Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), better known as Dr. Demento, is a radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograph records to the present.

He created the persona in 1970 while working at Los Angeles station KPPC-FM. After Hansen played "Transfusion" by Nervous Norvus on the radio, DJ Steven Clean said that Hansen had to be "demented" to play that. Thereafter, the name stuck. His weekly show went into syndication in 1974 and from 1978 to 1992 was syndicated by the Westwood One Radio Network. Broadcast syndication of the show ended on June 6, 2010, but the show continues to be produced weekly in an online version.

Hansen has a degree in ethnomusicology, and has written magazine articles and liner notes on recording artists outside of the novelty genre. He is credited with introducing new generations of listeners to artists of the early and middle twentieth century whom they may not have otherwise discovered, such as Haywire Mac, Spike Jones, Benny Bell, Yogi Yorgesson, and Tom Lehrer, as well as with bringing parodist "Weird Al" Yankovic to national attention.

Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, recording engineer, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed album covers. Zappa produced almost all of the more than 60 albums he released with the band The Mothers of Invention and as a solo artist. While in his teens, he acquired a taste for percussion-based avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse and 1950s rhythm and blues music. He began writing classical music in high school, while at the same time playing drums in rhythm and blues bands; he later switched to electric guitar.

He was a self-taught composer and performer, and his diverse musical influences led him to create music that was often impossible to categorize. His 1966 debut album with The Mothers of Invention, Freak Out!, combined songs in conventional rock and roll format with collective improvisations and studio-generated sound collages. His later albums shared this eclectic and experimental approach, irrespective of whether the fundamental format was one of rock, jazz or classical. His lyrics—often humorously—reflected his iconoclastic view of established social and political processes, structures and movements. He was a strident critic of mainstream education and organized religion, and a forthright and passionate advocate for freedom of speech, self-education, political participation and the abolition of censorship.

Frank Gallop (June 20, 1900, Boston, Massachusetts – May 5, 1988, New York City) was an American radio and television personality.

Frank Gallop went into broadcasting by chance. Born and raised in Boston's Back Bay and a graduate of Dorchester High School, he was working for an investment firm in 1934 when a client convinced him to become the replacement for his current announcer. Gallop's new-found job lasted only a short time, as the client decided to re-hire the announcer he had grown tired of. Gallop then made a decision to quit the investment banking business based on the economic conditions of the time; there appeared to be more investment consultants than clients in need of their services. His brief previous announcing experience was enough to earn him a spot at WEEI. Gallop worked for the station for ten months before moving to New York with his friend Ed Herlihy to do network announcing.

Having failed the NBC network announcer audition on his first try, Gallop was extremely eager to be hired by the other major network at the time, CBS, as he did not want to return to Boston. When he got the job, Gallop was told his starting salary would be $45 per week. He then expressed concern that it wasn't a "round" figure. When asked to explain, Gallop swallowed hard and said he believed $50 was a "round" sum, getting his first raise before actually starting with the network.

Frederick Kenneth Blassie (February 8, 1918 – June 2, 2003), better known as "Classy" Freddie Blassie, was an American professional wrestling villain and manager born in St. Louis, Missouri. Renowned as "The Fashion Plate of Professional Wrestling", He was also a one-time NWA Georgia Heavyweight Champion (later known as the NWA Wildside Heavyweight Championship), and a one-time NWA Florida Heavyweight Champion.

Blassie's parents, Jacob and Anna (née Sind), immigrated to the United States from Germany prior to the start of World War I, settling in St. Louis. Fred was an only child, which he claimed was because he weighed 15 pounds when he was born and his mother didn't want to go through childbirth again. His father was abusive and an alcoholic, and Fred often had to take refuge with his grandparents whenever Jacob would beat his mother. His parents continually separated, then reunited. At the age of 13, after his father hit his mother again, Fred threatened to attack his father with a baseball bat, but didn't do it and stayed with his aunt for six months until his mother asked him to return home. Throughout his life, Fred didn't touch alcohol after seeing what kind of person it turned his father into.