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Wednesday, January 7, 2004

New Wave for Blade
Radio listeners twisting their knob past KYSR-FM Star 98.7 on New Year's Day heard a familiar SoCal voice: Richard Blade.

Blade, the man who pretty much popularized the synth-heavy New Wave music of the 1980s, was also synonymous with the glory days of KROQ -- which made hearing him on a crosstown rival just plain bizarre.

Blade left KROQ in 2000 and moved to the Carribean, occassionally returning to L.A. for Depeche Mode conventions and dialing in his voice for those annoying Auto Insurance Specialist ("A.I.S.") commercials.

But according to his bio on the Star 98.7 website, Blade actually returned full time to L.A. in October 2002, and worked last year on the VH1 reality show "Bands Reunited." He has now signed a deal with Clear Channel and Star 98.7 to host a weekly Saturday night "Totally 80s" flashback show on the station.

The bio, by the way, makes no mention at all of KROQ. Which is like ignoring the elephant in the room -- after all, that's what he's best known for (well that, and showing up in 80s classics "Square Pegs" and "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun").

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