Richard Blade

Presenter at 9th annual LA Music Awards

Richard Blade (Born Richard Sheppard on May 23, 1956) is a popular Los Angeles radio, television, and film personality from Torquay, England. He is best known for his radio programs that feature new wave and Popular music from the 1980s. He has stated that Depeche Mode is his favourite band.

Blade worked as a DJ known as “The Young Dick Sheppard” in the United Kingdom and Europe before moving to Los Angeles and starting work as a DJ there in 1982. He took a new name from the Sci-Fi film, Blade Runner.

Within a few months of working in Los Angeles, Blade had become the #1 Arbitron-rated radio personality on the West Coast, and in 1982, he began to host a daily television program on KCAL-TV called “MV3,” which later became “Video One.”

In 1984 Richard created, produced and hosted “VideoBeat” for KTLA. The weekly series ran for two years.

Blade also worked as an actor in the 80s, appearing in Square Pegs, Hunter, Divorce Court, as contestant Dick Sheppard from England on the television game show Card Sharks among other shows. Blade appeared in the 1985 film Girls Just Want to Have Fun starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt.

Between 1991 and 2003, Blade hosted several music-related television programs, including “America’s Top Ten”, which he took over from Casey Kasem. He hosted several “Flashback” radio programs on KROQ-FM, and was a frequent host at Los Angeles dance clubs on their KROQ Nights, including the famous Palace Theatre in Hollywood. He appeared on the cover of a six-volume set of 80s music compilations called Richard Blade’s Flashback Favorites.

In 1998 Richard wrote for the UPN TV Sci-Fi series “7 Days” including writing the second season’s finale “The Cure”.

In April 2000, Blade moved to St Maarten in the Caribbean and took a two-year break from the industry to work on several writing projects.

Returning to Los Angeles in 2002, Blade returned to his career in radio and television.

In June, 2003, he consulted for MTV Networks on the television program “Bands Reunited”, then worked for VH1 as a writer and producer on both seasons of the series.

In 2004, he returned to radio on Los Angeles station KYSR (Star 98.7), originally as host of a Saturday night “Totally 80’s” program and short features in the afternoon drive-time period. In 2006, when the station became more 90s and current-based, the Saturday night program ended.

Today he has gained a national audience in North America where he is a host for the Sirius Satellite Radio channel First Wave, a 1980s new wave music channel. He hosts his own signature show “First Wave Rewind”. He also hosts a twice-daily short feature on Sirius’ The Big 80’s channel called “Behind The Big ’80s”. Recently, Blade has taken over for Ray Rossi on The Pulse on weekends.

In April 2006 Richard co-starred with Gabrielle Anwar and Craig Sheffer in a movie he wrote called “Long Lost Son”. The film, which was shot on location in the Caribbean, premiered on Lifetime in August 2006. He currently has a TV series he created being edited for airing on Animal Planet in 2007 called “My New Wild Life”.

In August 2007, Blade made an appearance on the reality show “Rock of Love” featuring Poison lead singer Bret Michaels.

Blade has a regular cameo appearance in US sitcom Glory Daze, set at a college frat house in 1986. Blade plays the DJ at the College Radio station known as ‘The Voice’.