It gets better. Back in my college days, I worked on the student newspaper, The Battalion, wearing a number of different hats. The summer of 1992 I was Lifestyle Editor, and the very first feature I wrote and ran was on the Dr. Demento Show. I'd written it for a feature article class the previous semester (actually, just a week or two prior) but like many of those long-ago stories, I'd lost my copy in the intervening years. Apparently some of the guys in Dr. Love & the Erogenous Zones were more organized in their filing system, because they not only saved said article, but posted it on their MySpace page. Which I hereby appropriate for my own uses and present to you in its entirety:
Comedy Reigns Supreme for Dr. Demento
By Jayme Blaschke
The Battalion, May 27, 1992"The Doctor is IN!”
So begins another episode of the Dr. Demento show, a syndicated radio program that has influenced American music and musicians for more than two decades by poking fun at the soft underbelly of mainstream life.Dr. Demento’s declaration of war against normality assaults the airwaves weekly from more than 180 radio stations worldwide. Although his program now originates from KLSX studios in Los Angeles, the program’s early genesis began in 1970, when he was hired as a disc jockey at the now defunct KPPC in Pasadena, Calif.
“Nothing was standard at that station, and they wanted my program to be an off-the-wall oldies show," Demento said. "I started mixing a little weird music in with the standard fare, and quickly found out that the weirder the music was, the more requests we got.
“Within six months to a year, the program had become dominated by novelty songs,” he said. “The show was first syndicated in 1974, and was picked up by the Westwood One network in 1978. We’re the only program like it on the radio.”
The major reason for the show’s longevity and success is its bizarre nature. Ron Elliot, program director for KKYS in College Station, said the station has carried Dr. Demento for more than five years. The show is aired Sundays from 10 p.m. to midnight, and is one of the station’s more popular features.
“It definitely serves a purpose,” Elliot said. “It broadens the scope of the music we play, featuring something besides today’s top 40 hits.”
“Sneaky” Pete Rizzo, a biology professor at Texas A&M University who has had six songs featured on the Dr. Demento Show, said the program serves an important role in American Music.
“It’s hard to say the world needs a Dr. Demento, but it’s nice to think it does,” he said. “There is obviously a niche for people like me, and a lot of morning radio shows have started injecting humor into their programming.”
“Novelty tunes rarely make the Top 10,” Rizzo said. “But out of all the songs in the Hot 100, those novelty songs are the ones people remember. Purple People Eater, The Streak and Fish Heads never made the Top 10, but 20 years from now, those will be the songs people remember.”
Kelly Shatzer, lead guitarist “Guido” with Dr. Love and the Erogenous Zones, a College Station band that has been played on the program, said the show’s off-the-wall nature opens many creative avenues.
“Creatively, you get to do what you want,” Shatzer said. “Since we’re a comedy band, the Dr. Demento Show’s being comedy-oriented helps a lot too.
“The music on the show isn’t avante garde, but its stuff you can’t find anywhere else,” he said. “The music you hear on Dr. Demento is not afraid to take chances.”
One demented song, I’m Too Sexy, by the group Right Said Fred, debuted on the Dr. Demento Show in 1991, made the Billboard Top 10, and sold thousands of copies.
Most songs featured on the program are not as successful, but the unrestricted atmosphere of the show knows few, if any, bounds. Unusual songs by such diverse artists as Fred Astaire, the B-52’s and Lyle Lovett have found their way onto the program. The Dr. Demento Show attracts starts that wish to take advantage of the show’s “try anything” attitude.
“Brian Wilson (of the Beach Boys) had a new song (Smart Girls) that his record company didn’t like,” Dr. Demento said. “He wanted to get it out, so he called me, and we featured it on the program.
“There’s all sorts of celebrities that have made songs people haven’t heard of,” he said. “I have over 200,000 records in my collection, with songs by Katharine Hepburn, Mae West, Leonard Nimoy and even Muhammad Ali when he was known as Cassius Clay.”
Although many major celebrities have been played on the Dr. Demento Show, a high percentage of material featured on the show is from new artists, most of whom do not have a recording contract or any previous exposure. This policy of showcasing new talent alone makes the program something of a maverick in the radio business.
When Dr. Love and the Erogenous Zones first formed, they had no idea how to get their songs on the radio, Shatzer said. They had heard of the Dr. Demento Show, but it wasn’t until Pete Rizzo told them how to record a demo tape and how to submit it that they began to hope for national exposure.
The first song they sent in, Hefty, Hefty, Hefty, was rejected because its subject matter, overweight love, had been overdone, Shatzer said. It did, however, merit a personal call from Dr. Demento, and their second effort, Stamp Collecting, made the cut.
“It was great to hear our song on the radio,” he said. “We had no idea of what our chances were to get on, but knowing our song was being played nationwide was incredible.”
Even though his program offers national exposure, and several performers who got their start on the show--most notably “Weird Al” Yankovic--went on to sign recording contracts with major labels, the Doctor does not claim to be a career-maker.
“Being played on my show may help someone’s career move farther along, but major labels are not falling over themselves to sign the artists on my show,” he said. “That may be a shame, but that’s the way it is.
“First and foremost, I’m an entertainer, and my job is to entertain,” Dr. Demento said. “I love to help musicians out and am happy to play new music, but that’s not my purpose.”
Although a major recording contract would be nice, Shatzer said the chance to be heard by thousands of people across the country was a measure of success in itself.
“Dr. Demento provides an opportunity for anyone who makes an effort,” he said. “You can’t get that kind of chance with normal music.”
"And don’t forget to stay dee-mented!"
Now get over to the Dr. Love page and demand they post all the hilariously raunchy songs previously available only on their ultra-rare bootleg tape.
Now Playing: The Dr. Demento Show August 22-23, 1998
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