Helen Razer

Helen Razer (born 6 July 1968) 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.

Media work

Razer was a prominent 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.^[1] 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.^[2][3]

In 1999, ABC TV's watchdog program Media Watch lampooned her overuse of long and arcane words.^[4]

In 2002 she became a programmer for Joy FM, Melbourne's gay and lesbian community radio station.^[5] Razer worked in the role for twelve weeks.^[6]

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".^[7] 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.^[8]

Razer currently writes features for The Age.^[9] and the Sydney Morning Herald.^[10] 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".^[11]

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. The article in question was published in Melbourne-based newspaper The Age in 2010. Some of the comments written on the original article were also plagiarised.^[12]

Bibliography

• Gas Smells Awful: The Mechanics of Being a Nutcase. Australia: Vintage. 2001. ISBN 1-74051-095-X. 
• Everything's Fine: A Beginner's Guide to Thwarting Primary Nihilism. Australia: Random House. 1998. ISBN 0-09-183925-4. 
• In Pursuit of Hygiene. Australia: Random House. 1996. ISBN 0-09-183258-6. 
• Mikey Robins (1995). Three Beers and a Chinese Meal. Australia: Random House. ISBN 0-09-183072-9. 
• Bernard Keane (2014). A Short History of Stupid. Australia: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-76011-054-3. 

Further reading

• Bad Hostess | The Untidy House of Helen Razer (Blog)
• Interview with Helen Razer Triple J Radio Announcer on Aboriginal Reconciliation(1996)
• Book Blog with Lloyd Cole
• Hey, Senator - leave us discerning viewers of pornography alone
• Sloppy copy in exam raises ire
• Tats lose lustre in long march to fashion foible

References