DJ Pee-Wee: KCRW Hires Herman for Radio Gig After His “Relentless” Online Campaign Succeeds
“We’ll leave you the keys under the mat.”
Pee Wee Herman, movie star and children’s television host, took to Twitter to “apply” for the job of on-air record jockey with KCRW Los Angeles – and it worked.
Herman sent KCRW a letter (from the looks of it, composed on a typewriter) on October 29th, asking to be considered for his own show on the station, which is an NPR affiliate located in Santa Monica, California, even saying that he would provide his own transportation to audition for them.
When the letter didn’t work, Herman took to Twitter a few days ago to get the station’s attention.
That was the start of Herman’s campaign to get an answer back, leading him to tweet a few minutes later that he was still awaiting an answer. Eventually (the next day), Anyel Zuberi Fields, the Content Director of Culture at KCRW, responded, saying the show was a go, and that Pee Wee could let himself in.
“For now,” this is a one-off show, a KCRW spokesman said, adding that this is the first time a fictional character has hosted a show for a favorite local radio station.
Herman composed a press release (probably) to spread the good news.
PEE-WEE HERMAN (ME!!)
GETS A RADIO SHOW ON KCRW!
Milky Way Galaxy, Planet Earth, Next to the Pacific Ocean, i.e. Santa Monica, CA (November 15, 2021) – Dear most esteemed journalists, it’s Pee-wee Herman here and I am going to be a DJ on a new radio show airing on KCRW! I’m so excited, it’s my very first one! I mailed them a letter, which got lost (apparently!), and then tagged them on Twitter and THEN they didn’t believe it was me until my biggest, bestest, most amazing fans called and called and jammed up their phone lines (hee hee)! Thank you fans because they are going to get me some donuts and leave me the keys to the studio while they are on vacation!
Join me and my friends Chairry, Magic Screen, Miss Yvonne, and some surprise special guests (HINT: they are super famous!), while we listen to some of the greatest music ever recorded!
This is all happening on Friday, November 26th, at 6pm PST, so you better get out your transistor radio and listen to my amazing voice!
Rather than dialing up the station via transistor radio, anyone outside of the station’s broadcast area can listen via their website. The show will be available on-demand for a week after the initial broadcast.
Actor Paul Reubens debuted his Pee-Wee Herman character in a 1981 HBO special. That led to a 1985 feature film, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. The family appeal of that film spawned the Pee-Wee’s Playhouse kids TV series, which ran on CBS from 1986 through 1991. The film also begat a sequel, Big Top Pee-Wee, in 1988, and Reubens resurrected the character for Pee-Wee’s Big Holiday on Netflix in 2016. Reubens will be the subject of a two-part documentary for HBO, produced by Uncut Gems filmmakers the Safdie Brothers.
