Dr. Demento (was Re: Early Xmas)

[Kevin Vahey]

He still has one major affiliate in Chicago (WLUP - The Loop) which
airs it at 11 PM Central on Sunday.

Last time I checked they were streaming it.

On 11/10/08, Paul B. Walker, Jr. <walkerbroadcasting@gmail.com> wrote:
> I think Dr Demento now charges affiliates straight out cash for the show.
>
> Paul Walker
>
>
> On Mon, Nov 10, 2008 at 4:49 PM, SteveOrdinetz <hykker@wildblue.net> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>>   Garrett Wollman <wollman@bimajority.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> > This is apparently a result of him leaving The House
>>> > That Norm Built
>>> > and switching to a different syndicator who is hated
>>> > by nearly
>>> > everyone in the business near as I can tell.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Wasn't it the other way around...WW1 dropping the good Doctor?  ISTR that
>> a
>> few years back many of the syndicators "cleaned house", dropping shows
>> that
>> had fairly low affiliate counts.  He's bounced between syndicators for
>> many
>> years, presumably for this very reason.  For a while I think he even
>> syndicated the show himself.
>>
>>
>>
>> At 05:54 PM 11/9/2008, Matthew Osborne wrote:
>>
>>
>>  However in the last 2 years they, as well as just
>>> about every other station I knew of that carried the
>>> show, dropped it.  The story I got was that it had
>>> switched syndicators again to this company called
>>> Thelonian Productions.  They came up with this
>>> "brilliant" idea that people would rather pay each
>>> week to hear the show streamed over the internet
>>> instead of hearing it on the radio.  So they
>>> eliminated the barter option for the radio show, and
>>> issued a directive to all remaining affiliates that
>>> the show was not to be streamed over the internet
>>> whatsoever (unless it was through their pay-by-week
>>> website).  Needless to say, most remaining affiliates
>>> dropped it because of these new terms.
>>>    In addition to WPYX dropping the show during this
>>> time, I also believe WKIT (100.3) Bangor ME dropped it
>>> for the same reason after carrying it for many years.
>>>
>>
>>
>> I'm wondering if a good part of Dr. Demento's declining affiliate count
>> has
>> as much to do with the show's content as anything.  Even in the early
>> 2000's, the show was really starting to get stale.  Add to that the fact
>> that his original audience (that discovered the show in the 70s/80s) is of
>> an age now that's not likely to be listening to the radio at 11pm on a
>> Sunday, and those who are probably aren't really into Spike Jones or some
>> increasingly lame Weird Al parody song.
>>
>>
>