This history is how I see the facts and much of it is my opinion. If you disagree, or see it another way, please feel free to post in the forums or e-mail me directly.

Captain Wayne

In the beginning...

January 5, 2005 (1 member, me) - Originally named www.TheDoctorDementoShow.com, the site is started with over 1,200 Dr. Demento Shows online at three different bitrates (for high-speed broadband, low-speed broadband and dial-up) and free streaming for all! I wanted to create a place where we could promote Dr. Demento, build a community of fans and where anyone who remembers an old song that the Doctor played could find it quickly and easily, listen to it for free and could discuss it with other fans. The sharing of the audio had been sanctioned by Dr. Demento on the air in the past where he encouraged fans to trade the old shows.

Yes, in the beginning the sky was blue, the birds were singing - it was a wonderful life after all!

But, anything destined to be loved is also destined to be hated.

What's in a name?

May 17, 2005 (9,158 members) - I received a rather heated call from Arthyr Chadbourne of Talonian Productions (Dr. Demento's Producer) asking what gave me the right to use Doctor Demento's name on the website? I explained that I did research and did not find the name copywritten or trademarked and as a public figure I had the right to use it. After changing his tone a bit he asked if I would please stop using the name. I agreed since I didn't want to start a battle with the Doctor - I created the site to help promote him!

At this point I also confirmed that it was okay for me to continue streaming the old shows to the public. Arthyr was okay with it, but wasn't sure of any legal ramifications. However, he asked that we no longer allow streaming of full shows since they would like to do that in the future. He also asked me to prepare a business proposal for a similar site for Dr. Demento. Tim Ryan and I prepared what I think was a grand proposal which would have been a great benefit to Dr. Demento and Talonian Productions. After a lot of back and forth I was told that we couldn't work together due to a "contractual obligation" with another individual. Was I baited? Well, they got a free business plan out of me - and then proceeded to ignore most of the parts which could bring them success. Oh well, their loss.

Anyway, I decided to rename the site to www.madmusic.com since it was still going to be an archive of every known, publicly-available show. The new name took effect on May 31, 2005.

Good-Bye LAMP & Hello Dual-Xeon

September 1, 2005 (13,193 members) - After months of seeking a solution to some webserver's slow-downs (a problem with MySQL) I decided to move away from the 'open source' LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) platform a go full-bore using Microsoft's Windows Server 2003, Microsoft SQL 2000 and Microsoft ASP.NET and a new Dual-Xeon Server. Yeah, it sounds like a bunch of techo-mumbo-jumbo but what it meant was a total re-write of the entire site and transfer of all 22 tables in the database to a different system. Hundreds of hours (and about $2,000.00 in hardware) later, on 9/1/05 the new server went online with a new more modern look!

Thou Shalt NOT!

October 1, 2005 (14,276 members) - I got another phone call from Arthyr Chadbourne (Dr. Demento's Producer) advising me to remove all Dr. Demento shows from the server and to no longer stream ANY of them, even in part. He said it was an 'friendly warning' that Westwood One was about to start a legal suit against me for streaming their property. As it turns out, Dr. Demento and Talonian don't own the rights to any of the shows produced during the Westwood One years (1978-1987) and their 'permission' was invalid. He also asked me to stop streaming the shows Talonian did own because they wanted to try to build their own pay-only site.

Harrumph!

He also asked me to remove all images of Dr. Demento from the site. Yeah, we wouldn't want to promote Dr. Demento for free on our site, huh? Stupid. But I agreed. What a dark day that was. I was in a depression for weeks. After what I had hoped would be Tim and I building a marvelous site for Dr. Demento, we were shown the door and our business plan trashed -and right after I spent $2,000.00 on the new server.

"Captain Wayne's" Mad Music Hour!

October 22, 2005 (14,638 members) - After forcing myself to get out of that depression I decided to take the site in a new direction - a show of it's own! To coin a name used by Tom Rockwell of Sudden Death, "Fine, I'll Do It Myself!"

I joined ASCAP, BMI and SESAC and started producing my own 1-hour weekly podcast playing your favorite Mad Music and Silly Stuff which could also be streamed online - FOR FREE! We called it The Mad Music Hour!

After Dr. Demento posted a letter on his website (read it here) where he referred to us as an "extensive Internet source of pirated Dr. Demento Shows", the members here suggested I be called "Captain Wayne" - as in "The Dread Pirate, Captain Wayne". The legend was born, I got my own ship - but I never even got to burn and pillage! (bummer)

Yes, even though we had their permission they said publicly that we were pirating their shows.

Double-Harrumph!

However, I didn't know what I was getting into. Sure, I had thousands of records and CDs in my collection, but each show took upwards of 10 hours to produce (pulling songs, counting votes, organizing the playlist, writing the script, recording the voice tracks, mixing the show, upload the MP3s, updating the databases, sheesh!). But, the listeners liked it so I made a commitment to keep producing it as long as I could!

Two is twice as good as one, right?

January 7, 2006 (15,043 members) - After producing the first 10 shows I wasn't happy. No, I was happy with the show but I wasn't able to play enough songs for the listeners so I battened-down the hatches and increased it to a 2-hour weekly show! However it may have been too much too soon as I spent nearly 3 weeks in bed sick at the end of January and was unable to produce the 2/4 and 2/11 shows. However I snapped back and the show went on!

Throw another Captain on the Barbie

June 2, 2006 (17,969 members) - Alex McMurray of "Alex and Colin" asked their station 97.9 FM in Melbourne, Australia, if they could include The Mad Music Show once a month as part of their overnight weekend show. The station agreed and on June 2, 2006 The Mad Music Show was heard for the first time "On The Air"! Then by popular demand the show began weekly broadcasts on September 9, 2006!

"For amber waves of grain"

October 12, 2006 (18,554 members) - So I get this e-mail right, it's from a member of the website who lives in Nebraska and happens to work for a college radio station. He tells me he played "Airplanes & Air Travel" show I had done like 10 days earlier for his boss at the station. The guy loved it so much that he immediately put the show on their schedule for Mondays and Thursdays AT 4:00 PM IN THE AFTERNOON!

What?

The "evening rush"? The time when people actually listen to radio? What was this guy thinking? I'll tell you what... Genius - pure and simple. Starting October 12th we were now being heard on the air in the United States!

Wh, Wh, What?

November 7, 2006 (19,472 members) - Any fan of demented music will probably recognize the name David Tanny. Dave had been running the website "Dave's Fun Stuff" since 1999 and "DFSX Radio" (a 24-hour streaming web-radio station) for years. In early November 2006 Dave approached me and asked if he could add "The Best of The Mad Music Show" as a weekly addition to his schedule, 3 hours a week.

I was dumbfounded. I was humbled. Here I'm struggling to just make a show that doesn't suck like a super-massive black hole and someone like Dave asks if he can play my best? Do I even have something in the realm of "best"? Well, he thought so and so we added a third outlet for the show! Check out DSFX Radio at www.dfsxradio.com - it doesn't suck either!

What have you done now?

April 1, 2007 (26,586 members) - After a lot of consideration I decided to see what I could do to help the artists more. So, I decided to give the place a face-lift and put in an MP3 Store! But, I wanted to do more for the users too so I also created their "MadSpaces" - a page where every user can have their own blog, forum, photos, shared-files, friends, etc. There's no telling where this will lead! "could be meat... could be cake... it looks like meatcake!" - George Carlin

Jace McLain (of the band Nuclear Bubble Wrap) and a long-time Mad Music Archive member, helped me sign-up artists to sell their MP3s on the site and by opening day we had A Halo Called Fred, Aaron Ackerson, Actual Size, Barry & the Bookbinders, Bob Ricci, Carla Ulbrich, Dino-Mike, Girlband, Hot Waffles, Lemon Demon, Nuclear Bubble Wrap, Raymond & Scum, Robert Lund, Steve Goodie, Sudden Death, Throwing Toasters and Worm Quartet!

Life is a Grand Adventure... isn't it?

As you can see, not much has been posted here since 2007 - but believe me, much has happened! We'll get caught up here shortly... right now we're working on a new secret project that you're going to like!

Captain Wayne