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Dr. Demento is the stage name of Barret ("Barry") Hansen, who has made a successful career as a radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs. He created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and is still on the air as of 2005. He has also released many compilations of music featured on his show.
To some people, he is best known as the man who brought rock parodist
Weird Al Yankovic to national attention.
Hansen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1941, the son of an amateur pianist, and 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." He attended Reed College, where he wrote a thesis on Wagnerian opera. He has developed a particular interest in the roots of rock 'n' roll in R&B and country music, and has written about it in many magazine articles, liner notes and two chapters on early R&B for
The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll.
Musicians that Dr. Demento regularly features include:
- Johnny Cash
- Captain Chaos
- Da Yoopers
- Tony Goldmark
- Rolf Harris
- Spike Jones
- Jungle Judy
- The Great LukeSki
- Art Paul Schlosser
- Loudon Wainwright III
- Wild Man Fischer
- Wesley Willis
- Whimsical Will
- "Weird Al" Yankovic
- The Frantics
and a slew of other memorable characters.
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