The Real Don Steele
Here’s the guy who started it all for me…a raving madman that I would listen to religiously after school. Don was the king of 93KHJ in the sixties, and with good reason…even with the short amount of time Bill Drake gave his Boss Jocks to yak, Don made every second count…then he had his dance party show on Channel 9 and seeing The Real Don Steele in action was even more amazing! Seeing him throw kids into the middle of the dance floor while Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels’ “Devil With A Blue Dress On” wailed was pure heaven!
Doctor Demento
In 1971 Los Angeles, NOTHING was more dangerous than Dr. Demento. Every Sunday night, Doctor D would play the most amazing comedy records every recorded. Oh sure, you might have just thought that he was playing goofy records. What he was actually doing was opening the door of musical exploration…never again would I have to be satisfied with standard radio fare…No, now I had a whole NEW world of crap to explore…Pico & Sepulveda, Shaving Cream, Derby Town and Bounce Your Boobies…my mom was so proud…
Rodney Bingenheimer
Rodney…the only Radio Hero of mine that I have actually met. Every weekend I would listen to Rodney on the then-new KROQ, and every week I would have some new bit of Rock and Roll magic that I would have to find. His vocal skills are not the reason I listened…I listen to Rodney because he loved Rock and Roll more than anybody else I had ever heard on the radio. And he played it all: Rockabilly, Sixties Punk, Sixties Pop, Seventies Heavy Metal, Punk Rock, Ska, and of course Girls Girls Girls! Back in the late 1970’s, Rodney made a personal appearance at Noah’s Ark, an alcohol-free teen disco in my hometown of Long Beach. Of course I was there, and that’s when I first met him. I listened to him spin amazing stuff for about two hours while I worked up the nerve to say hello to him.
I knew Rodney loved the ladies, and I didn’t want to take up too much of his time, but I just had to tell him how much I dug his show. When I did, he smiled and said thanks, and I felt much cooler. I didn’t see him again until 1999 at Club Makeup, and when I did, I think I said just about the same thing I said last time I met him. Yeah, I get star-struck around Rodney, but then he is one of the big reasons I love radio.
HOLLYWOOD FINALLY DOES RIGHT AND AWARDS RODNEY
A STAR ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME! CONGRATULATIONS RODNEY! OTHER RADIO HEROES The OIDAR Wavelength
Oidar logo courtesy Brent Turner
CLICK HERE AND DOWNLOAD THE OIDAR WAVELENGTH CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!
Blend a 1970’s Top 40 radio show with Philip K. Dick and The Firesign Theater and you just might end up with one of my favorite radio programs from the early seventies…The OIDAR Wavelength! A typical song would be playing on your typical 1970’s radio station, when all of a sudden, it would sound like your radio was tuning up and down the dial, and then up and down the shortwave dial!
Then, the soothing voice of Programmer #9 would appear and explain that you were listening to a radio station from the future that happened to play “oldies” from the 20th century! Between songs, there were news stories from the future, usually with an ironic twist ending.
For a young radio geek like me, this was mind blowing! I even joined the OIDAR Wavelength fanclub, and they sent me a computer card from the future, with holes punched into it and everything. It kinda looked like the image above, not exactly. Hell, I even wrote a report on the Oidar Wavelength in Jr. High! Even got an “A”!