Dr. Demento Radio Show Ends - Now Internet Only

[anotherguyTN]

I'm surprised there was no mention of this earlier, but I found this on the Columbus Board: http://boards.radio-info.com/smf/index.php?topic=169157.msg1455680#msg1455680

Apparently the last Dr. Demento show on terrestrial radio was last weekend. New shows are continuing on the website at http://www.drdemento.com/online.html . Also, here's an article on the end of the show: http://chicagoradioandmedia.com/news/640-dr-demento-ends-his-40-year-old-radio-show

I used to listen to Dr. Demento from KJBR 101.9 in Jonesboro, AR in the 80's. I haven't heard the show in years as the list affiliates had dwindled to just six. The show has been on the website, but it requires joining the online club for $14.95 or paying $2.00 a show. That's something I can't afford to do.

As much as I've liked listening to the Doctor over the years I don't see how charging to listen online is a step in the right direction.

 

[LKellerIII]

Maybe the 'Doctor' just wants to go into semi-retirement. The show began in 1970 on "underground" FM station KPPC-FM in Pasadena. That's 40 years ago - a pretty good run, if you ask me. I haven't listened in years, but he must have played the same bizarre songs hundreds of times each by now.

 

[michael hagerty]

Maybe the 'Doctor' just wants to go into semi-retirement. The show began in 1970 on "underground" FM station KPPC-FM in Pasadena. That's 40 years ago - a pretty good run, if you ask me. I haven't listened in years, but he must have played the same bizarre songs hundreds of times each by now.

The articles linked above tell the story. Barry either wants or needs the money, and he can no longer get it through syndication. The number of stations willing to pay for his show has dropped to zero, partly because of Barry's demands for high license fees and desirable weekend timeslots, and the stations can't find the advertisers to make it work.

That means it would be very unlikely for Barry to succeed in the more common syndication model today, barter, where he'd sell the advertising time within the show to national sponsors, keep the money and offer the programming to stations for free. The more stations clearing the show, the more people hearing it, the more he could charge those national advertisers.

First hurdle: He'd have to re-build his station base in order to get any money. Second hurdle: In my experience, if professional salespeople can't sell a show, the producer/talent of the show usually do worse trying it themselves.

So...if radio stations don't see the value, and neither do advertisers, the only shot he's got left is to hope rabid fans will pay 2 bucks a week (less if they buy a membership). If he can average a thousand of those folks a week (big if), he's grossing six figures....and he can hope that being online will put him on the radar of a younger audience that doesn't listen to radio.

If retirement were an option, I think he'd have taken it. This is going to be a lot of work. I wish him well.

 

[Madmansam]

I think Dr. Demento's downfall came when he left Westwood One in 1992. Eventually, I know that his show would end like it did, but he wouldn't have lost as many affiliates as it did when he left. I first listened to his show in 1975 on KJOY-1280 in Stockton, CA. It only lasted a year on that station, however I was able to find his show over the years on various radio stations until KSEG-96.9 Sacramento dropped his show in 1997. And I also believe that his show was blacked out on the remaining stations online broadcasts.

 

[TheBigA]

Let's face it: The show's an aquired taste. Either you get it or you don't. Those who get it are probably about his age, which isn't good for traditional advertising. Couple that with the disappearance of radio stations that might have an interest in feature programming. Rock stations aren't breaking format much anymore. Plus there's also a whole lot less novelty music being made these days. All in all, not a good combination of factors. He might look into the non-commercial world, but no money there.

 

[LKellerIII]

Let's face it: The show's an aquired taste. Either you get it or you don't. Those who get it are probably about his age, which isn't good for traditional advertising. Couple that with the disappearance of radio stations that might have an interest in feature programming. Rock stations aren't breaking format much anymore. Plus there's also a whole lot less novelty music being made these days. All in all, not a good combination of factors. He might look into the non-commercial world, but no money there.

Yes - that's the problem. I was a fan when his show premiered on KPPC back in the stone age. But even then, the novelty (of the show) wore off pretty quickly. If I caught Demento once or twice a year during the subsequent decade (and we're talking the 70s, here), that was enough.

 

[KeithE4]

I thought he went off the air ages ago. I think the last time I heard his show was in 1994 or '95. It was deja vu 1979 all over again - same songs, same artists (Weird Al, Freberg, semi-risque R&B stuff from the '40s & '50s).

 

[Corky Marlowe]

With radio shows and stations that play mass-appeal music having money problems these days, it's tough to fathom a show that deals in a niche as small as novelty songs being able to survive. And as someone else pointed out, who's doing any of this stuff today besides Weird Al or Bob Rivers?

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

Back in the old days, radio was live with phonograph records and running syndicated programs gave the jock a break. This is the real reason most shows were aired on record, tape, or CD.

Just the facts. Today, these programs are extra work to feed into
the automation. In other words they create extra work. In the old days, they meant less work. It's the change in technology that has
been the downfall of syndicated programing.

I owned a station that played Dr Demento in Indianapolis for more than
10 years. It was quite popular. I wish him well.

 

[TheBigA]

It's the change in technology that has
been the downfall of syndicated programing.

I keep reading that syndicated programming is now replacing live and local. Ryan Seacrest, Delilah, and lots of others don't appear to be hurting. I suspect Demento's problem is unique to his particular show.

 

[Flying-Dutchman]

It's the change in technology that has
been the downfall of syndicated programing.

I keep reading that syndicated programming is now replacing live and local. Ryan Seacrest, Delilah, and lots of others don't appear to be hurting. I suspect Demento's problem is unique to his particular show.

These programs are fed by satellite. The automation system simply
switches them on. But, there is not so much need for satellite fed
music programs now days either. Many station have their own music
and announcements on hard drive today. This is why many satellite
music services are free when they once charged $1,000 per month.

Many stations that once were happy to take syndicated shows are now saying no. We can't pin the demise of these shows on the Dr. It's
technology.

 

[anotherguyTN]

According to an article linked on the Columbus board (again) the radio show has been given a short extension with a college station in Amarillo, TX continuing to carry it through the Summer:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gF1F_pO4aSoN0amGMLl-Um9QNkLwD9GLLHT80

 

[snarfdude]

It's the change in technology that has
been the downfall of syndicated programing.

I keep reading that syndicated programming is now replacing live and local. Ryan Seacrest, Delilah, and lots of others don't appear to be hurting. I suspect Demento's problem is unique to his particular show.

I would agree. As mentioned here already, it's very niche oriented, and for commerical radio, which you have to appeal to the masses to make $$$$, not to mention tight formats, it's very hard to have Demento's show work for any station.

I do a similar show, playing "The wacky warped and weird" every week, mainly it's all about having fun, I didn't expect to make it commerical. I have a few LPFM's and internet streams. I'm very happy to have that.

I find demento a bit dull myself....but maybe that's me, and he's done his schtick for decades, who am I to argue?

 

[KeithE4]

I find demento a bit dull myself....but maybe that's me, and he's done his schtick for decades, who am I to argue?

Trouble is, it's the same shtick and the same records that he's been playing for 40 years. His act is old and tired, and there comes a time to hang it up.

 

[snarfdude]

I find demento a bit dull myself....but maybe that's me, and he's done his schtick for decades, who am I to argue?

Trouble is, it's the same shtick and the same records that he's been playing for 40 years. His act is old and tired, and there comes a time to hang it up.

I would agree with that....even within schtick, and especially any repetitive format, you have to do something to keep it fresh and interesting....and if you can keep it fun, people will be interested. 2 hours is a bit long, maybe 1 hour might have had a chance.

 

[snarfdude]

It's the change in technology that has
been the downfall of syndicated programing.

I keep reading that syndicated programming is now replacing live and local. Ryan Seacrest, Delilah, and lots of others don't appear to be hurting. I suspect Demento's problem is unique to his particular show.

These programs are fed by satellite. The automation system simply
switches them on. But, there is not so much need for satellite fed
music programs now days either. Many station have their own music
and announcements on hard drive today. This is why many satellite
music services are free when they once charged $1,000 per month.

Many stations that once were happy to take syndicated shows are now saying no. We can't pin the demise of these shows on the Dr. It's
technology.

Up here in canada, satellite music formats never took hold as radio automation gave programmers local control of music since the early 1990s, including VT capability. I'm still amazed that they exist south of the border. We have a canadian edit of delilah to account for the required 35% canadian content, but it's a daily mp3 download of all 5 hours. John Tesh does well up here as it's just the VT, programmers can program the music locally.

 

[MattParker]

He's charging way too much to hear his show now.

His syndicator was pitching the to alternative stations. Seem like they'd have done better was oldies stations.

They really never did much to promote the show; seems more like they tried to hide it. At one point they would not let the doctor post a station list on his website.

 

[Mikey Radio]

I used to listen to his show each Sunday night from 10 - Midnight on a local Top 40. I used to sneak my little 9V battery powered radio into bed with me so I could listen. After dropping him for a number of years, that same station revived his show in 1991 or 92, but they were sold within a few months, switched formats and his show was once again dropped in that market.

One of the things I'd also read was that, toward the end when Demento was still only heard on about a dozen stations, he was refusing to allow any of them to air his show on the internet, only over the air. Something to do with him not getting the rights fees for the internet broadcasts or not getting the money for the commercials aired on their internet feed...Somethin'. Rather than paying him more $$ or going to the trouble of feeding his program over the air and another set of programming to the internet listeners for those few hours, most all of them chose to drop him.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I enjoyed the show. I happened to live in an area where it was on a small rock station. After the rock station changed to beautiful music when it moved to Charlotte, the co-owned AM kept airing it, though the signal was kind of iffy where I lived. The last time I heard it was on AM 1000 in Chicago back when I was still DXing at night.

 

[Mikey Radio]

I enjoyed his show as well when I first began listening to it back in about 1985 or 86. It'd be interesting to have a listen to the Doctor's latest work (as others have stated, his shows are now available via his website only, for a fee) to see if it's changed or progressed at all. If he's still using the same novelty songs he was back then and regurgitating them each week, he'd most likely appeal to a fairly narrow audience in 2021, unless he could find listeners who are new to and appreciative of his novelty songs and shtick.