After more than four decades at KROQ/106.7 FM, DJ Rodney Bingenheimer delivered his final “Rodney on the ROQ” show early Monday morning.
Via his Facebook page, Bingenheimer announced that he was being let go after 40 years on the air at KROQ on Thursday, May 25 and the station issued a statement the following Friday, thanking him for his service.
“We will forever be grateful for the indelible mark that ‘Rodney on the ROQ’ has left on this station, our listeners, and the alt-rock music scene,” said Kevin Weatherly, senior vice president of programming for CBS Radio and vice president of programming for CBS Radio Los Angeles. “Rodney helped shape KROQ into the great station it is today and we wish him nothing but great success in the future.”
Since it was the last for the 69-year-old DJ, he was granted an extra hour and filled his midnight to 4 a.m. slot with new music from up-and-coming bands, classic and cover songs (check out the full playlist below) and he played the voicemails that various artists had left him upon hearing of his departure from the station. A few artists even stayed up late (or got up early), just to call in live for a quick “hello and farewell.”
The show began as it always has, with the unofficial theme song, “This Could Be the Night,” by the Modern Folk Quartet. Singer and noted photographer Henry Diltz, the man who sang on the track, which was written by Harry Nilsson and Phil Spector in the mid-’60s, called in to thank Bingenheimer for his contributions to rock ‘n’ roll music.
“It’s been a great privilege to be singing your theme song for so many nights and this is finally the night, right?” Diltz asked rhetorically.
That got a laugh out of Bingenheimer, who throughout the show seemed to be in good spirits, taking moments to speak directly to the audience that has followed him throughout his 40-year radio career in Los Angeles.
“I want to say thank you to all of my listeners,” he said. “People who have been with me at KROQ – all the DJs and interns here at KROQ – who have been nice to me, and my listeners that stayed up all night to hear my show.”
Fellow KROQ DJ, Kat Corbett even posted a photo of she and Bingenheimer on her social media sites and wished him well.
“Rodney Bingenheimer has been on the same radio station for over 40 years,” she wrote. “No one does that. Most of us are lucky to get four minutes. I’m proud to be part of his radio family.”
Bingenheimer started at KROQ during the summer of 1976 and helped launch the careers of artists like Van Halen, the Bangles, the Go-Go’s, the Runaways, Cheap Trick, Blondie, No Doubt and many, many more.
“You’ve had an amazing 40 year career there on KROQ, in fact, God, 40 years ago, that’s a long time,” singer Joan Jett of the Runaways and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts said in a message. “I met you at your club, Rodney’s English Disco, and, man, you turned me on to so much amazing music which inspired me to form a band, the Runaways. You supported me in the Runaways and the Blackhearts and you played our music and I want to say thank you so much for all the great music through the years.”
Bingenheimer played a clip from an interview with Van Halen in 1977, in which a young David Lee Roth boasts about the band selling out two nights and performing in front of 3,500 people, all thanks to Bingenheimer playing the group’s songs on the show. He was the first to play the demo version of the band’s “Runnin’ with the Devil.” It was a rare treat since that demo was actually produced by Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss.
“You got us several jobs Rodney,” Roth said in the interview. “We couldn’t have done it without you.”
Several others echoed a similar sentiment including the Bangles’ Susanna Hoffs and Annette Zilinskas, who called in live together to chat about how they basically stalked Bingenheimer back in the day, found out his home phone number and called him. Hoffs said she finally tracked him down out at a L.A. nightclub and handed him their album.
“You said ‘I like the record a lot,’” Hoffs recalled to Bingenheimer. “You said that you thought we sounded like ‘The Mamas and the Mamas.’ You were picking up on the harmonies that we were doing.”
Bingenheimer was one of the first DJs to spin records by Blondie back in the mid-to-late ‘70s and all of these years later, the band hasn’t forgotten it.
“I wouldn’t be here without you and I’m so glad that I know you and met you,” Blondie vocalist Debbie Harry said in a recorded message. “You helped us bring Blondie to the public ear and thank you so much. I love you like crazy and I wish you all the best for your future and I can’t thank you enough.”
Blondie drummer Clem Burke left Bingenheimer a message as well.
“Just wanted to say a big thank you,” he said. “Thank you for all the great music you played over the years. You’re a tremendous asset to the music scene out here in L.A. You’re a great DJ, a great guy and peace and love to you and hope to hear you back on the air very shortly.”
Throughout the years Bingenheimer continued to showcase up-and-coming artists on his show, exposing bands to a wider audience, including newer acts such as the Dollyrots, the Regretts and the Atomics. Kelly Ogden and Luis Cabezas of the Dollyrots called in as Bingenheimer played their new song “Dance Like a Maniac” and Lydia Night of the Regrettes checked in to chat about new music and Bingenheimer played two Regrettes songs, “Lacy Loo” and a cover of Dion and the Belmonts’ “Teenager in Love.”
Bingenheimer ended the show as he always has, by letting people know where they can go see some of the artists he had just played live and he assured listeners by adding “I’m not retiring, you’ll be hearing more of me.”
He closed out his final show fittingly with “Porpoise Song” by the Monkees, with its repetitive “Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye …”
Rodney Bingenherimer’s final Rodney on the Roq playlist, June 5, 2017
Tiger’s Jaw: “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 Wan’t My Caveman”
Van Halen: “Runnin’ 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 featuring Tony Valentino: “You’re Never Gonna Stop Me”
Skating Polly: “Louder in Outer Space”
Sløtface: “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 Its Head”
The Regrettes: “Lacy Loo”
Siouxsie and the Banshees: “Hong Kong Garden”
The Regrettes: “Teenager in Love” (Dion and the Belmonts cover)
The Tearaways: “Name That Tune”
The Jesus & Mary Chain: “Surfin’ USA” (Beach Boys cover)
Travis: “Coming Around”
The Moon Kids: “Something Spectacular”
Joan Jett & The Blackhearts: “Bad Reputation”
The Röxy Suicide: “Radio Lies”
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: “Sloop John B” (Beach Boys cover)
Fire in the Radio: “New Air”
Reverend Horton Heat: “Let Me Teach You How to Eat”
The Routes: “No Permanence”
Elvis Costello: “Watching the Detectives”
Here Kitty Kitty: “Lift Off”
Satellite Sky: “Who Do You Love?”
Fiona Silver: “Housewife”
The Postmarks: “7-11” (Ramones cover)
Silvia Black: “I Wanna Be Sedated” (Ramones cover)
The Atomics: “Voulez Vous”
Ninet: “Superstar”
The Donnas: “School’s Out” (Alice Cooper cover)
The Atomics: “Let’s Live For Today” (The Grass Roots cover)
Artbreak: “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” (Frank Sinatra cover)
Al Jardine: “P.T. Cruiser”
All We Are “Human”
Death Valley Girls: “Love Spell”
Fuzzy: “Girl Don’t Tell Me” (Beach Boys cover)
The Fontaines: “Mercury”
The Monkees: “Porpoise Song”