“Now I have a special announcement,” said Barry “Dr. Demento” Hansen, after playing the No. 1 song on the Dr. Demento show’s top 10 countdown. “I’m now 84 years old and I have been doing this show for nearly 55 years — about two-thirds of my life. It’s been a blast, but I have come to the decision that I need to hang up my top hat soon. The show you just heard is the last of my regular shows.”
By the time I listened to the most recent episode of Dr. Demento, that news had been out for several days. Radioinsight’s reporting brought forth comments from some readers who had been listening since the ’70s. Although most shared memories of hearing the show on broadcast radio, for the last 15 years, the show has been available only through a subscription model instead. It speaks volumes about Hanson’s following that the show is ending with his retirement, not because of the challenges of making a living that way.
In the days before TikTok, it was Demento who helped make a 1975 hit out of Benny Bell’s “Shaving Cream,” a nearly 30-year-old novelty record. By that time, programmers were already mining the show for potential bringbacks and reaction records. “Monster Mash” is the song that people remember being a hit the second time, but there were also stations that tried to make “They’re Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!” a hit again as well.
A few years later, Hansen helped launch a multimedia, five-decade career for protégé “Weird Al” Yankovic from specialty show airplay. On this show, there was an entire set of songs about seeing “Weird Al” in concert.
I became a regular Demento listener in the mid-’80s on KMET Los Angeles. At a time when Howard Stern wasn’t yet available in L.A., the show that played “Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” or “Dead Puppies” was the most darkly funny thing on the radio – permission to carry one’s 14-year-old-boy humor into adulthood a little longer. If a co-worker somehow knew “Fishheads” by Barnes & Barnes or any of the show’s perennials, it was a secret handshake.
Yet, trusting Hansen was also the reason that listeners were willing to be introduced to songs from the time well before rock-and-roll. (It helped that some of them were dirty-ish.) He also helped me appreciate Stan Freberg or Allen Sherman or other acts that I might have dismissed otherwise as bafflingly funny to previous generations.
Dr. Demento was the only time I ever listened to the radio to hear a song by somebody I knew personally on the radio. In the mid-’80s, my father somehow briefly became part of the same New York folk collective that included Suzanne Vega. My Radio & Records mentor Walt Love also hosted a syndicated show and shared Demento’s producer, Robert Young, so I had a connection. “The Nightmare Room” did not become a show perennial, but it did get one spin.
Demento was also what my generation knew of freeform radio, heard on stations that had long codified to mainstream AOR for all but a few hours every week. In fact, the theme of this final regular show was Dr. Demento’s first days on early progressive outlet KPPC Los Angeles with songs (not all of them humorous) meant to evoke the thematic or stream-of-consciousness sets of early rock radio, such as:
- Royal Tones, “Poor Boy” — early rock instrumental that was a staple of the early show
- Canned Heat, “Poor Moon”
- Norman Greenbaum, “Canned Ham” — an unsuccessful follow-up from the “Spirit in the Sky” artist
- DylanHearsAWho, “Green Eggs and Ham” — the Dr. Seuss book, if sung by Bob.
Or this one:
- Paul Lynde, “Kids” — the “what’s a matter with kids these days?” song from Bye Bye Birdie
- Cruella DeVille, “Two Dreadful Children”
- Steve Martin, “Cruel Shoes”
- Chuck Willis, “Hang Up My Rock and Roll Shoes” — The doctor’s last song on KPPC in 1971
- Hombres, “Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)” — the ’60s garage-novelty classic
- Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike), “Let It Rain, Let It Pour” — from the ’20s artist.
There was also a set of songs that had never been played on the show before from signature acts: Freberg, Spike Jones, Sherman, Tom Lehrer, even Yankovic. There was a set of “laughing” songs that ranged from the Residents to David Bowie to the Elvis-cracks-up version of “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”
When I was a regular Demento listener, the show ended with the weekly Funny Five countdown. Now, there’s a monthly top 10, based in part to follower engagement with songs on the show’s Facebook page. Here’s the final countdown:
- Steve Goodie, “My Wife’s in a Five-Way” – to the tune of Tom Cochrane/Rascal Flatts’ “Life is a Highway” (#10)
- Ray Stevens, “The Rock and Roll Show” — his not-so-affectionate parody of early-’60s rock-and-roll; a first-time entrant due to Facebook response (#9)
- “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Gump” — the Presidents of the USA’s Chris Ballew had already made an appearance in the set of songs about Weird Al shows (#8)
- Tom “T-Bone” Stankus, “Existential Blues” — an all-time Demento staple (#7)
- Lenny & the Squigtones, “King of the Cars” — Michael McKean & David Lander with a Beach Boys parody by their Laverne & Shirley characters (#6)
- The Great Luke Ski, “The Doctor and William (2025 Edition)” — Beasties-like tribute to Demento and another show regular, Whimsical Will (#5)
- Hoosier Hot Shots, “I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones)” — 1935 novelty that was on Demento’s 1985 box set (#4)
- Sulu, “I Made It With Cartoon Characters (Weird but Not Atrocious)” — Mary Poppins parody; the newest song in the countdown and a follow-up to the act’s previous countdown entry, “I Made It With a Bagel and Cream Cheese.” (#3)
- Ruth Buzzi & Arte Johnson, “Don’t Futz Around” — The Laugh-In stars; prompted by her recent passing (#2)
- Tom Lehrer, “The Vatican Rag” — there had already been a set of Pope-inspired songs, a tribute to the new pontiff, including Robbie Ellis’s “Chicago Pope Plainchant,” a litany of all things Chicago (deep-dish pizza, “Da Bears”) as Gregorian chant (#1).
Dr. Demento wraps up with an October countdown of the show’s all-time Top 40 songs. In between, there will be bi-weekly historical recaps alternating with flashback shows from the period in question. Check out the show archives here.
After this article was published, Canadian radio and records veteran Kevin Shea tagged me with this appreciation of Dr. Demento on Facebook, including this excerpt about how his Demento fandom helped launch his own radio career:
“I had my own comedy radio show in the mid-1970s. While attending university, I was doing a number of functions at CKWW Radio in Windsor, including running the control board for a Sunday evening talk show hosted by Hector Lacasse, who had been the mayor of nearby Tecumseh, Ontario from 1966 to 1970. Hector was a wonderful, amiable man who I adored. His show was comprised of homespun stories, loads of sentimentality and lots of laughter, but mostly Hector’s uproarious guffaw. Dear Hector had a loyal following that would never miss his show. Hector’s show ran from 9:00 until 11:00 on Sunday evenings.
“The 11:00 to midnight hour had negligible listenership so there was no sense in bringing in an announcer for one hour and Hector did not want to work until midnight. One day, John Henderson, the program director, approached me with an idea: “How would you like to fill that last 11 o’clock hour with a comedy show?”
“I loved the idea! I had a sizeable collection of comedy singles and albums and while this was basically a throw-away hour, it would at least fill the void and maybe add some interest. I had never been on the radio before, although it had been my dream. I chose not to use my own name in case I embarrassed my parents, so John Henderson suggested I call myself ‘Harvison Northgate.’
“As an avid listener to Dr. Demento, I knew where I wanted to go with the show, carefully programming it with a spoken comedy bit (‘Who’s on First?’ by Abbott and Costello, for example) into a musical comedy song (perhaps ‘Tiptoe Through the Tulips’ by Tiny Tim) and made each week different, never repeating a selection. Steve Martin, Tom Lehrer, Bill Cosby (I’m sorry!), Bob Newhart, Nervous Norvus, Laurel and Hardy, Soupy Sales, Shel Silverstein, Ray Stevens and so many others found new life on the Sunday night ‘Harvison Northgate Show.’
“I soon found regular listeners, from taxi drivers, movie theatre projectionists, university students getting their last-minute project done and others who somehow found the show. It was such fun! People mailed me comedy records and tapes, although they were usually addressed to ‘Harrison Northgate’ or ‘Harvey’s son Northgate’ or some anomaly of my fictitious name.
“I got to know Dr. Demento a little bit later when I worked in the music industry. I was ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic’s Canadian publicist for many years and ‘Weird Al’ and the good doctor were dear friends. In fact, it was Dr. Demento that gave ‘Weird Al’ his start. And every once and again, Dr. Demento or his team would contact me looking for good Canadian comedy selections, and through the years I sent him The Frantics, Corky and the Juice Pigs, the Arrogant Worms, Moxy Fruvous and others.
“I just learned that Dr. Demento has announced his retirement. At 84 years of age, he felt that it was time and will conclude his show on its 55th anniversary in October of this year. I hadn’t heard Dr. Demento for years, but have a special account in my memory bank for him, the show and will hold to my promise to ‘Stay Demented.'”
One more note. I was able to listen to one of the final shows by Jeff Hoag, the recently departed evening jock on Classic Country WSM Nashville, and his show also relied heavily on connections between songs, usually related to artists. Hoag played Rosanne Cash’s “Seven Year Ache,” then father Johnny Cash’s “Hurt,” then a gospel song by another act that Cash had covered (“God Has My Fortune Laid Away”), and then ’60s hitmaker David Houston singing “Amazing Grace.” He also played Hank Williams’ “Lovesick Blues” followed by Ray Charles’ version of Williams’ “Hey Good Lookin’,” followed by reminding listeners how much Charles had done to expand the audience for Country music. Hoag came to WSM in 2014 after years of aspiring to work there, so his influence was clearly the station’s tradition, but I’ve made a connection of my own to Demento and the early progressive radio era.
I haven’t been a listener for decades, but I do remember listening occasionally when I was in college in the early ’90s; 99.1-era WHFS carried it late Sunday night.
Also, Lenny and the Squigtones still has a significant following–and not just because the full band featured two folks who became better known for Spinal Tap. Supposedly, the band might’ve been the focus for a Laverne & Shirley spinoff that never happened.
https://fictionalbands.info/lenny-and-the-squigtones
https://www.facebook.com/EricAlperPR/posts/lenny-and-the-squigtones-were-underrated/1235598424902498
Five weeks after the initial publication of this article, I’ve been surprised by the outpouring of tributes to Tom Lehrer, a longtime hero, but also somebody whose audience I would have thought to be much more specialized. That the postings are coming from radio people of all ages, and sometimes include “my kids know him, too” says a lot about Demento’s influence. So it’s appropriate that Lehrer had the final #1 on a regular Demento countdown. It’s also a reminder, as radio abdicates its ability to break records, that even a few plays each month at 10 p.m. on Sunday were enough to create an unlikely audience.