Dr. Demento (image from www.drdemento.com)

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the Dr. Demento show began in 1970 on Los Angeles freeform station KPPC as a “rarities” show.

By 1974 the popular radio program, which specializes in a mix of music and comedy, moved into syndication all over the country.

Hosted by former college radio DJ (at the Reed College station), music historian, and record executive Barret Hansen (aka Dr. Demento); the show has celebrated not only novelty recordings, but also rare musical and comedic gems.

When I was a kid my sister and I used to spend hours and hours listening to the Dr. Demento show, cracking up over the silly comedic songs that were aimed at just our level of maturity.

The program’s bread and butter is both novelty songs like “Fish Heads” and full-on parodies of popular hits by Weird Al Yankovic. To this day, I am always reminded of “Another One Rides the Bus” when I hear “Another One Bites the Dust” and I smile when thinking of Weird Al’s “Eat It” (and its accompanying video) which pokes fun of the Michael Jackson hit “Beat it.”

But, probably more important for me, is that the Dr. Demento show was the first show that inspired me to “play DJ.” My sister and I would not only listen to the show together, but we would also pretend to do radio shows modelled after Dr. Demento using my portable tape recorder.

Somehow the personality of Dr. Demento invited us into that radio world and gave us the idea that radio might be fun. Although my actual radio shows bear zero resemblance to the antics of Dr. Demento, his program still holds a place in my heart for showing me the joyful aspects of radio. And, clearly, Dr. Demento is still having a ball with the show. A scan of some of his recent playlists reveals that he’s been keeping things interesting by doing theme-based shows, including a whole set of vegetable songs last week and a bunch of “I Want” songs on his January 10th program.

You can listen to archives of the Dr. Demento show online, catch it on a handful of terrestrial stations, or purchase any number of Dr. Demento collections or oddities on his website.

P.S. Another Dr. Demento-esque show worth checking out is the Uncle Al Show on Sundays from noon to 3pm Pacific time on KFJC 89.7 FM (yes, the station where I DJ too). Like Dr. Demento, he plays a selection of comedy, novelty songs, and retro music from the “Hippy’s Graveyard.”

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It was there in 1909 that an engineer, Charles “Doc” Herrold, broadcast his first voice transmissions. He began regular broadcasts in 1912, and his station became KQW, which evolved into KCBS…

Herrold, said [San Jose State University Professor Mike] Adams, used a spark cap, and his audio was crude. He was a pioneer in broadcasting entertainment, said Adams, but he had no financial support and was bypassed by inventors of the superior vacuum tube. Herrold’s station lasted until the United States shut down radio stations during World War I. He obtained a license for station KQW in 1921, but lost control of the station, which relocated to San Francisco in 1934 and became KCBS in 1949. Oh. Well, then: Happy 60th Anniversary, KCBS!

Another way that radio honors its history is with groups like the National Radio Hall of Fame. Voting is now open for 2009 nominees, including radio pioneer Dr. Demento.

And, finally, an article on CNNMoney.com posits that services like Pandora (an Internet service that selects music for you based on music that you already like) may be the future of radio. The piece quotes Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren:

“There’s a huge frustration among listeners that radio doesn’t play music they like,” Westergren says. “Once you use personalized radio, why would you go back to a station that is programmed for you and half a million other people?”

Well, yes…you probably wouldn’t. But, if you listen to non-commercial stations with lengthy playlists and DJ-curated shows, you might be disappointed by a random, computer-generated DJ-less playlist. The article continues:

However, not everyone sees it that way. “Traditional radio forces you to listen to new things,” says Bob Lefsetz, author of the influential music industry blog the Lefsetz Letter. “Pandora’s recommendations are ridiculously tame.” The New Yorker’s pop music critic, Sasha Frere-Jones, agrees: “I wish it were more adventurous.”

Agreed. And the future of radio is still TBD…

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