Rodney Bingenheimer
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Rodney Bingenheimer, born December 15, in Mountain View, California, is a radio disc jockey on a well-known Los Angeles rock station, KROQ. He has been a fixture in rock and roll circles since the mid-1960s, when he was a double for Davy Jones on the TV series The Monkees.
Bingenheimer is one of the very few DJs on commercial radio in Los Angeles who has autonomy over what he plays. As a result, he has been the first to play many up-and-coming bands, including The Runaways, Blondie, The Ramones, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Oasis, The Donnas, No Doubt, Coldplay, Dramarama and others. Many bands, such as Lippy's Garden meekly knocked on the parking lot door of KROQ's old studio in Pasadena and handed Rodney a copy of their music. If he found a track he liked such as Agent Orange's 1979 hit "Bloodstains," he would play that song within the hour. In 1978 guitarist Eddie Vincent and drummer Tad of The Hollywood Squares gave Rodney a copy of their just released 45 single at his studio door. Within minutes Bingenheimer introduced the mysterious group to his wide listening audience and played "Hillside Strangler." The song promptly charted in Record World's New Wave Hit Parade. Although his show has now been relegated to a midnight to 3 a.m. slot on Sunday evenings, it still has a fair amount of power to make or break new artists in some genres.
Bingenheimer was also responsible for three Rodney on the ROQ compilation albums on Posh Boy Records.
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[edit] History
In the early 1970s he owned a nightclub called Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, located on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, near his various Curson Street apartments of the past 30 years. It was a favorite hangout of many rock stars and introduced much of Los Angeles to glam rock. When the club closed in 1976, it was thought that Bingenheimer was so disenchanted with the stylized dance genre that he abruptly abandoned his "English Disco," so as not to be associated with the popular movement. The real reason was less provocative, as Bingenheimer would later clarify: "English Disco didn't close down because of the oncoming "disco" movement...it really closed down because of a disagreement among the owners."
Due to his far reaching connections within the burgeoning Hollywood music scene, Bingenheimer was given a show on the then relatively unknown Pasadena FM and AM radio station KROQ, called Rodney on the Roq, which began in 1976 and continues to the present day, albeit with some changes in time slots.
[edit] Cultural appearances
- He is the subject of the film Mayor of the Sunset Strip directed by George Hickenlooper and produced by Chris Carter.
- Was briefly a member of The Chocolate Watchband, playing only one gig at the San Jose Fair.
- Was a live-in publicist for Sonny and Cher in the 1960s.
- Rodney, and slides from his English Disco can be seen in Dramarama's 1991 video for "Haven't Got a Clue".
- Appeared as an extra in the 1969 flop Paint Your Wagon.
- His name is referenced in the song "Come Back Down" by Nerf Herder.
- There is a song about Rodney on the album Permanent Damage by the girl group The GTOs.
- NOFX references his show in the song "13 Stitches" off of the album "War on Errorism."
- Bingenheimer has a booth named for him at Canter's deli in Los Angeles.
- Recorded the introduction to The Barclay Hour, a weekly radio show with host Sheri Barclay on CJSR 88.5FM in Edmonton, Alberta Canada.
- After years of grassroots support, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided to acknowledge his contribution to music and radio with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame which was presented on March 9, 2007 [1]. This is the 2,330th star awarded, and it is in front of the Knitting Factory nightclub at 7021 Hollywood Blvd. [2]
- As a token of their appreciation for his promotion of the band, the members of Blondie served as Bingenheimer's backing band in a limited release single of "Little G.T.O." credited with being performed by "Rodney and The Brunettes."
- Bingenheimer will be portrayed by J. P. Manoux in the Darby Crash biopic What We Do Is Secret.
- Rodney made a brief cameo appearance in the Cheech & Chong film Up in Smoke released in 1978, during the Rock Fight sequence.
- Bingenheimer is seen driving The Ramones limo in the film Rock 'n' Roll High School.
- He appeared as a stand in for Davey Jones in The Monkees television series.
[edit] Quotes
- "Is this Godhead, or what?"
- "It's all happening!"
- "I'm Ageless!"
- "Phil Spector's music is 'Permanent' Wave"!
