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Dr. Demento
American radio personality Dr. Demento
Background information
Birth name	Barret Eugene Hansen
Also known as	Dr. Demento
Born	April 2, 1941 (1941-04-02) (age 66) Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.
Genre(s)	Comedy, parody
Occupation(s)	Disc jockey
Years active	1974–present
Associated acts	"Weird Al" Yankovic, Whimsical Will

Dr. Demento is the stage name of Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941),^[1] a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies. He created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM.^[1] After Hansen played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play that. Thereafter, the name stuck. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974^[1] and from 1978–92 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Networks. It is still on the air as of 2007.

Contents 1 Background 2 The rise of Dr. Demento 3 Favorite songs 4 Discography 5 References in pop culture 6 Affiliates list 7 External links 8 References

Hansen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of an amateur pianist. He claims to have started his vast record collection as early as age 12, when he found "that a local thrift store had thousands of old 78 RPM records for sale at 5 cents each".^[1] He attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where he wrote his senior thesis on Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck and Claude Debussy's opera Pelleas et Melisande. He graduated in 1963, and later studied at UCLA, from which he earned a master's degree in folklore and ethnomusicology.

Between his junior and senior years at Reed, Barry bought a Vespa scooter and toured the U.S., particularly the American South, where he witnessed firsthand some of the prejudice that was being perpetrated upon American Blacks at the time, and acquired records for his growing collection.

After earning his master's degree, he lived for two years "in a big house on a hill" in Topanga Canyon with members of the rock band Spirit ("Fresh Garbage" was a hit for them). He also served briefly as a roadie for Spirit, and for Canned Heat, before being hired as an A&R man for Specialty Records. It was while working for Specialty that the Doctor began his weekly radio show. He later worked for Warner Bros. Records.

Hansen married his wife Sue on November 26, 1983, in Los Angeles, California. She had previously worked in dispatching at the Union Pacific railroad. Hansen describes himself as "an armchair railfan".

To some people, Dr. Demento is best known as the man who brought rock parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic to national attention (and appeared in a number of Weird Al's music videos). Hansen also played a role in the success of Elmo and Patsy's 1979 Christmas song "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" and the continuing success of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash".

Hansen created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM.^[1] From 1972–82, he performed a four hour live show on KMET in Los Angeles, plus a separate pre-taped top 50 in 1979 for KSAN in San Francisco. The four hour "local" show was divided up into two general segments. The first segment lasted three hours and the "Doctor" played whatever he chose, often thematically. The last hour was devoted to the so called "Top Ten" which was determined by petitions and requests.

His weekly show went into syndication in 1974^[1] and from 1978–92 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Networks. It is still on the air as of 2007, syndicated by Hansen's own company, Talonian Productions, whose sole purpose is to produce and distribute this program. The show airs for two hours weekly, usually on a Sunday night, although stations are free to air the show at other times.

The show has, in recent years, fallen on financial hard times. According to Hansen, the show has steadily lost advertisers, and as such, he had to restructure the distribution of the show from the usual barter system to a system in which stations pay a rights fee for the program. In addition, he has stated that "unless the show's financial situation changes soon I will be unable to continue the show much longer".^[2]

The Dr. Demento Show can also be heard via audio streaming at his official website. Large archives from 1992 to the present, as well as a few select archives from the early 1970s, are available, but programs from 1978 to 1992 are not because Westwood One apparently still owns those programs. Because of the aforementioned cash flow problems, a small per-show fee is levied for this service so as to make the show profitable. As part of the contract between Dr. Demento and radio stations, radio stations are prohibited from streaming the program on any streams the stations provide. Several radio stations have been forced to drop the program because of this policy, thus reducing Dr. Demento's affiliate count, making the show even less palatable to advertisers and making the financial situation worse. A spokesperson for Dr. Demento mentioned in his official forum in October 2007 that the show is working to make "lots of changes" regarding the internet services,^[3] among the changes being a change in webmaster.

Hansen has developed a particular interest in the roots of rock 'n' roll in R&B and country music, and he has written about it in many magazine articles, liner notes to compilations and new recordings by a variety of artists, and two chapters on early R&B for The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll. His shows and public appearances display an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of recorded music in general, from the earliest Edison cylinder recordings onward.

Dr. Demento was inducted into the Comedy Music Hall of Fame in June 2005.^[4]

In September 2007, Dr. Demento portrayed the role of Hippocrates on The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd.

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (August 2007)

At the end of each year on his syndicated radio show, he counts down the top 25 comedy hits of the year, called the "Funny 25". (From 1972–82, he also did a year-end top 50 countdown for his four-hour live show in Los Angeles, plus a separate pre-taped top 50 in 1979 for San Francisco.) The chart is based on requests, so it is common for classic comedy songs to appear on the chart for many years in a row. Despite that, only four artists have appeared at the top of the chart in two consecutive years; three of those appeared at the top of the charts with two different songs each year, and the fourth is the case of Ogden Edsl, whose song "Dead Puppies" is thus far the only one to appear at the top of the charts two years in a row.

• "Weird Al" Yankovic

1980 - "Another One Rides The Bus"

1981 - "Yoda" (Original Demo Version)

• Ogden Edsl

1982 - "Dead Puppies"

1983 - "Dead Puppies"

• The great Luke Ski

2002 - "Peter Parker"

2003 - "Stealing Like A Hobbit"

• Worm Quartet

2004 - "Great Idea For A Song"

2005 - "Inner Voice" (as guest vocals for Sudden Death)

• On hunting themed shows, Dr. Demento features the song "Second Week of Deer Camp" by Michigan comedy music group Da Yoopers.

The 1947 song "Pico and Sepulveda" by Felix Figueroa & His Orchestra (actually Freddy Martin & His Orchestra) was frequently featured on Dr. Demento's syndicated radio show.^[5] During the early years of his show, this song became so requested, and hence played, that the "Doctor" decided to give the song a special status. From about 1973 onward, the song was played once a month, on the first Sunday of every month. The Doctor's unidirectional covenant he made with his listeners was that in exchange for playing this same song ad infinitum once a month via this special arrangement, it was thereafter voided from ever being voted upon, requested, and/or played in any monthly Top 10 or annual Top 50 format. For the last twenty years or so, he has played "Pico and Sepulveda" beneath his weekly sign-off.

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A number of compilations have been released by Dr. Demento, including:^[6]

• Dr. Demento's Delights (1975)
• Dr. Demento's Dementia Royale (1980)
• Dr. Demento's Mementos (1982)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time Volume I: The 1940s (and Before) (1985)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume II: The 1950s (1985)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume III: The 1960s (1985)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume IV: The 1970s (1985)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume V: The 1980s (1985)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty Records of All Time, Volume VI: Christmas (1985)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Novelty CD of All Time (1988)
• Dr. Demento Presents the Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time (1989)
• Dr. Demento 20th Anniversary Collection (1991)
• Dr. Demento 25th Anniversary Collection (1996)
• Dr. Demento 2000! 30th Anniversary Collection (2001)

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• In The Simpsons episode "Sideshow Bob Roberts", Bart's two mortal enemies are revealed to be Sideshow Bob and, without any earlier or later explanation of this claim, Dr. Demento.

• In the King of the Hill episode "Texas City Twister", Peggy tells Luanne that they had "better get on the road before that Dr. Demento starts stinking up the airwaves". Later, Spike Jones' "Cocktails for Two" is heard on the car radio.^[7]

• On the TV show Bobby's World, Bobby imagines that the doctor he will be seeing the next day is none other than Dr. Demento.

• In the Mr. Show episode "Eat Rotten Fruit From A Shitty Tree", the character of "Dr. Retarded" is a novelty record collector and "Chief Head of Surgery, Mass General".

• WLUP 97.9 FM: Chicago, Illinois, Sunday 11 PM - 1 AM.
• WLVQ 96.3 FM: Columbus, Ohio, Sunday 8 - 10 AM.
• KCMD 970 AM: Portland, Oregon, Sunday 1 - 3 PM.
• KLOO 106.3 FM: Corvallis, Oregon, Sunday 7 - 9 PM.
• KURE 88.5 FM: Ames, Iowa, Saturday 10 PM - Midnight.
• KOZT 95.3 FM, Fort Bragg, California, Sunday 9 - 11 PM.
• XM Satellite Radio - the now defunct channel "Special X" which featured nothing but novelty records; aired at various times throughout the week.

• Official website
• The Official World Wide Dr. Demento Streaming Site (many past shows available)
• Demented Music Database - official playlist archive and more
• Dr. Demento Discography
• Barry Hansen (Dr. Demento) at the Internet Movie Database
• The Mad Music Archive - a fan-run, user-supported site with song and artist information
• TOP 100 (or so) DEMENTED HITS (from Funny 25’s) - updated annually