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Dr. DementoRadio Personality
Born: 2 April 1941 Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota Best known as: The veteran radio host who plays wacky novelty songs Name at birth: Barret Hansen Dr. Demento is the on-air name of Barry Hansen, the host of a syndicated radio show in the U.S. that features novelty and comedy records. Hansen studied music at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and at the University of California at Los Angeles. He first used the Dr. Demento moniker in 1970, in his early days as a Los Angeles disc jockey. By 1974 he was nationally syndicated, playing rare novelty songs from the past and present, from Spike Jones and Tom Lehrer to Frank Zappa and Weird Al Yankovic. (Dr. Demento is famous for giving Weird Al his first big break.) Hansen is also an avid record collector and expert on the history of recording who has produced several compilations, mostly for Rhino Records. Extra credit: Before he was a DJ, Hansen was a roadie for the rock band Canned Heat. Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved. More on Dr Demento from Infoplease:
- Dr. Demento - Biography of Dr. Demento, The veteran radio host who plays wacky novelty songs
- Tom Lehrer - Biography of Tom Lehrer, Composer of the satirical tune "The Vatican Rag"
- 'Weird Al' Yankovic - Biography of 'Weird Al' Yankovic, Singer of "I Lost on Jeopardy" and other parody tunes
- Jandek on Corwood - Starring Dr Demento, Jake Austen, Nils Bernstein, Ben Edmonds, Calvin Johnson
- Selected Biographies: D - Selected biographies of well-known people and fictional characters
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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