Novelty-music pioneer Barret “Dr. Demento” Hansen announced on his Web site yesterday that his radio show will be ending on the five stations that still carried it:
This was a very painful decision for the Doctor. … He really hates to let it go after almost 40 years … but he has come to agree with his manager and his family that it’s necessary. The broadcast has been losing money for some time.
Hearst News Service, meanwhile, announced that 89-year-old Helen Thomas is retiring as a White House correspondent, “effective immediately”:
Her decision came after her controversial comments about Israel and the Palestinians were captured on videotape and widely disseminated on the Internet.
The Dr. Demento Show, which helped launch the career of
“Weird Al” Yankovic
, will survive as a Web-only broadcast, according to the Dr. Demento site. Neither Hearst nor
Helen Thomas herself
addressed her future plans.
