Dr. Demento

• Posted By: Scott Harrison
• Posted On: 10:58 p.m. | June 29, 2011

June 30, 1988: Barret Eugene Hansen, a.k.a. Dr. Demento, poses for former Times staff photographer Anacleto Rapping at the Westwood One studios.

Dr. Demento’s weekly all-novelty-music radio show was carried by Westwood One Radio Network from 1978 to 1992.  This image accompanied a company profile published in the Los Angeles Times Business section on July 5, 1988.

In an earlier March 1, 1988, story, Times writer Thomas K. Arnold wrote about the Demento show:

If so, you’re probably suffering from a bad case of the Top 40 blues, a common malady resulting from too much exposure to the predictable drivel flooding the nation’s airwaves.

To get help, see the doctor — Dr. Demento, the self-proclaimed “purveyor of bad music and crazy comedy.”

For nearly 20 years, the Los Angeles deejay has been scouring the vinyl archives for such sure-fire antidotes as “Dead Puppies” by Ogden Edsl, “Masochism Tango” by Tom Lehrer and ‘They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!’ by Napoleon XIV.

Each week, upward of a million disenchanted Top 40 listeners around the country receive two-hour doses of outlandish alternatives to the current hit parade on “The Dr. Demento Show,” syndicated to 185 radio stations nationwide….

Today, Dr. Demento continues his show – Internet only — at his website . In 2009, the doctor was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Ok, I’ll admit to being a secret Demento fan. Although usually too busy for his weekly show, come Christmastime, no matter where I lived,  I tuned into his holiday show.