Influential “Rodney on the ROQ” cancelled after 41 years on air

“I would say Rodney Bingenheimer has probably made more bands famous than any other DJ in America,” said Chris Carter, host of the long-running “Breakfast With The Beatles”


Last show will air June 5th

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When Rodney Bingenheimer made his debut as a DJ on KROQ/106.7 FM in the summer of 1976, playing the music he loved no matter how offbeat or obscure, he opened every show with his unofficial theme song, “This Could Be The Night” by the Modern Folk Quartet.

“Because every time I went there I thought this could be my last show,” Bingenheimer, 69, explained on Friday. “I played really way out music, all kinds of weird songs. Things from England. Of course a lot of local bands. So I always thought this could be the night.”

And for 41 years it never was that night – until now.

Earlier this week, Bingenheimer says KROQ management called him to a meeting where he was told his long-running show, “Rodney on the ROQ,” was over. His farewell broadcast will air from 12 a.m. to 3 a.m. on Monday, June 5.

“They said they were going through a lot of changes, a lot of cutbacks, and they’ve got new management people coming in,” Bingenheimer said. “I didn’t leave the show on my own, but they were very good to me the whole time I was there.”

But while he’s much too humble to ever say, or even think it, it’s really KROQ, its listeners and the scores of bands that Bingenheimer discovered over four decades on the air that owe him a heartfelt thanks for all that he’s contributed.

“I would say Rodney Bingenheimer has probably made more bands famous than any other DJ in America,” said Chris Carter, host of the long-running “Breakfast With The Beatles” program which airs Monday through Friday on the Beatles Channel on Sirius satellite radio. “A combination of his good ears, and the amount of time he’s been on the radio.

“The Ramones and Blondie, you can go right down the line,” Carter says. “If you talk to the Bangles they’ll tell you, ‘Oh, Rodney, well, we sent him our cassette …’ . Duran Duran, they were big all over the world but in America no one was playing these guys.”

Carter knows this first-hand, of course, because Bingenheimer also discovered Dramarama, the alternative rock group Carter co-founded, and was the first to play its iconic “Anything, Anything (I’ll Give You),” the 1985 single KROQ still plays religiously to this day.

“He’s the reason I have a career,” Carter says. “We were just a band from New Jersey who put an import record out on New Rose records in France,” he says. “And because we had Edie Sedgwick on the cover Rodney made the purchase at Poo-Bah Records in Pasadena and started playing ‘Anything, Anything.'”

He came to KROQ after a career that included stints as a music columnist for Go! magazine in the late ’60s, a few years as a Los Angeles field rep for Mercury Records, through which he met and embarked on a life-long friendship with David Bowie, and as the operator of an influential club, Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco, which in the early and mid-’70s introduced L.A. to the glitter and glam rock sounds coming out of England at the time.

continues @ link:
Influential KROQ DJ Rodney Bingenheimer talks about being taken off the air – Orange County Register

 

Talk about the end of an era.... sad to hear.

 

That sucks - I'd never listen to that station again if I was in it's range which I'm not. Were the ratings bad or is there some other reason they dumped him I wonder?

I read his book a few years ago and enjoyed it. Hope he rebounds well somehow.

 

Paging Angry Samoans...

 

He gave Van Halen their first radio airplay in 1977, before their debut album had been released.

 

Hopefully Rodney will resurface on virtual radio, and build a wider listenership there with a more appreciative crowd.

 

The Yank version of John Peel. Had amazing taste. A good run. Mad respect!

 

He would fit in on Little Steven's Underground Garage channel on Sirius XM.

 

That's not cool! I listened regularly in the mid/late 90's. Called one time to make a request (some Germs). Rodney answered, I just about a s*** my pants! He was nice. This was around the time of one of his anniversaries and he said he was gonna play some of the old punk stuff during his upcoming shows, which he did.

I left L.A. in 2000 and visited last year whilst also getting an earful of KROQ for the first time in 16 years. Aside from one or two songs it was the same damn playlist! I sang "Do you have the time?" right before it actually started. LMAO.

 

That would be a very good fit, methinks.

 

Brian Wilson did a nice song for his show:

 

The documentary "Mayor Of Sunset Strip" was a blast. Rodney is a legend.

 

I sent Rodney my band's prog-rock songs and he never played them.

 

Here is the actual radio debut of Van Halen on KROQ in December 1976:

 

^ That photo must be from 1978, the year Laurie on the right joined The Runaways.

 

KROQs been going down the crapper for years. Surprised he's lasted this long, to be honest.

 

No Doubt.
Literally!

 

Little guy with a rock n roll heart.
Monkees, David Bowie spring to mind.

 

Listened to the last couple of hours of Rodney's final show, loved that he played the 'Porpoise Song' by the Monkees as his final song. He'll be missed.

 

That's certainly an appropriate song to finish up with.

 

Did they at least give him a case of Diet Rite Cola as a retirement gift?

 

One of the last iconic vestiges of the old Sunset Strip scene...gone.
Rodney is a great and innovative DJ that never got enough respect.

 

KROQ was very lucky to have Rodney, from Day One. I recommend "Mayor of Sunset Strip" to any fan of Rodney's or of rock and roll history.

 

Heck, he should've walked when they banished him to the Sunday night graveyard shift. But I guess he doesn't have a lot else going on these days...

 

Cool to hear Brian Wilson & Debbie Harry start the show.
Even on his last show, he's promoting new bands! Thanks Rodney!


The last show June 5, 2017

Tigers Jaws “Follows”
The Woolly Bandits “Hard To Forget You”
The Fontaines “Mercury”
Lola Blanc “Real Boy”
Honeychain “Going Through Your Purse”
The Dollyrots “Dance Like A Maniac”
The Pandoras “I Want My Caveman”
The First Van Halen Radio Interview
Van Halen “Running With The Devil”
The Suburbs “Hey Muse”
Single By Sunday “It Is What It Is”
The Vaccines “Teenage Icon”
The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”
Black Flag “TV Party”
Blondie “My Monster”
Beck Black with Tony Valentino “You’re Never Gonna Stop Me”
Skating Polly “Louder In Outer Space”
Slotface “Magazine”
The Jesus and Mary Chain “Just Like Honey”
The Bangles “Getting Out of Hand”
Dog Party “Round N Round”
The Go-Go’s “The Whole World Lost It’s Head”
The Regrets “Lacey Lou”
Siouxsie And The Banshees “Hong Kong Garden”
The Regrets “Teenager In Love”
The Tearaways “Name That Tune”
The Jesus and Mary Chain “Surfin USA”
Travis “Coming Around”
The Moon Kids “Something Spectacular”
Joan Jett and The Blackhearts “Bad Reputation”
The Roxy Suicide “Radio Lies”
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes “Sloop John B”
Fire In The Radio “New Air”
Rev Horton Heat “Let Me Teach You How to Eat”
The Routes “No Permanence”
Elvis Costello Interview
Elvis Costello “Watching The Detectives”
Hear Kitty Kitty “Liftoff”
Satellite Sky “Who Do You Love?”
Fiona Silver “Housewife”
The Postmarks “7-11”
Silvia Black “I Wanna Be Sedated”
The Atomics “Voulez Vous”
Ninet “Superstar”
The Donnas “Schools Out”
The Atomics “Let’s Live For Today”
Art Break “Will To Survive”
Roxy Music “Virginia Plain”
St. Tropez “I Wanna Live in St. Tropez”
Cotton Mather “Girl With A Blue Guitar”
The Jigsaw Seen “The Best is Yet To Come”
Al Jardin “PT Cruiser”
All We Are “Human”
Death Valley Girls “Love Spell”
Fuzzy “Girl Don’t Tell Me”
The Fontaines “Mercury”
The Monkeys “Porpoise Song”