Dr. Demento Announces Retirement After 55-Year Radio Career | Hacker News Reader

Dr. Demento Announces Retirement After 55-Year Radio Career

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I used to have this AM headphone radio that I’d listen to from Oregon. Late at night these remote California stations would start to come in and I’d pick up things that my coastal small town living did not imagine existed. Like the good Doctor.

Well that and listening to my brother’s Firesign Theater albums.

edit

Ah. Archer twin speaker AM radio headphones. Impulse buy off eBay just now.

Really love how you painted this memory. I was similar except a Realistic Radio Shack AM/FM under the pillow when I was supposed to be sleeping.

> I’d listen to from Oregon

Lived a few of my growing up years on the Oregon Coast (Coos Bay) in the 70s. It felt like it was was so remote after living in other parts of the country - like we were on the outer edge of everything (which of course, we were). Radio and books helped me feel connected. Not that it was bad, that was the most beautiful place I've ever lived.

> Dr. Demento debuted in October 1970 on KPPC Pasadena, California

I was thirteen years old then and living in Pasadena. I remember hearing the regular rock music shows he deejayed on KPPC, and I must have started listening to the Dr. Demento shows from the very beginning. A song he played called “Shaving Cream” [1] was a big hit among the kids at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School.

It’s great that he has stayed active for so long.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaving_Cream_(song)

Used to listen to him on KMET. Just another notch on when radio was interesting.

As I understand it, Dr. D has the largest record collection in the world.

When I was a kid my parents divorced (as did many). I moved away and lived with my mother. Every two weeks I'd stay with my dad, and he'd give me cassette tapes of Dr. Demento that he'd record because where my mom lived, we couldn't get the show on the radio. My dad has since passed, and just thinking about those tapes right now almost makes me cry.

Dr Demento was a huge part of my childhood in a way I'm sure he never intended. I really can't express how great his show was for a sad kid grappling with the world growing up.

I'm extremely thankful for all the laughs and joy he brought me.

A childhood favorite and warm, nostalgic memory as an adult. A good friend of mine and I taped a spoof of Copacabana by Barry Manilow and got a really lovely letter back from the good doctor saying he'd done his best but couldn't play our tape. My friend had gotten a tape splicing kit from Radio Shack and insisted we cut the tape down to just our demo. Somehow we botched it and sent Dr. Demento a blank tape. He said he repaired our splice job and even tried flipping the tape in case we'd done the same by accident. Which was a really kind and probably time consuming gesture for a random tape sent in by two fifth graders. The man is a gem.

The only lyrics I remember from our spoof are how it starts: Her name was Lola, she was a show bot, but that was many years ago, when her neon used to glow. Oh well. Time to download an MP3 or two and subject my wife to Fish heads and I'm looking over my dead dog Rover.

We listened to his show in the CMU dorms around 1979, I think his show was where Weird Al Yankovik was introduced to the world.

First TV appearance is worth your attention => https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZkouut-9RQ

It always makes me happy to see that people have been following the same passion for literal decades. Though it’s a bit sad I always find out only when they stop.

I can only hope that I find something I can be so enthusiastic about.

I still have the Dr. Demento t-shirt that I received for having my request played on the air. I got the shirt but missed that show so I never heard it broadcast. I actually had people congratulating me at school the next day. Ah, fame!

35 years later with the assistance of someone in his organization we were able to pin down the show and I now have it as an MP3.

his website is entirely on brand: https://drdemento.com/online.html

Thanks for the link. That is awesome.

I've got some old off-the-air recordings of his show on KMET in the early 70's. (My dad recorded them on his Sony 360 reel-to-reel tape recorder.)

I had no idea that he was still active and on the air, and also I had no idea there was an online archive of all the shows dating back to 1974.

I wonder what he'll do with his priceless collection of rare vinyl...

Dr. D's show was played by a local rock station at 10pm. That was past our bedtime when I was 10, so we'd tape it. I still remember hitting the monitor button and pressing record/play before bed. Next day we'd listen to the whole show. I think we witnessed the first playing of Weird Al 'Another One Rides the Bus' and were introduced of course to the great Tom Lehrer and so many more. What a great career this man had, bringing joy to so many.

There was something special about hearing music this weird over the air. Pretty sure I heard the Goofy Gold record by K-Tel before Dr. Demento, but once I did I stayed up and taped it religiously. Still somewhat amazed I heard Camper Van Beethoven ("Take the Skinheads Bowling") first on his show and not on MTV. When I moved to L.A. in the '90s one of the first things I did was pull out my Thomas Guide to figure out what the deal was with the intersection of Pico and Sepulveda.

Dr. Demento introduced me to artists, that my kids listen to now. The Residents and Negativland top a list. Son #3 is inexplicably on a Rutles binge this month.

    ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negativland
    ref: https://www.residents.com/
    ref: https://rutles.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rutles_discography

This is my favourite Negativland EP: https://archive.org/details/guns_20240211/

I love the track on Escape From Noise that uses the gun control analogy to point out the inevitable housing crisis we now find ourselves in. When no more can be sold, you can see that the majority of adults will be virtually prohibited from ever owning one (a home): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vPCIWbCOyY

christianity is stupid ... but in other news, always going forward, cause we can't find reverse.

I was blessed enough to see negativland live at a couple of subgenius devivals, and think about star trekking on a fairly regular basis due to being such a Star Trek geek, and I thank dr demento for so much.

Everything is relative. If it makes you feel better next to islam this religion is coca cola

I'm sorry you're offended by a song title by the band that we were discussing that is directly related to the article, but this is a direct response to what dr Demento was playing, not a religious or political response.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNR4PHyvXeQ for a randomly searched YouTube video. perhaps you'd also be interested in the _other_ reference, where the artist was sued and an album destroyed because of heavy copyright enforcement against parody: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/ep-u2-sued-out-of-existence/

>I'm sorry you're offended by a song title by the band that we were discussing

You presented the title of the song as if it's a statement you're making, not as if it's the title of a song you want to discuss. It's to be expected that this would cause confusion.

>perhaps you'd also be interested in the _other_ reference

I think I'm missing something here. I don't see where your previous comment makes a reference to the EP U2 by Negativland.

Christianity is Stupid is a track on Escape from Noise (by Negativland). I think I still have the album.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_Is_Stupid

> christianity is stupid ... but in other news, always going forward, cause we can't find reverse.

...but less stupid than U2 it turned out. I'd of loved to seem them live but am an E Coaster.

Everything I know about SF I learned from A Big 10-8 Place. Most importantly, I know where Dave's mom's cigarettes are.

> but less stupid than U2 it turned out

I'm sure you mean the letter U and the number 2, because anything else would be a lawsuit.

I was only lucky enough to see them (in Portland and Seattle) because of religious beliefs, which apparently was enough!

Oh hey. There was this Milwaukee Irish band... https://irishfestscrapbook.com/Scrapbook_Artists/180-and-the...

oh. neat! thanks for the link! happily bopping my head to negativland now, will investigate tomorrow - I love it when HN devolves into fun new discoveries, a perfect use for these discussions.

related, sadly the Jello Biafra phone booth is no more (Portland, not SF, but west coast) - I used to drive by there and sadly nod as I passed.

You're stranded on a desert island and can only bring one cassette tape you recorded off the radio:

Fish Heads or Star Trekkin'?

If it has to be one of those two I would want Fish Heads.

If I could select a different song I would choose Poisoning Pigeons in the Park or I'm Looking Over My Dead Dog Rover. They're such happy, catchy tunes.

Fishin' With Fred by Da Yoopers

Camp Granada

Dead Puppies

Another One Rides The Bus

(I first heard it on Dr. Demento)

I used to record his show from the radio when I lived on Okinawa, it was my soundtrack for the week! Dr. Demento's show definitely shaped my humor and personality, he is a true gem.

Early 80's, it was on late Sunday night, so I taped the episodes (because of school). WLUP in Chicago. I wish I held on to those old cassettes...

Late 1970's for me. I set a timer on Sunday nights to record it and would listen to it after school on Mondays.

It's where I first heard gems like the Star Trek spoof by Bobby Pickett. "Plot complication showing up on ship's sensors now, Captain. Switching to visual."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtZS8JAfNE4

"ain't I somethin?"

A core memory of mine was listening to the Doc. The show was on late Sunday night so I rarely got to hear the Five Five. One week, it was the Memorial Day weekend. My two closest friends and I were all able to hear the whole show. We met the next day to ride the bus downtown to the big mall. We talked and laughed all day about the songs we heard. Good times :D

It's crazy how treasurable & enjoyable a good program is.

Little Stevie's Underground Garage comes to mind. I miss the heck out of Chromewaves radio & dozens of others on shoutcast. Spektremodule being gone has obstructed some of the most wild human energies from finding their sink.

Was at an event he was at CSUN ~1978. We were in the parking lot coming in and he was just coming out. He stopped and talked to us for a while. Super nice guy. My impression is he is exactly the same as he is on the air all the time.

I listened to Dr Demento on WMHD for so many formative years. A titan!

Wow. In the 1970s, one of the Denver or Boulder radio stations used to carry his show, I think on Sunday afternoons. Fifty-five years is a long run.

that is insane that anything by a single person can run for so long. is there anything else comparable to that?

There are a couple on this list, including one host of a show for 67 years that has run for 99 years.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-running_radi...

Weird Al? (Whose music career began in high school when he handed a demo tape to Dr. Demento.)

Patrick Moore presented The Sky At Night for 56 years - TV, not radio though

It's not exactly the same, as his shows didn't maintain a single format through their lifetime like Dr. Demento's, but Paul Harvey had a similar run.

A different type of radio program (and he also did television), but Vin Scully announced Dodger games for 67 years.

I drool and smile and swivel that dial

To the Doctor Demento Show!

I've stayed tuned in for 20 years

But now it's plain as plain

Oh, come on, Mum, and let me out!

Compared to him, I'm sane!

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