Here's Dr. Demento,
voice of weird radio
He's spent 40 years playing offbeat songs and artists
By Diego Vasquez
Jul 1, 2010
His name is Dr. Demento, and whether you are familiar with him or not, you’ve felt his influence every time you listened to a song outside the mainstream. For almost 40 years, Dr. Demento, aka Barret Hansen, has been hosting an eclectic syndicated radio program that features some of the most obscure, interesting and often odd music around; think “Purple People Eater” and “Fish Heads.” He gave “Weird Al” Yankovic his start, and even after Yankovic passed into the mainstream, the artist remained one of Demento's most frequent and most requested guests. Over the years Demento interviewed everyone from George Carlin to Frank Zappa, and he’s also built up a following on the web, which is a good thing because starting next month, that’s the only place you’ll be able to hear him. The syndicated program left the air earlier this month, after dwindling to just six stations across the country. The Radio Hall of Fame inductee will now charge a premium to listen to the Sunday night program. He's also hoping to attract some advertisers. Hansen talked to Media Life about the changes he's seen in his long radio career, what the future holds for Dr. Demento, and his favorite guests over the years.
What have been the biggest changes in the radio industry since you began broadcasting four decades ago?
Consolidation. In a gradual series of regulation changes, most limits on multiple ownership of radio stations have been removed. When I started, a given company could own no more than seven AM and seven FM stations.
This has left most of the major radio stations in the USA under the ownership of a few giant corporations.
Narrowcasting. When I started there were just a few common formats in commercial radio -- top 40, rock, “middle of the road,” religious, classical and “general service,” usually a tightly scheduled mixture of news, talk and music.
Oldies radio was just getting started, and there were just a handful of stations offering Spanish or other foreign language programming.
Now there are several variant formats within each of these classifications. The aim is to reach specific demographic and cultural segments, to make it easier to sell airtime to companies desiring to reach those segments -- whereas previously, stations just wanted to reach as many people as possible.
This eventually made it more difficult to sell time on the “Dr. Demento Show,” which was previously hailed for its very wide demographic reach.
I used to get letters from young fans who would say that their parents or even grandparents loved the show as much as they did. “Dr. Demento - Bringing Families Together!”
How has media consolidation affected the industry over that time?
It has lengthened the chain of command, making it more difficult to clear an unconventional show like mine. In the 1970s, we just had to convince the program director the show was right for their station, and the PD [program director] could go right to the owner for permission to carry the show.
Now the owner is a massive corporation, and it is harder to get approval for something that isn't covered by the rules, regulations and policies.
Also, the giant debt load that many of these corporations are carrying increases the pressure on staffers to play by the rules and not take risks. At least that's how I see it.
Do you think tastes in music have shifted more rapidly over the past decade or two, as we see ever-more listening options emerge?
Actually, tastes haven’t shifted any faster, but they certainly have broadened due to all those options. Music continues to evolve, but not at the rapid pace it did in the mid-to-late 1960s or the late 1970s.
Speaking of options, not only do we have dozens of genres flourishing and evolving today, but music in a vast number of older styles continues to appeal to loyal fans.
What do you see as the future of terrestrial radio? Is it a model that needs tweaking in the face of new technology, or do we continue to underestimate the power of a medium that reaches more than 250 million?
I don’t have an insider's perspective these days, like someone who works for Clear Channel or Sirius/XM might, but terrestrial radio seems to be holding its own.
A lot of people still seem to value the experience of listening to AM and FM radio, and people still talk about what they just heard on KROQ or on NPR or what Rush Limbaugh just said.
Tell us about your show -- why did it go off the air this month?
We were down to just six stations after WLUP-Chicago decided to discontinue the show. We were losing money on the radio show. For some time, the internet show has brought in more income from the streams that we sell.
Also, three of the stations that were carrying the show streamed it for free, along with the rest of their programming. They were giving away what we are trying to sell.
Why did the “Dr. Demento Show” remain a success for on terrestrial radio for so long?
I have always mixed the old and the new. That way, we hung on to at least some of the people who got hooked on the show during its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, and attracted new listeners who enjoyed the new funny music along with the classics.
What plans do you have for attracting an audience online?
Do our best to let people who enjoyed the show in the past know that it's still around, in a new medium. I've been doing lots of interviews since the announcement was made about the show going off radio. I was on NPR’s “Morning Edition” on June 22 and that got a lot of response. I'm [also] on Twitter and Facebook.
What do you think the business model is for online radio shows? Or is that still something to be determined?
I think online radio is still in its infancy and there will certainly be changes in lots of people’s business models in the years to come.
Our plan is to offer a new show each week plus a large selection of older shows (over 500 at the moment) via streaming audio. We charge $2 per show, and monthly memberships enabling people to hear a larger number of shows at a higher bitrates are available for $14.95.
Our income from this defrays the royalties we need to pay for music. As I see it, internet radio gets easier to access all the time, as the equipment (and people’s internet access) get better. When we first gave it a try, it was quite a challenge for people who weren’t computer geeks to access it (and almost impossible with the dial-up connections people used to use). Now I know people who listen to internet radio in their cars.
Many people have asked us to put the show on podcast, which we cannot do according to present regulations because we use a large amount of “non-podcast-safe” music, such as recordings controlled by major labels. The show just wouldn’t be the same without that music.
Do you think “Dr. Demento”-style music has a brighter future what with the many distribution methods now available to artists who previously had to fight for radio airtime?
There’s no such thing as “Dr. Demento-style” music. I play music from a huge variety of styles. However, if you mean music from off the beaten path, especially newer comedy music, it definitely has a brighter future now than before the internet was available.
There are several other internet radio shows out there that are obviously patterned after mine -- one is even called “Dementia Radio.” In addition to that, many independent artists use the internet to distribute their music directly to consumers, and to publicize it (right now, mainly on YouTube).
Who have been your favorite guests over the past 40 years and why?
“Weird Al” Yankovic, as I had a front row seat to watch his career take flight. The night he sang “Another One Rides the Bus” live on my KMET-Los Angeles show was a huge moment for us both -- it attracted a lot more attention for him, and the song was so popular it helped add a lot more stations to our syndication.
George Carlin… what a mind! Our interviews often became surprisingly serious discussions about what makes this or that funny.
Frank Zappa--we hit it off right away because I was probably the only non-musician who was familiar with the two musical loves of his life, 1950s R&B (especially doo-wop and certain blues artists) and avant-garde 20th century classical (Edgard Varese in particular). I was a big fan and always eager to spread the word. I think more people have personally thanked me for introducing them to Zappa’s music than anything else I’ve played, even Weird Al. Later, as Zappa became embroiled in conflicts with his record labels and other legal matters, he became less open, but he was always full of brilliant insights.
Firesign Theatre. Had them on two or three times, always exciting. Monty Python -- interviewed all six, though not all at once. My John Cleese interview was live on KLSX’s morning show. That might have been the most high-energy interview I ever did. At the other extreme was Shel Silverstein. He did very few interviews and obviously did not enjoy the process. Brilliant man, nonetheless. Cheech & Chong were lots of fun.
What were the most popular songs you played? Why?
No. 1 all-time – “Dead Puppies” by Ogden Edsl. Close behind is “Fish Heads” by Barnes & Barnes.
Both had simple but radically original lyric ideas matched with great musical hooks, and both were things you couldn’t hear anywhere else but my show, at least for awhile.
Of course Weird Al is the most popular artist. The man just has an uncanny ability to come up with funny concepts and expand them into superbly crafted parody lyrics. My No. 2 most requested artist of all time would be Tom Lehrer – “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “Masochism Tango,” “The Vatican Rag,” and many more.
Finally, how did you get the name "Dr. Demento?"
Steven Segal, aka “The Obscene Steven Clean,” pinned the name on me. He was the one who introduced me to KPPC as a guest on his show and later did the same on KMET.
I thought for years that he had gotten the idea from another KPPC staffer who commented that I had to be demented to play some of the things I played. When I met Steven again recently after not having seen him for about 25 years, he told me a different story: that he and Peter Wolf, singer for the J. Geils band and a close friend, had come up with the name before he ever met me. They had imagined Dr. Demento as a mythical character who knew everything there was to know about early rock 'n roll. (That was the reputation I had in 1970, at least around KPPC).
Anyhow, I’ve copyrighted the name and it’s mine now. Thanks Steven and Peter!
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