Dr. Demento Announces Retirement After 55-Year Radio Career

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.

> 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)

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.

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.

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.

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...

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

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

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

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

Fish Heads or Star Trekkin'?

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.

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