[1] 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,[1] and CJCL and CFNY-FM in Toronto.
[2] He moved to CITY-TV in 1985, becoming co-host and eventually producer of The NewMusic, the internationally syndicated, pioneering weekly rockumentary show that pre-dated MTV and later gave rise to MuchMusic.
[1] 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 Japanese pop industry, Andy Warhol's art video work, William Burroughs, Frank Zappa at the Parents Music Resource Center 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.
He developed and launched Prisoners of Gravity with Mark Askwith and host/comedian Rick Green,[5] and commissioned Peter Vronsky's 1991 feature documentary film Mondo Moscow.
[5] Subjects included trepanation, anti-genetically modified food 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.