Are you a Dr. Demento fan?

Cafe Society
1

Do you listen to the Dr Demento show each week on a local radio station? Or do you seek out his show on the web?

Member of the fan club?

Have any of the original LPs? Autographed?

What about the tee-shirts?

Do YOU also collect novelty/humor recordings?

I’ve been a listener for, oh I’d say, probably twenty years now! Have more paraphernalia than I’d care to admit.

GrizzWife has pointed out that more than half of my tapes/CD’s/records are humor and novelty (she’s right). I’ve often thought about proposing a Dr Demento-type show to some of the local radio stations (the good Doctor isn’t heard locally in Cleveland:( )

So, how do you get YOUR fix?

2

None of the local stations run the show anymore but about 17 years ago, when I was a DJ in Missouri, I came across all the already run LPs that the show used to be sent to stations on and I shamlessly swipped them from the store room. :smiley:

3

I don’t know where the station is these days, but I used to listen to it religiously in the 70s and 80s. I remember a lot of the songs, saved many on cassettes, and memorized quite a few.

4

Am I a fan?

Nope. In the name of all that which does not suck, he should go away.

YMMV

Whistlepig

5

I used to listen religiously in the 80’s and (maybe) the 90’s. I say maybe because at some point he dissappeared and I have not found him since.

This is in LA, by the way. Is he on some other station in LA now that I don’t know about?

Actually, maybe the word “listen” isn’t entirely accurate, either. I would record every single episode on tape, which meant I had to stay home on Sunday nights, when the show was broadcast. Until I figured out how to record from the radio onto a videotape, through my VCR. Then I could set the timer, and get the whole two hours onto a single tape (actually, three two hour shows, but the idea was unlike using a tape recorder, where I would have to be there to flip a C90 tape, now I didn’t have to be there). From that point on, I would record the shows but rarely (if ever) actually listen to them. I suppose it was my obsessive-compulsive disorder kicking in.

I now have boxes of old videotapes with hours and hours of Dr. Demento shows that I have never heard!!!

While listening to the shows before the switch to the VCR, though, I would sometimes call in for various contests, some of which I won. I believe I got to meet Dr. D. at one or two of these events. One I remember was some sort of party thing where Barnes and Barnes were in attendance, and I also got to meet Bill Mumy. Once I told the Dr. (his real name is Barry Hansen or Henson) that I had recordings of every one of his shows, and he said that if his house and the radio station both burned down he’d know where to go to get archive recordings.

Last year my wife found boxes of these old cassette tapes, and started listening to the old Dr. D. shows. I’m glad she did, because when she wanted a mix of some of the songs to make a CD to work out to, I was able to download most of them from Napster before it went belly up. In addition to the songs she wanted, I now have MP3s of every Tom Lehrer and Alan Sherman song I could find (there are some obscure Alan Sherman songs even Napster could not find), as well as many others. I suppose I could have recorded my own copies from the albums and tapes I had anyways, but downloading them seems so much easier, plus I think I found one or two songs that never made it on to albums.

I suppose it’s really a bit much to say I’m a Dr. Demento “fan” as it’s really the songs I’m a fan of, but god bless him for having a show which exposed me to so many of them! We probably wouldn’t have Weird Al if not for Dr. Demento!

6

Hey, richardb, my brother and I used to do the same thing – we’d catch the show like clockwork, tape it off the air, and then edit compilations of our favorites. My brother is still vowing to transfer the tapes to his PC and burn CDs out of them, but he’s been dragging his feet. :wink:

The Doctor is very hard to catch on the radio these days, which is a damn shame. In addition to giving “Weird Al” Yankovic an early break, he’s introduced thousands of people to the joy of Tom Lehrer, Alan Sherman, and tai kwon leap. :smiley:

Stay DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEMENTED!

7

I met the man when I worked at Borders – he came in for one of the bands. He wasn’t wearing the top hat, but word spread through the staff like wildfire … “Dr. Demento is in the cafe!” “No way! Dr. Demento?!” “Who?”

Some of our ahem younger employees had never heard of him, but one of the managers and I were like little giggly fan girls, all nervously going up to get his autograph (which I still have, on a yellow Borders multi-purpose form).

He’s the man. He’s even funny in person, and not everybody is.

8

I was watching VH1 Classics today. They were having an all request weekend. When what to my wondering eye should appear? But fish heads, fish heads, rolly polly fish heads.

And I thought the song was weird.

9

A search on eBay using “Demento” often yields many LP’s from the days when his show was sent to local stations on vinyl for rebroadcast.

Also, I’m fascinated by how much musical knowledge he has. I’m suprised that he hasn’t penned at least a few books under some other pseudonym chronicling the music of the 20th century… or that he’s not yet teaching at some institute of higher learning.

But, who knows?.. maybe he IS!

10

Any mortal enemy of Bart Simpson’s is a mortal enemy of mine.

11

I used to listen to him on Little bit of heaven / Ninety-four point seven / K-M-E-T / Tweedle-dee! But the frequency for KMET became a “new age” station and I lost track of him. I have two tapes that I made many, many years ago. It has such classics as The Rich Maharajah of Magador, The Girlfriend of the Whirling Dervish, Existential Blues, Teenage Lobotomy and others. About a year ago I bought Spike Jones’ Musical Depreciation Review.

Good stuff.

12

Jesus, is he still alive? I used to listen to him in high school . . . Back when radio was still a novelty, and the only other station had Eddie Cantor and the Happiness Boys on it . . .

13

I used to listen to his stuff back in Beaumont, and caught a few tid bits off of tapes and such prior to that, but I haven’t heard anything from him in about five years or so. I thought he was taken off off the air as well. Good to know he’s still around.

Existential Blues is probably my fondest memory. That, and who could forget Boot to the Head. This guy’s a genius, there need to be more pillars of society like him in our world.

14

aww man… that’s COLD!

15

I could have sworn I heard that Dr. Demento was a music professor at UCLA…? Someone want to grok the UCLA web site for Barry Hansen?

16

AFAIK, Dr. D. is not a professor anywhere. He has written a book, though - Rhino’s Cruise Through the Blues.

I am definitely a fan. Lucky, too: I live in Chicago and get him on WLUP (97.9 FM, 11 PM Sunday night).

Everyone should check out the newsgroup rec.music.dementia. There’s lots of info on where to listen to Dr. D. and many other topics.

17

He comes to Reed College here in Portland, Oregon once a year to give lectures and shows, one of which is for those 21 and over only. :slight_smile:
The rest of you can find the Good Doctor at www.drdemento.com

18

I have about 25 CD’s full of songs that were on his show that i burned myself (via people making mp3s of the somgs from his radio show). I have his aniversary CDs, and about 20 shows on 90 minute tapes from when i was in high school. I haven’t lived in an area that carries him for years, nor had i had computer access at home until this month, but haven’t caught him yet. But i’d say i am a fan. I got humor CD’s up the wazoo.

19

I, too, am a Dementoid (or am I a Dementite?). Made all the compilation tapes, joined the fan club in the early 80s. I still have an official Dr. D. Prescription Pad!

Thanks to Rowrrbazzle; I didn’t know he was still on in Chicago! I’ll have to check it out.

My fondest Dr. D. memory: one Sunday night I was listening to the show in a drunken stupor, and called his voice-mail request line and requested “Night After Night” by Lenny and the Squig-Tones. Then totally forgot that I’d done it. Several weeks later, imagine my shock when the Good Doctor plays the song, and announces that it is for ME! (even pronounced my last name correctly, which most people cannot do.) I totally freaked until I managed to dredge up the memory of that drunken phone call. Thank Jah that I had my tape deck running or I’d have thought it was a total hallucination…Timmy

20

I went to drdemento.com to look for a radio station that carries his program and found this note:

Note: Unfortunately we cannot provide a specific list of stations that actually air
our show, due to the policy of the network that carries our program.

What does that MEAN???