1 of 1- Muffaraw Joe
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The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
As a kid growing up in Ottawa, I would go visit my cousins in Montreal in the 70's. Montreal had great radio stations, like CKGM, CFOX and CHOM-FM...with great hosts like Ralph Lockwood, Donny Burns, Marc "Mes Oui" Denis...but we'd get up at 9 am on Sunday mornings to listen to a different show...a show I'd never heard before...especially not in Ottawa...
It was the Dr. Demento show...playing a concoction of weird music..."Funny songs" like, "Shaving Cream", or They're coming to take me away, Weird Al Yankovic, and Allen Sherman's classic "Hello Mudda, Hello Faddah"...
This music made the traditional airwaves too...songs like "The Streak", or Jim Stafford's "I don't like Spiders and Snakes"...made prime time radio...
Some big names in the entertainment business had comedy songs, Frank Zappa with "Don't eat the yellow snow", Steve Martin sang "King Tut" the Blues Brother's re-did "Rubber Biscuit"
I doubt if this kind of show would make it back into syndication again, but take a moment to share what was your favourite "Funny song" or "Silly Song" is and any memories from listening once in a while to this silly show (not so silly)...
Here too is a link to a documentary about the good Doctor himself and how the show began!
Here too is a video of an actual show, with playlist and schedule for the local radio stations that aired it...
Last edited by Muffaraw Joe (September 2, 2017 3:15 am)
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- Jody Thornton
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
CHUM-FM also aired it on Sunday Nights up to about 1984 anyway. It might have been later. Gord Johnson followed it up with Sunday Funnies.
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Jody Thornton
- Fitz
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
Dr Demento was also on various Western NY/Buffalo stations including Rock 102 WBEN if memory serves me correctly. He started in radio on free form KPPC FM in Los Angles in 1970. He was a musicologist and I have copies of Hit Parader magazine dating from 1968/69 with articles under his name which was Barry Hansen ( or Barrett Hansen).
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
Must've been in the 1970s, because I don't recall it on Rock 102 in the 80s. I wonder if it was 103.3 perhaps
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Jody Thornton
- Lorne
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
I remember hearing Dr. Demento in the 1970s and I think it was on Rock 102.
- Peter the K
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
I also remember hearing the good Doctor on rock 102 in the 70s.
In the early 80s, it aired on CFNY. I do believe CHUM-FM ran it later in the 80s but that's when my own memories of the show start to fade.
Interestingly, I do own several copies of the show, both on Vinyl and CD. They are fairly easy to come by. Likewise, I have download several years of shows from various "sources" on the net.
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
I was listening on CHUM-FM between 1981 and 1983, but I only listened occasionally after that. For most of the period you're talking about Rock 102 was automated with Stereo Rock, so I never recalled hearing Doctor Demento there. I would have thought it be an FM rock station like 97 Rock or something. Meh, what do I know?
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- Peter the K
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
No, I very distinctly remember hearing it on Rock 102 on Sunday nights. Although I only heard a few weeks of it before they pulled it. Knowing the automation system they were using at the time, it would have been a piece of cake to transfer the discs to reels and slap 25hz tones in the right places for local breaks. That was probably around 1976.
But now that I think of it, it was 1977 or 1978 when I was hearing it on CHUM-FM. I remember recording it every week for a while on my cheapie little cassette recorder. I didn't hear it on CFNY until 1984 or 1985.
- Fitz
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
May have been on Rock 102 for longer than a few weeks. I tried in vain to find some print ads online with affiliates but no luck. I even went through some of my own magazines. I vaguely recall some print ads. The search was taking too long but perhaps when I have time I may find an ad. The show was syndicated for a time by Westwood One.
I have found other print ads for things like The King Biscuit Flower Hour and that's a show that I can see only FM rock stations picking up but I think the good doctor would have been viable on top 40 as well as FM rock.
Last edited by Fitz (September 3, 2017 9:17 am)
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Re: The Shelly Berman post...got me remembering the Dr. Demento show
I found an old tape of the good doctor's show made for KSAN FM in San Francisco in 1980 and I got permission from him to post it. He does not have this available on his web site and there is some other KSAN content as well.
Dr. Demento and more KSAN FM 1980
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