 DR.
DEMENTO:Filling Radio Airwaves With Music, Madness & For Over Thirty Years
The roots of Rock 'n' Roll… that was what the Dr. Demento Show was all about when it first took to the airwaves in 1970. But Dr. Demento wasn't known as Dr. Demento back then …no… his listening audience knew him only by his real name, Barry Hansen. …And… His show wasn't known as a showcase for novelty songs past and present …no… his show was a Rock 'n' Roll show and not just any Rock 'n' Roll but the very songs that had given birth to this music that was quickly taking over the American radio dial. But that was all destined to change very, very quickly. It would not be long before Barry Hansen became known as 'Dr. Demento' and his show, which originally focused on early Rock 'n' Roll, became known for its focus on novelty songs… novelty songs… and more novelty songs. It all started at an FM music station in Pasadena, California…KPPC. FM radio was called ‘underground radio’ back then and KPPC was the place on the dial that LA listeners turned to when they wanted to hear the likes of Jimmy Hendrix, or the Grateful Dead or Cream. Barry Hansen had already done some work on public radio and a few guest appearances here and there but was not a regularly employed radio personality when KPPC came knocking in 1970. But KPPC was looking for a DJ that could handle an oldies show and Hansen fit the bill perfectly. Hansen, who worked for Specialty Records at the time, was only in his twenties but was already making a reputation for himself as a seasoned musicologist and dedicated scholar. His personal record collection, having started collecting back when he was a mere 12 years of age, already numbered around 50,000 records. That collection continues to grow, to this very day, now numbering a whopping half million. During his first year on the air at KPPC “somebody made the chance remark that I had to be demented to play some of the songs on the air that I played,” recalls Hansen. After hearing that comment a fellow KPPC DJ, who went by the name of the Obscene Stephen Clean, started calling Hansen 'Dr. Demento' on the air. “He just started calling me Dr. Demento without asking me,” says Hansen of the events that gave birth to the name the world would eventually come to know him under. “And, well,” continues Hansen, “it just stuck.” The first couple of months the show was on Thursday evenings and for
just one hour. Then they moved Hansen to Sunday night and gave him an
extra hour. Within a couple of years Dr. Demento would make his move to
KMET radio in LA and by 1975 the show was syndicated nationally on over
100 stations. There were Dr. Demento T-shirts, contests, song groups and
even a fan club. Dementia-mania was sweeping the nation. And in a home
on Burton Ave. in Lynwood, California a young Alfred Yankovic was tuning
in week after week every Sunday night. Today, Dr. Demento receives 15 or 20 CDs and tapes in a typical week, the quality of which range from professional to strictly amateur productions. “Now a days people can make really nice sounding recordings at home with what you might call semi-pro equipment,” says Hansen. “That was considerably more difficult in the '70s.” Way back in 1975, when Dementia-mania was first sweeping the nation, Barry Hansen said in an interview with Newsweek that he enjoyed “hearing and playing happy music. It's very necessary these days.” A lot may have changed over the last 25 years but our need to escape the pressures and stresses of the day with a bit of good natured silliness hasn't. A little bit of Dementia, in these stress filled times, is still just what the doctor ordered. And, when it comes to music and madness… the Doctor is still IN… Dr. Demento — that is.
Find out more about Dr. Demento
by visiting www.drdemento.com
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“It
started out being a Rock 'n' Roll oldies show,” says Hansen. “I
had a reputation as somebody who knew a lot about the roots of Rock 'n'
Roll.” So, if it started out as a Rock 'n' Roll Oldies Show how did
novelty records take over… “When the show started,” continues
Hansen, “it was basically devoted to old Rock 'n' Roll 45s —
Rock 'n' Roll very broadly defined. That included novelty records…
The Purple People Eater, Munster Mash, that sort of thing.
And I quickly found that sort of thing got more requests than anything
else I played. So funny records became more and more a part of the show.
And it wasn't long before I expanded it to where it was not just Rock
'n' Roll funny records but all kinds of funny records. Including people
like Allen Sherman, Tom Learer, Spike Jones…”
By
1976 Dr. Demento was playing original tunes on his show rather regularly.
The first original tapes started coming in back in '73, and although Dr.
Demento didn't really encourage it at the beginning once he played one
and said it was a tape sent in by a listener that gave other people the
idea. It gradually built up until, by about '75, it had become much more
of a regular thing on the show. When Dr. Demento played a tape by Brad
Stanfeild, a kid about Al's age, that sounded pretty good on the air,
it gave young Yankovic the inspiration to start sending in tapes of his
own… And as they say the rest is history.
