Uploaded February 2013 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Baby Boomers Tribute "Sign of the Times" So Cal San Fernando Valley Relics Facebook
Nudies Leo's Stereo Van Nuys Drive-in Pickwick Levitz The Broadway Capri Theatre 50's Cafe White Horse Inn Henry's Tacos North Hollywood Panorama City
Baby Boomers Tribute "Sign of the Times" So Cal San Fernando Valley Relics Facebook
Nudies Leo's Stereo Van Nuys Drive-in Pickwick Levitz The Broadway Capri Theatre 50's Cafe White Horse Inn Henry's Tacos North Hollywood Panorama City





![Dr. Demento Burning Down the Cartoon House Bob Rumbaugh & Basket Case
Radio Comedy Dr. Demento Burning Down the Cartoon House Bob Rumbaugh & Basket Case
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 was promoted to Program Director of KRRC in 1960 and General Manager in 1961. He wrote his senior thesis on Alban Bergs opera Wozzeck and Claude Debussys opera Pelléas et Mélisande. He graduated in 1963, and later studied at UCLA, from which he earned a masters degree in folklore and ethnomusicology.
After earning his masters degree, he lived for two years in a big house on a hill in Topanga Canyon with members of the rock band Spirit. He also served briefly as a roadie for Spirit, and for Canned Heat, before being hired as an A&R man, or talent scout, 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 has been married since 1983 to Sue Hansen, a former training officer at the Union Pacific railroad. Hansen describes himself as an armchair railfan, and has occasionally drawn from his extensive collection of railroad-related songs on his show.
Hansen has a longtime 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.
[edit] The Dr. Demento radio show
Hansen created the persona of Dr. Demento in 1970 while working at Pasadena station KPPC-FM.[1] The positive listener response to the offbeat novelties that Hansen included in his rock oldies show led to his eventually turning it into an all-novelty show. At the end of 1971, he moved to KMET in Los Angeles. From 197283, he performed a four hour live show on KMET.
His weekly show went into national syndication in a two-hour all-novelty format in 1974[1], and during 197892 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Network. The Westwood One period marked the height of the shows national popularity; it was carried in most major radio markets, airing mainly on FM rock stations, usually late on Sunday evenings. From 1992 to 2000, the show was syndicated by On the Radio Broadcasting. Between the mid-seventies and the mid-nineties, Hansen continued to do live broadcasts on KMET and other California stations, in addition to his weekly taped syndicated show. He also made occasional television appearances, on such shows as Bobbys World and The Simpsons, and on the Barnes and Barnes music video for Fish Heads. The weekly show is still being produced as of 2010, syndicated by Hansens own company, Talonian Productions.
The syndicated show normally starts with an hour of randomly chosen records and listener requests. The second hour is mostly devoted to a specific theme (cars, sports, pets, romance, movies, etc.) with a final segment taken up by a Funny Five countdown of the most requested songs (in 2008, the weekly Funny Five was replaced by a monthly Top Ten in order to allow for longer special topic segments). There are also shows devoted to holidays and seasonal events, with the most important being the Halloween and Christmas shows, because of the large number of novelty records those holidays have inspired. For most of the syndicated shows history, Hansen has done 52 original weekly shows every year; repeat broadcasts are rare.
The programs opening theme is an instrumental version of Pico and Sepulveda recorded for the show by The Roto Rooter Good Time Christmas Band. The same Los Angeles area group recorded some of the musical teasers used on the show, such as Its time for number one.... The other countdown intros come from Barstow by the American maverick composer Harry Partch. Hansens opening line, Wind up your radios, refers to the rare 78rpm novelty records from the days of wind-up phonographs that he has featured on the show, especially in its early years. The closing theme is Cheerio, Cherry Lips, Cheerio, a 1929 vocal by Scrappy Lambert (recording under the name Gordon Wallace), which Hansen tells listeners he discovered in a thrift shop. The Doctor closes each show with Stay demented! Dr. Demento Burning Down the Cartoon House Bob Rumbaugh & Basket Case](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ch3p1gMO7eE/mqdefault.jpg)




