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The End of the Dr. Demento Show On Radio
damnbunni writes "Dr. Demento has announced that his long-running comedy radio show will be ending (except weekly in and around Amarillo, TX). Modern 'format' radio has been less and less friendly to oddball and offbeat programming, and after years of declining station membership the Doctor announced on June 6 that his radio show will be no more. He will still stream weekly shows on Saturday from his website, drdemento.com. While I'm sad to see the show go, nearly 40 years is a good run."
It's sad to see it go. The show that helped so many of the musicians that geeks love make it big.
How will we get our entertainment in the future? I think the net will let shows like Dr. Demento thrive.
When I was younger, it was always a privilege to catch a bit of the Dr. Demento show on the radio...usually on a car trip home from somewhere...usually wasn't up late enough, and/or listening to a local station that carried it. I don't think now that there's a local station here that does, though I've long given up on FM Radio. I'll remember what I can fondly, yet, I'll remain more pissed that Adam Corolla left Loveline shortly after I left high school--he made that show funnier than anything.
I don't post AC. I like my -1, Flamebaits. Trump/Sheen 2012 on the Batshit Insane ticket!
I grew up on Dr D in the 70s and even saw a live version in the 80s. Heartbreaking that it's fading into the sunset and that the current generation won't know the Dr. When I was growing up the big things on radio were the top 40 show and Dr Demento. While he had a show the truly twisted had a home. Without shows like his it's hard for such things to stand out. These days there's entertainment overkill. Unless it's a Youtube hit the odds are you'll never hear about it. Shows like Dr Demento gave a forum for such works long before there was a web. It may be giving him a place to continue on but it'll never be the same.
I live in a small town. Clear Channel is one more way to erode something unique. The corporate whores at the FCC have decide to server their corporate masters, and this is just one more sympton.
Dr. Demento ran a syndicated radio show that focussed on the weird, offbeat, and just silly. Weird Al got his start there, for example. A large number of people in the geek community grew up listening to his show, especially as it's had a forty year run.
What's being lost? A bit of the unique, a bit of the oddball and unusual. Radio has become that little bit more boring and bland.
Lovely little fish heads! The only place that song EVER got played. Perhaps "They're coming to take him away. ha-ha. ho-ho. hee-hee..."
I listened to him on every Sunday,
The Funny Five and music skits,
But now that his show is all finished,
I can't help but feeling like
Shaving cream, be nice and clean
Shave every day and you'll always look keen!
Thanks Dr. D!
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
What is this "radio" you speak of?
The corporate whores at the FCC have decide to server their corporate masters
Yes, I too have servered my corporate masters every now and then. From great distances I have hurled 1U, 2U and every now and then 4U servers towards their heads. Sadly, despite their weight and looking very sturdy, servers break too easily for servering my corporate masters on a regular basis.
I'm planning to bring out a book in a year or two: How to server man.
FWIW, I make the same typo nearly all the time ;)
Though I agree with your sentiments, I have to point out, nothing is being lost. It is being redirected. As the Demento audience declines internet useage increases. Your strange, silly, and plain funny are now online. Radio is going the way of the newspaper. There is a new medium in town.
What a bunch of ga-ga. I happen to have it on very good authority that radio is yet to have its finest hour.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I've got the (not Christmassy) double CD on my iPod.
Or get the Doctor's permission to play them out on NPR... They always seem to be looking for time-fillers these days.
Everything I had to know, I learned it on the radio.
Oh, well; somebody still loves you.
"Lost time is not found again."
When I read this today, a was quite saddened. For whatever reason, I identified with Dr. Demento. I remember listening to him when I was 10/11/12. It appealed to me and helped me form my identity today. It wasn't like I was introduced to it, it was patently "un-cool", but the show and the music struck a chord with me. I understood it and I understood there were obviously other people out there who thought like me and were interested in the same things. Call it "geeky" or "nerdy" if you wish, but it was uniquely me in a way that few people around me could even begin to understand. A friend at a time I didn't have any.
D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.
Another one rides the bus.
This will happen when the FM frequencies get repurposed as a dedicated channel for streaming Internet pr0n.
Reading through his website announcements there is like a timeline of and old school radio guy dying. I'm not going to pretend I'm a big Demento fan, but still kind of sad. We're closing up, we're losing money. We got only 100 orders for a last ditch money making idea. We're clearly being hurt by the decline of CD sales. We can't fill orders because we're working with Yahoo Small Business for some reason.
Just out of curiosity, why the hell is going online/podcast a last-last ditch effort for this guy? He's got a name recognition that would draw people in, and the format would seem to work well for podcasting. At the very least a podcast could drive people to his website and help him sell a few CD's/tshirts. I get he's an old school guy and up until recently still had a terrestrial broadcast to do, but you'd think someone would have come to them at some point and suggested this.
Althought the commercial stations complain about the dominance of the BBC, the fact that there are so many quality channels on the BBC (no adverts, mandate to produce quality programming) forces the commercial stations to push similar content quality in order to remain competetive.
I haven't listened to the Doctor for a number of years now, but Pico and Sepulveda was always my favorite
Geology - it's not rocket science; it's rock science
Dr. Demento was syndicated, not local. He is definately niche.
Too bad there is not some system that can allow people to connect and search for content using computers.
I also live in a small town and if it weren't for the clear channel stations, I'd receive no radio stations (we have weak local stations with lots of static).
http://www.irememberjfk.com/mt/2009/11/dr_demento.php
He's a legend, radio will miss him.
"Star Trekking, across the universe..."
The archive is right here. http://drdemento.com/online.html
It's not complete, and it's not free, but it's there!
Thank you Dr. D for 40 years of steady laughter in a box. Your show wasn't perfect, and you weren't perfect. But in your love of music and laughter and imperfection, you built something beautiful and enduring that touched many lives. I only dream to do so well with my short visit to this little rock. You brought a bit of joy to countless people, usually when they needed it most. You taught us that it was ok to be different, to think differently, and even to really enjoy the differences. To revel in life. For that, you will always have our gratitude.
Dr. Demento was syndicated, not local. He is definately niche.
He wasn't always syndicated.
I used to listen to his (four hour) show on KMET 94.7 in Los Angeles in the 70s. Went to see one of his live shows broadcast from Los Angeles Pierce College once too.
Dang I'm old.
sorry, but NPR is as bad as Clear Channel! I didn't use tho think that way and I don't think NPR was that way years ago but they have the same corporate roll-over-anybody-who-doesn't-agree-with-them mindset that characterizes the stereotypical Big Media guys. For example, not too many years ago NPR came out STRONG against the low power radio service that was gaining a toe-hold in markets now being steamrolled by Clear Channel (and NPR!) They said the low power stations wouldn't be in the public interest when in reality the low power stations were EXACTLY what the public wanted and needed in small markets. NPR is Big Business. But since it is so "PC" it doesn't get tagged the same way as Clear Channel.
Ahhh, "The Mighty Met!"
With Patrick "Paraquat" Kelley talking about 'face saddles', and 'belly stirrups', Dr. D, and a bunch of other good on air talent.
Also played great album rock. I was very disappointed the first time I heard them play a Flock of Seagulls song. They were dead to me after that.
Appears I'm old too.
I want to shoot the messenger!
If no-one values his work enough to pay for it, perhaps his work isn't that important after all.
Dead Puppies Aren't Much FUN!
Local radio and opportunities for niche programming are disappearing. We are left with Clear Channel drones broadcasting across the nation the same drab crap.
Dr. Demento was carried in my area by a clearchannel station, so while I agree with you that they are eroding creativity, that has nothing to do with this.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Too bad, though I haven't listened to it in ages... perhaps because what he did, the internet does so much better... I mean he was an aggragate of comedy/weird music in an age before internet searches... It's where I first heard of musical comedians like Tom Lehrer and (not as musical) George Carlin... and of course the god of musical mirth, Weird Al... who has done quite well by evolving with the times... as evidenced by the fact that I still regularly watch his stuff on YouTube...
http://www.beanleafpress.com
Though I agree with your sentiments, I have to point out, nothing is being lost. It is being redirected. As the Demento audience declines internet useage increases. Your strange, silly, and plain funny are now online. Radio is going the way of the newspaper. There is a new medium in town.
I agree in general... There's plenty of strange, silly, and funny available online. Assorted videos on YouTube... Streaming stuff from Pandora... Assorted podcasts and blogs and Internet radio stations and whatnot...
But none of that is really as accessible as radio is.
Sure, if I'm sitting in the office or at home I can listen/watch as much as I want. But when I'm driving around in my car, or out on a bike, or walking, or whatever - it isn't nearly as accessible. Maybe if I've dumped a podcast to an MP3 player... But that's about it. You can't get anything live from the web like you can with radio.
Or, rather, I can't. I guess if you've got a smartphone with data or something like that you could...
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Whoa. Is Clear Channel still in operation? Wow, I haven't heard a Clear Channel radio station for, sheesh, it must be eight or nine years now. I totally agree: it sucks badly; people should turn it off like so many of us already have.
It is a shame that it is harder to find a place for something different in this world.
College radio has always been my favorite. We have WQNA her in Springfield, "roughly the power of four light bulbs". They play pretty much anything and everything; I once heard Tennessee Ernie Ford followed by the Dead Kennedies followed by Johnny Cash.
In St Louis you have to be in Forest Park (or on the bluff with a very good reciever) to hear Washington University's ten watt station.
Free Martian Whores!
Yes, because as we all know, the only value of something is how much money it's worth.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
I've never heard the Dr Demento show. Did it have advertisements? or was it listener supported?
LMAO - this brings back some OLD memories for me, circa 1984 (while I was a freshman in college). I had come into my dorm room quite late @ night one evening (a bit buzzed from a few beers I was having with some pals of mine then)... my then roommate (now deceased, God rest his soul (he was a good man)), was sleeping.
I was being an ass, & I then decided to turn on my stereo, & lo and behold, what was on? The Dr. Demento show!
Hehehe, & they were then playing "I BELIEVE IN BUGS", lmao...
Anyhow/anyways: That tune woke my former roommate from his sleep, which ordinarily meant "trouble"... but, when he heard it? LOL, even HE started laughing his you-know-what off, from that silly tune!
(Ordinarily, we'd have "gotten into it" due to my waking he as I did in this case, with "music"... guess it's "PROOF" that "music (such as it was in THIS tune, lol) hath charms to soothe the savage beast")
I was never a "huge regular follower" of this radio show, but when I DID listen to it? It was consistently always good for a huge laugh 9/10 times!
APK
P.S.=> Hehe, all in all? It was nice to have "relived" this old memory this brought up "from the mental archives" here... So, thanks for that much in this article on /. ... apk
Guess this is the most appropriate response to a radio host dropping off the air, particularly one as famous as Dr. Demento.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwuy4hHO3YQ
I wouldn't consider the mad hatter mad. Just reality impaired. He sure can make a mean cup of tea.
I didn't know it was still on, but that's mostly because I don't know what's on radio anymore except for the morning news station. I guess I'll just go out back and eat worms.
Sleep is for the Weak
It's just nostalgia. The media equivalent of seeing your favorite first grade teacher in the obituaries. Some of us are just getting to the point of noticing we're old and haven't gotten used to the idea.
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
There's a show on Tuesday mornings on WQNA, a local college station here, that plays Dr. Demento type music (I can't think of the name of the show). That's a very geeky station; there's one DJ there named "Commander Riker", there's a show called "Pemberton's Basement", and a friend of mine and fellow nerd, Mike King, has a blues show on Sundays at noon.
Free Martian Whores!
Fixed that for ya.
When you recognize love in another and realize how precious it is, everything else seems so insignificant.
I recommend MIT WMBR if your in the boston/cambridge area, but being online it works anywhere:
http://www.wmbr.org/
they keep a 2 week archive of shows online, if you miss one live. Lost and Found sounds is particularly interesting. Quality of DJs and music subject to programing. The pdf program guide gives descriptions of shows.
No freebies - you pay $2 per show, or buy a membership and get access to everything.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
I am surprised to learn that the show was still running. I haven't heard it for 25 years or so.
Blah blah blah corporatism yay! blah blah blah sucking business penis blah blah blah. Sound better to you? Monopolies are baaad,mkay? See how you couldn't hardly find AMD Athlon PCs when Intel was putting out shitty Netburst, or how MSFT crushed legitimate competition by tying sales per PC manufactured. Do we need to hire Sexual Harassment Panda to do a little jingle to spell it out for you?
As for TFA, while the Doc was always an acquired taste, because some of his stuff was funny and some was just...well demented, it is a shame to see another piece of our collective past bite the dust. Sadly like the poster before the corporatism yay! guy ever since Clear channel bought out every station in my area it has been nothing but shitty radio 24/7/365. Thank the Great Electron for MP3 car stereos, that way I never have to be exposed to the complete and total foulness that is Clear Channel. I wouldn't wish that dreck on anyone...well maybe the anon coward that I'm responding to. I bet after a couple of weeks of forced CC listening he'd be crying like a bitty baby!
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
What's it like working at iBiquity?
----- Leghorn "Not responsible for program content"
Lisa: Bart, your mortal enemy is on the radio! [turns it on]
Marty: It's time for more deeee-mentia with Dr. Demento.
Bart: Aah! [tosses radio out window]
Marty: And now, "The Funny Five"!
Lisa: I meant your _other_ mortal enemy. Sideshow Bob.
Bart: [gasping] Sideshow Bob? Oh. I'm only ten and I already got two
mortal enemies.
Bart must be happy one of his mortal enemies is retiring.
WTF?
I can't stand to listen to NPR either, but it's mostly because ever since sometime shortly after 2000 they became another branch of cheerleaders for the so-called "centrist" Democrats and the GOP who want to bend over every time Wall Street asks for something. They're like CNN, only slightly more pompous about it. They may be somewhat harsh on the neo-"Know Nothings" who have been trying to take over the GOP in recent years, but that doesn't mean that they're liberal.
If you seriously think that NPR is liberal you need to expand your horizons a bit. NPR is barely left of center, let alone liberal. The only brand of socialism NPR advocates these days is corporate socialism - bail out the banks and the big money guys on Wall Street and gut Social Security as much as you can to pay for it! That's been NPR's unofficial motto for years.
Except maybe Car Talk. Those guys are totally rampant Maoists.
Don't bring up bad memories. The day I drove in to work, flipped on KMET (94.7) and heard New Age music coming out of my speakers was one of the saddest days of my life.
Re: The grandparent post
I loved the 4 hour format and the "Top 10". When the show was cut to two hours, a lot of the more obscure stuff was also cut out. The show also really grated on me when every week for a year or so Weird Al's "Another one Rides the Bus" came in #1 over and over and over again.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Amen! I mostly listen to http://www.897theriver.com/ from Iowa Western Community College which does have a 100,000 watt transmitter a covers a fairly significant area http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/FMTV-service-area?x=FM34155.html
I have an email folder full of emails from NPR on how they wanted to support low power radio.
You are full of shit.
I have dealt with both organizations. Clear channel is full of entitled ass holes who think cities should do what they say because they own the radio stations.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
doesn't get it.
2 bucks a show for 32 kbps?
Podcast it, sell ads. There are companies now the specialize in doing just that, and company have opened their doors to advertising on podcasts. 2 bucks a show ir a rip off.
Don't get me wrong, I used to listen to his show all the time. In fact I had 8 track tapes of weird AL that I recorded off the air.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You are incorrectly assuming that, in the absence of Clear Channel stations, some other broadcaster would not choose to use those same frequencies.
Another way to look at is that Clear Channel owns all the high-power stations in the area, leaving the little guys no room but to broadcast on low-power frequencies.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Most of the Mighty Met staff gravitated to KLOS, but it's just not the same. KLOS is a Disney-owned corporate whore.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
And how many Big Macs are sold, [pop artist here] albums are sold, etc., etc...
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
mandate to produce quality programming
"You there! Entertain me! I demand it!"
How do you mandate that? (I do love Top Gear here in the US, and the US version of The Office... so I give them that.)
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
It's too bad that this oasis of unusuality is leaving the airwaves. I listened religiously to the Doctor from around 1973 to about 1980. After that time, it was harder to set aside the time to listen every week and I gradually lost interest.
I did see a live Doctor Demento show sometime around 1977, when he came to my college and played some records from his vast collection that couldn't be played on the radio. I suppose that's one advantage of Internet broadcasting -- fewer restrictions on obscenity.
Yes, I heard that. Back then I listed to KMET and KROQ quite a bit.
I remembered when I switched over to 95.5 (KLOS) out of disgust, the hosts there were discussing the overnight format change and subsequent lockout of all the KMET employees (who they said showed up for work to find all the locks had been changed). Such was the birth of 94.7 (The Wave). The rival station then hired quite a few of the ex-station's employees. That showed a lot of class.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
if he went back to his original format. On Sunday night I used to listen from 6 to 10 on KMET.
Back then he wouldn't just play wacky crap--at the time he claimed to have the largest music collection in the world and would play cuts from the 1920's, old jazz, and various bizarre stuff. I remember "My big 10 inch" long before Steven Tyler recorded it.
It also wasn't the same stuff over and over. The top 20 (I think it was 20 or 25 at the time, or was it always top 10?) rotated frequently and once a song got into the top n rotation he would stop playing it on the show to make room for other stuff.
There was a lot of exposure to songs from the 50s and 60s too, stuff that got airplay and was funny but was a little before my time.
When he started putting it in the 1-2 hour format it became shite--he cut out everything that was good and played the same "Funny 5" over and over again.
If he went back to the longer format and started rotating in some variety I'd totally give it another try... Perhaps reducing costs by doing it over the web will allow him to do just that.
Your last sentence hits the nail on the head, you should get a smart phone.
Don't bring up bad memories. The day I drove in to work, flipped on KMET (94.7) and heard New Age music coming out of my speakers was one of the saddest days of my life.
I remember that all too well...it was almost as surreal as a Dr. D show, except not as funny. Happened around 1986 or so, I was 13 and a fan of the Mighty Met and Doctor D.
Fortunately the Doctor switched over to KLSX, which was another amazing station. One that I truly missed when I moved to the Bay Area in 1989.
As a kid in the early 70's, I spent many nights listening to songs like "The cockroach that ate Cincinnati", "They're Coming To Take Us Away" and songs like that.
We all fixed it, mentally, every time we read it.
-- This space for lease, low setup fee, inquire within!
They used to play the video for that on Much Music in Canada all the time, so I guess you could say it was basically main-stream up here.
You're forgetting one thing: Back then Much wasn't the rigidly-programmed corporate hellhole it is now. VJs were allowed all kinds of freedom, and the station was run by people who knew how to have fun. That's how Moses Znaimer wanted it. Remember: They let Weird Al completely take over the station on 3 occasions.
Then CHUM's influence grew, Moses was forced out, it got somewhat dull, and when CTV purchased Much it passed way beyond the realm of banal, essentially copy-pasting MTV's current playbook.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
I would suspect he wouldn't have too much trouble finding sponsors for the show. Leo LaPorte seems to be doing quite well for himself, for example.
Added bonus is that Dr. D has likely made his retirement money, and would be doing it for kicks and beer.
Your last sentence hits the nail on the head, you should get a smart phone.
Except that isn't equivalent to buying a radio.
I'd have to purchase a smartphone for a couple hundred dollars. I'd have to sign up with a provider. I'd either be signing a multi-year contract or paying more for the phone. I'd have to pay monthly bills.
By contrast, you can buy a radio for less than $20 and tune in to whatever is available. No monthly bills (aside from whatever it takes to power the thing). No subscriptions. Nothing.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
Dang I'm old.
Sounds to me like a case of the Existential Blues.
FYI, I live in a foreign (to the US) country, and I think NPR over the internet is fantastic. Better than anything else I can find for radio news. And I say this as an I.T. worker that listens to a LOT of radio every day.
FWIW, I also really enjoy 2 of the 3 www.groovera.com stations too, because what I really dislike is musical repetition; but I still need something funky and cool to work all those hours behind Le Machiné.
Viva le internet radio!
You can't be ahead of the curve, if you're stuck in a loop.
KACV is the student-run radio station for Amarillo College. Frankly, it's one of the best college radio stations in the country. Now that ClearChannel/Cirrus own all the other radio stations, it's one of the best period.
http://kacvfm.org/
Yeah, it's got some 'Dead air... uhm.... .... .... Dead air...' due to the student DJing and announcing, but has otherwise excellent programming, including new release and jazz shows. It's also got some of the nicest, most competent staff I've ever had the privilege to meet.
The station has one of the most powerful FM transmitters in the country, so if you are anywhere in or around the TX panhandle (driving down i40 on your way through, even) turn your dial over to 89.9 and give 'em a listen... if for no other reason than to laugh at the first year broadcasting students.
They also have a live stream available from the link above. I've used it to listen to Dr. Demento's show many times.
I hope the contractual thing allowing them to keep broadcasting his is mutual and amiable, but either way, it's been a treat.
The next Slashdot story will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and slashdot the links early!
Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown
Kinko, Kinko, the kid loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown!!!
Kinko's in his Kinko car, pockets full of change
lots of dirty pictures and sticky candy canes.
All the kids love Kinko for the presents that they get
silly leather clothes to wear and happy cigarettes.
-Hi boys and girls, my name is Kinko the clown!!!
-Hi Kinko!!!
-And I really love you boys and girls!!!
Really, really....
-Awwww
-But my legs get tired standing out in the parking lot handing out stale tootsie rolls to you rugrats, so if anyone wants to come back to Kinko's trailer and massage his legs, he'd really really like it.
Really, really.....
Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown
Kinko, Kinko, the kid loving clown
if the kids just love me back I'll never wear a frown!!!
We go to Kinkos clubhouse, sometimes after school
we play in Kinkos crawl space, there's never any room
We have to sit on Kinkos lap there's never any chairs
Kinko likes to tickle us and give us funny stares.
-Gee I haven't had this much fun since Christmas when I got to play Santa Clause and all the boys and girls got to sit on Kinko's lap-
-Mommy mommy! Kinko hurt me!-
-But that was in Indianapolis and thanks to the liberal reciprocity laws here Kinko can be with you boys and girls today or anytime.
Jimmy Johnson ran away and didn't say goodbuy
Kinko went to look for him to help the FBI
But Kinko has some handcuffs on his eyes were full of tears
said "I'll be back to play with you sometime in 20 years!"
Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
the parents wanna beat me up and run me outa town!
Kinko, Kinko, the kid-loving clown
tar and feather Kinko and run him out of town!
-Bye boy's and girls!!!!
-Bye Kinko! See you at the turn of the century!
-Kinko really love you boys and girls!!
Really, really....
Ha ha! Pedophilia is soooo funny!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
With the Good Doctor taking a bow, my former home state will be left to the not so tender mercies of that sinkhole of mediocrity and self congratulatory comedy, http://www.bobandtom.com./ I weep for the future.
What would Richard Feynman do, if he were here right now? He'd do some math and he'd follow through!
My personal Dr D fave
I'm looking over my dead dog Rover
Who I overlooked before
One leg is missing, the other is gone,
A third leg is scattered all over the lawn.
No need explaining, the one leg remaining
Is spinning on the carport floor,
I'm looking over my dead dog Rover
Who I overlooked before.
At least we'll still have the online show.
Get Leo Laporte involved. He's obviously onto something. Perhaps TWIT can buy him outright.
who had some of his material broadcast on the Dr Demento show.
If anyone in Canada remembers the Dr Bundolo Pandemonium Medicine show (http://members.shaw.ca/vancouverbroadcasters2/drbundolo.htm), he was part of that crew. Great guy (top right in the picture).
I listened to Dr Demento all the time when I was a kid.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Goodbye old friend! Enjoy your retirement.
Am I the only middle-aged geek who DIDN'T think Dr. Demento was funny? I never found his shtick clever or humorous, and I just don't get why so many folks are nostalgic over such low-quality entertainment. You all can argue over the merits of radio and clear channels and whatnot till you're blue in the face, but I think perhaps this is just a simple story of bad quality entertainment justifiably giving way to slightly lesser bad quality entertainment in a natural evolution of mediocrity.
For those who don't recognize the song reference, it's Radio Ga-Ga by Queen, one of the two 1980s tributes to the death of quality radio as Clearchannel began its deathmarch that would eventually lay waste to a segment of our collective culture.
A little revisionist history there. In the 1980s Clear Channel owned six AM stations and six FM stations, plus some TV. Queen wasn't singing about Clear Channel, they were singing about how radio is overlooked in the age of television.
Breakfast served all day!
If you seriously think that NPR is liberal you need to expand your horizons a bit. NPR is barely left of center, let alone liberal.
That's just an appearance - caused by the far-left leaning of the bulk of US broadcast media and their deliberate attempt to make their position appear to be "center", allowing them to characterize anything "right" of them as "right-wing extremism".
Not that right-left matters much these days. Awareness of the libertarian-authoritarian axis has become sufficiently general that the current major political battle is between attempts to expand and shrink government power, rather than details of which behaviors are being suppressed and which can still be exercised without major government interference.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
mandate to produce quality programming
"You there! Entertain me! I demand it!"
You're absolutely right. Suddenly I feel stupid. And contagious.
Bow-ties are cool.
mandate to produce quality programming
"You there! Entertain me! I demand it!"
How do you mandate that? (I do love Top Gear here in the US, and the US version of The Office... so I give them that.)
More serious response: it seems you missed the content.
The BBC is under a mandate to produce quality programming. The BBC isn't an ordinary corporation, it operates under a royal charter, funded by the television license fees, and their charter comes under review periodically - so of course not complying with a mandate like "produce quality programming" could jeopardize their comfortable niche.
Other broadcasters wouldn't be subject to that mandate, of course - but ultrasound's point is that the mandate still affects them, since they need to compete with the BBC in order to survive.
Bow-ties are cool.
Sad to see ya go Dr D! :(
PPN
"Yankovic wrote the parody and debuted it live on the Dr. Demento Show."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_one_rides_the_bus
I have an email folder full of emails from NPR on how they wanted to support low power radio.
You are full of shit.
I have dealt with both organizations. Clear channel is full of entitled ass holes who think cities should do what they say because they own the radio stations.
Sorry but I'm not "full of shit".
I remember the fight and here is a great article from Democracy Now that details NPR's attempts to derail low power radio.
http://www.democracynow.org/2000/9/25/why_is_npr_fighting_public_radio
I've not only "dealt with" both organizations I've *worked* for both of them. They are different sides of the same coin with the main difference being NPR is full of sanctimonious self-absorbed assholes who will never admit they consider themselves privileged. Meanwhile they continue to suck the public tit for all it is worth.
I haven't listened to it in ages either, mainly because I don't listen to radio at all anymore.
Turns out it hasn't been broadcast in my current location in recent memory. I'm glad WLVQ, where I listened to the show as a kid, is one of the stations that held on to the end.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
The ballad of Freddie Blassie
along with "10 Minutes with The Residents", "Yello: I Love You" and "The Mentors: Get Up and Die" (the worst biker band ever). A friend of mine worked for Storer Cable, and we would drive his cable truck out to a cable pedestal in the middle of nowhere, get totally baked and watch Night Flight on a 12" Trinitron test monitor...
Ask Me About... The 80's!
I haven't listened to terrestrial radio in at least a decade. Can't wait for that medium to die so we can use that spectrum for something worthwhile.
But Dr. Demento was a major source of entertainment for those pre-CD/MP3 years. His show introduced me to Wierd Al, it was during his show that the news of Sam Kinison's Death was broadcast, it's where I learned what was in that little girl's chimney, and it's where Cheech and Chong explained why Santa had to go underground.
'Tis a very sad day.
Gazebo.
I have done some listening to other radio stations via streaming over the internet, and one station in Texas, KLFX, AKA 107.3 The Fox, was bought out by Clear Channel. I have never been more disappointed in a radio station than I am in them for selling out. The morning guy, Jack Hammer, used to have a whole lot of fun and did some wacky, crazy stuff, not to mention playing "Smoke Two Joints" by The Toyes every morning. I tuned in via the internet to try to hear some of the fun they used to have, and was sadly disappointed when I found out that it was owned by Clear Channel now. They sanitized his morning show, making it drab and totally uninteresting to listen to. That station had also been one of the stations broadcasting the Dr. Demento Show when I was at Fort Hood, Texas, and I listened to it every Sunday night despite the fact that it was on very late at night. Yeah, I was really tired at P.T. the next morning, but that show was awesome. They don't even carry that anymore. Curse Clear Channel and their mindless corporate drones, they've ruined what used to be a great radio station. They, like the Dr. Demento Show, were wacky and offbeat, but great. Now it's nothing more than a shell of its former essence, with the morning D.J. not doing anything funny at all. Due to Clear Channel's sanitizing of all of the stations it buys and the proliferation of horribly long commercial segments, it's no wonder more and more people are refusing to listen to terrestrial radio, and the good Dr. is disappearing from that medium. I do hope he keeps up online for a long time, he has a great show, and after moving back home from the Army, I missed it terribly because our radio stations here don't carry it, either.
The mega owned stations do really cool things, like maybe three of them broadcast the same thing. One is really great, it often broadcasts nothing but a carrier, but it makes up for it by then broadcasting two feeds at the same time.
Your sanctimonious self absorbed assholes at NPR are the ones we listen to, because our glorious free market overlords at Clear Channel have destroyed the rest of the stations. They can do that ya know, because they own them
Yes, they are two different sides of the same coin.
Why is this even on SlashDot?... Why is this even on Slashdot?...Why is this even on Slashdot?
"Little bit o' heaven, 94 point 7, tweedle-dee!" Good ol Dr D and the Mighty Met. I have fond memories of the Demento Show back when FM was still fun. Color me old too.