into the studio. [5] [6]
In 1999, ABC TV's watchdog program Media Watch lampooned her overuse of long and arcane words. [7]
In 2002 she became a programmer for Joy FM, Melbourne's gay and lesbian community radio station. [8] Razer worked in the role for twelve weeks. [9]
In 2005 Razer was employed as presenter of the Sunday arts program on the 774 ABC Melbourne radio station. In October 2008, the ABC announced that she was to finish in this position before the end of the year as "part of a freshening of program formats". [10] The announcement came two weeks after a controversial interview, on 7 September 2008, with actor Steven Berkoff. On the 15 September 2008 episode of ABC TV's Media Watch program presenter Jonathan Holmes accused Razer of patronising Berkoff in the interview by referring to him as "dear" and asking how good was the play he was on the radio "to flog". She finally called Berkoff a "curmudgeon" and then cut him off. [11]
Razer currently[ when? ] writes features for The Age . [12] and the Sydney Morning Herald . [13] She is also a regular contributor to the online Crikey news website and was previously an opinion columnist writing for The Australian newspaper.
Razer also writes a column for The Big Issue and has a blog called "Bad Hostess". [14]
In the 2011 Year 12 VCE English examination, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority instructed over 40,000 students to analyse a supposedly fictional blog article that was, in fact, taken from an opinion piece written by Razer and published in The Age newspaper in 2010. VCAA had not asked Razer for permission to use the article and had not acknowledged her as the author. Razer said her professional reputation had suffered as a result and there were "hundreds of derogatory references to the exam question and herself on social media after students posted links to the original article". [15]
In October 2017, Razer was quoted in an article on general and especially sexual health for over-40 females. She was said to be 49, and finding that dating as an older woman can be a frustrating experience. [16]
In 2017, she wrote an article for Quartz website titled Why I’m a communist—and why you should be, too in which she discussed the difference between communism, socialism, and liberalism, Karl Marx's prediction of the decline of capitalism and put the view that a "good, productive life for all demands a new and collective mode of production". [17]
In 2018, Razer began her own podcast Knackers & the Vadge in which Razer took the name The Vadge and Knackers was a stuffed animal whose function was to keep Razer under control. [18]
Razer contributed an essay to the book A Secret Australia: Revealed by the WikiLeaks Exposés [19] which was published in December 2020. Reviewing the book for The Sydney Morning Herald , Jessie Tu wrote that Razer's "amusing voice cuts through the somewhat parched tenor of cold academic-speak that lightly threads through the other essays". [20]
Razer has been critical of some approaches to mental health awareness. In 2015, she was critical of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Mental As” week offerings. [21]
3AW is a talkback radio station based in Melbourne, Australia, owned by parent company Nine Radio, a division of Nine Entertainment Co. It broadcasts on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.
William James Anderson is an Australian comedian, writer, presenter, and podcaster.
Media Watch is an Australian media analysis and political opinion television program currently presented by Paul Barry for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The program focuses on critiquing the Australian media together with its interconnections, including with politics.
Rhys Muldoon is an Australian actor, writer and director who has worked extensively in film, television, music, theatre and radio. He has had leading and recurring roles in series such as Chances, The Genie from Down Under, Big Sky, The Secret Life of Us, Lockie Leonard and House Husbands. He was also a presenter on the popular children's series Play School.
Michael Tunn is an Australian radio announcer and television presenter. He was hired by Australia's national youth station Triple J in 1990 at the age of 17, making him Australia's youngest professional radio presenter at the time.
Andrew John Clyde Landeryou is an Australian former political blogger. He is the widower of Victorian Senator Kimberley Kitching.
Kitty Flanagan is an Australian comedian, writer and actress who works in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has also performed in France, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Japan and at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Montreal Just For Laughs festival.
Sandra Lee Sully is an Australian news presenter and journalist, currently presenting 10 News First in Sydney and Queensland.
Alan Brough is a New Zealand actor, television and radio host and comedian based in Australia.
HSV is a television station in Melbourne, Australia. It is part of the Seven Network, one of the three main commercial television networks in Australia, its first and oldest station. It launched in time for the 1956 Summer Olympic Games in Melbourne. HSV-7 is the home of AFL coverage.
Marieke Josephine Hardy is an Australian writer, radio and television presenter, television producer and screenwriter and former television actress.
Peter Donald Beauchamp HitchenerOAM is an Australian television presenter with a 50-year career with the Nine Network and 58 years of news broadcasting experience. Hitchener is currently weekend presenter of Nine News Melbourne. He was chief news presenter of Nine News Melbourne from 1998 until 2023.
Virginia Frances Trioli is an Australian journalist, author, radio and television presenter.
Jennifer Victoria Byrne is an Australian journalist, television presenter and former book publisher. She hosted the monthly ABC television program The Book Club, originally titled First Tuesday Book Club.
Yumi Tasma Stynes is an Australian feminist podcaster and author. She is the presenter of the ABC Radio podcast Ladies, We Need to Talk about female health and sexuality. Between 2000 and 2012, she presented the morning television show The Circle and was also a television presenter on Channel V Australia and Max. During 2013 she was a presenter on Sydney's Mix 106.5 FM radio breakfast program. A portrait of Stynes by Yoshio Honjo was a finalist for the 2022 Archibald Prize.
Helen Kapalos is an Australian journalist and television presenter.
Dominic John Sebastian Knight is an Australian novelist, comedy writer, radio host and media commentator. Best known as a member of the Australian political satire comedy Logie Award–winning group The Chaser, he is also an occasional writer, columnist and blogger for the Sydney Morning Herald, and a former host of Evenings on ABC Local Radio across NSW and the ACT. Along with fellow Sydney University students Charles Firth, Julian Morrow and Craig Reucassel, Knight founded The Chaser newspaper, launched in May 1999.
Leigh Peta Sales is an Australian journalist and author, best known for her work with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Fran Kelly is an Australian radio presenter, current affairs journalist and political correspondent who hosted the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Radio National program Breakfast from March 2005 to early December 2021.