Dear Friends (radio program)

Dear Friends was a live radio program performed by the Firesign Theatre on KPFK radio in Los Angeles. Twenty-one episodes aired between September 16, 1970 and February 17, 1971. These programs were recorded and later edited into one-hour shows distributed on 12" LPs for national syndication. In January 1972, the group released a Dear Friends double album, a compilation of what they considered to be the best segments from the radio program. The original broadcasts were released in 2010 on the group's Duke of Madness Motors DVD compilation. Another album distilled from the Duke of Madness Motors set, Dope Humor of the Seventies, which also collected material from the Dear Friends radio shows, was released in 2020.

Episode #1 – Live At The Ash Grove
Originally aired live on KPFK on November 15, 1970

Tracks – side one
Intros
 * 1) P.B. Intros Freddy Earth
 * 2) Vegetables
 * 3) Dr. Memory
 * 4) Animals
 * 5) Tongue Exercises (P.P.)
 * 6) Religious Items
 * 7) Whales
 * 8) Rap On Cartoon Men Dagwood & Jigs
 * 9) Segue > Drunks
 * 10) Arms
 * 11) Letter From Tokyo
 * 12) American Koan
 * 13) Egyptians (P.B.)
 * 14) Skeleton
 * 15) Pirates
 * 16) F.T. Anniversary
 * 17) Joke Contest
 * 18) P.B.'S Close
 * 19) Last Chord Of Music

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Shaky Open
 * 2) Music Break (Silhouettes)
 * 3) Applause
 * 4) P.P. Bit
 * 5) Hole Earth Estates
 * 6) Teenie Weenies
 * 7) Animals
 * 8) Vaudeville Act
 * 9) Georgia Island Story
 * 10) Don G. O'vanni Spot (40 Great Unclaimed Melodies)
 * 11) Thanksgiving Piece (The P.A. Encore)
 * 12) Leary-Duck
 * 13) President's Names Rap
 * 14) Thank You

Episode #2 – Power Is Trouble and Trouble's Not Funny
Originally aired live on KPFK on November 1, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Satie Opening
 * 2) Animals In Army
 * 3) Glaubner's Disease
 * 4) Dr. Spitz and Dog
 * 5) Commerce
 * 6) Dying Pig
 * 7) Party Lecture
 * 8) Dr. Memory Show
 * 9) Citizen X Reviews Firesign Theatre Album
 * 10) Giant Toad
 * 11) Mark Time
 * 12) Mission Inn
 * 13) Early Farming
 * 14) P.A. – P.B. Coal
 * 15) D.O. Coal
 * 16) Coal Improv
 * 17) Moon Worms
 * 18) Amoeba To Oil
 * 19) P.P. Speech

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Duck
 * 2) Winter
 * 3) BBQ Chanters
 * 4) Police Records
 * 5) Leg O Crow
 * 6) "What's So Funny" Jokes
 * 7) Willie Sutton
 * 8) Morning T.V. Guide
 * 9) D.O. Book Report
 * 10) P.B. -P.A. On Book Reports
 * 11) Questions For Kids
 * 12) Presidents
 * 13) Names
 * 14) P.P. Announcement
 * 15) Harmonica Solo
 * 16) More Kids Questions
 * 17) News Items
 * 18) P.A. Reading
 * 19) D.O. Whole Earth Poem
 * 20) Indian Land
 * 21) Power
 * 22) Fanfare

Episode #3 – I Could Always Shoot Him With The Camera
Originally aired live on KPFK on October 4, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Equipment Trouble
 * 2) Japanese Miniature T.V.S
 * 3) Surrogate Mothers
 * 4) Hair
 * 5) Drunks
 * 6) President and Committee (Live From The Senate Bar)
 * 7) The Greening Of America Discussion

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Orson Welles Bit
 * 2) Punter's Girls
 * 3) Sound Effects War
 * 4) Fresh Chef
 * 5) Sex Jail
 * 6) Sex Movies
 * 7) W.C. Fields
 * 8) FDR And Hitler
 * 9) P.P.'S The Mutt and Smutt Show

Episode #4 – Somebody Put A Mickey In The Ground Zero
Originally aired live on KPFK on October 11, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Yale Distorts Tape – 8:15
 * 2) Conk's Coal Ad
 * 3) Rocket Scientists's Lunch
 * 4) "Chucko"
 * 5) News Items: Sophia Loren, Fires, Agnew
 * 6) Famous Comic's School
 * 7) Child And Models At Mott's Miniatures
 * 8) Can You Stop This

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Hitler
 * 2) Opinion Research
 * 3) The Chinchilla Show
 * 4) Real America Items
 * 5) Mixville Rocket News
 * 6) Spud Commercial
 * 7) Disaster Reports
 * 8) Rocket-Fags
 * 9) Us Census
 * 10) Crabs(?)
 * 11) Writer's School Spot
 * 12) Mutt and Smutt
 * 13) Music Bit
 * 14) The Compromise ATC
 * 15) Warning
 * 16) Blast-Off

Episode #5 – All We Have To Fear Is Me
Originally aired live on KPFK on December 9, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) D.O. Intro
 * 2) Toad Away Hymn
 * 3) Book Of Punter
 * 4) Sermonizing
 * 5) "They Heard Us Talking"
 * 6) Pudy Valee
 * 7) President's Songs
 * 8) Lomesome Beet Song(O:14)
 * 9) Navy Dress Regs
 * 10) Heaves Of Hoove
 * 11) P.P. As FBI Agent
 * 12) P.B. Kicks On Nix
 * 13) Music Break
 * 14) D.O. – Ad Billboard
 * 15) P.P. Zen Story
 * 16) P.B. Andalusion Dog
 * 17) P.P. Poem
 * 18) Ufos
 * 19) Sodom And Jubalee
 * 20) 2 Idiots For Peace
 * 21) Pauser's Manifesto
 * 22) Dr. Tim In Algeria
 * 23) Youthful Folly

Tracks – side two

 * 1) D.O. Luie's Ad
 * 2) P.P. Pavlov's Dog
 * 3) Pooche's Beer Hall
 * 4) Afternoon T.V. Guide
 * 5) Watching T.V.
 * 6) I Am An American
 * 7) Luci and Desi
 * 8) C.B. Demille Movie
 * 9) Beer Ads
 * 10) Music Break
 * 11) Food Ad
 * 12) Hoove's Dogs
 * 13) Lavender Hoove
 * 14) Fish War
 * 15) Weather Report
 * 16) Carozzi Pot Garden
 * 17) Beaner Dealers
 * 18) Gym Hs
 * 19) Fod On T.V.
 * 20) Nightinjail JHS
 * 21) G. Canyon Suite
 * 22) Fudd
 * 23) Johnny
 * 24) Marvin Ratman
 * 25) Recruiting For FBI
 * 26) Zen Story
 * 27) Squash Outro

Episode #6 – Deputy Dan Will Find Us No Matter Where We Go
Originally aired live on KPFK on November 8, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Savings and Loan Spot
 * 2) Beer Drinking
 * 3) Tri-City Spot
 * 4) Education
 * 5) Cock Teasing
 * 6) Bears and Boars
 * 7) Baliol Bros. Spot
 * 8) Mudslide
 * 9) The F(L)Ag
 * 10) Police
 * 11) Aliens Spot
 * 12) Hanging Athenian Gardens
 * 13) Criogenics – Foster Freeze
 * 14) Rabbits
 * 15) Lucky Duck
 * 16) News Items
 * 17) Plane Bombings
 * 18) Boys Books
 * 19) Chicanos
 * 20) Baliol
 * 21) Deputy Dan
 * 22) Police Car
 * 23) Accident
 * 24) Amos and Andy

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Baliol Spot
 * 2) G. Washington Letter
 * 3) Dr. Memory
 * 4) Baliol
 * 5) P.B.-Operation Bootstrap
 * 6) Fuse Of Doom
 * 7) Baliol Spot
 * 8) Tongue Exercises

Episode #7 – Was There A Cow On The Moon?
Originally aired live on KPFK on November 29, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Barn Dance Opening
 * 2) Peter's Birthday
 * 3) P.P.'S German
 * 4) Movie Score
 * 5) Mars–Marsh
 * 6) Motorcycle
 * 7) Bird-Dog Song
 * 8) Dik-Dik Story
 * 9) Pears-Paris
 * 10) Tarzan
 * 11) Copper Smelting
 * 12) Sex Problems
 * 13) T.V. Guide Girl
 * 14) P.P.'S "Bluff" Piece
 * 15) Pain Pills
 * 16) Brautigan Poem
 * 17) Golgotha Discussion
 * 18) Basket Boys
 * War
 * 1) GI Bills

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Businessman's Lunch
 * 2) Three Questions
 * 3) Homosexuals And Doctors
 * 4) Copper Smelting
 * 5) Badges
 * 6) Armegeddon
 * 7) War With The Cows
 * 8) "Hell"
 * 9) Message In Rocket Sequence
 * 10) Rose In Spanish Harlem Music Trip
 * 11) Men On The Moon
 * 12) Film-Makers
 * 13) Horse-Players
 * 14) Silence
 * 15) 2-Minute Light
 * 16) Money
 * 17) 45 Seconds To Go...

Episode #8 – Being On Radio Is More Fun Than Watching TV
side one originally aired live on KPFK on October 18, 1970 side two originally aired live on KPFK on December 6, 1970

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Columbia School Of Broadcasting
 * 2) Women
 * 3) City Of The Future
 * 4) Sermon
 * 5) "Can't Say That On The Air"
 * 6) Women's Shoes
 * 7) Steel Hat
 * 8) Dr. I.Q.'S Announcing School
 * 9) The Curbfront Shysters
 * 10) Pluto Water
 * 11) Census Taking
 * 12) Serman Continues
 * 13) A Letter Disappears
 * 14) Hitler's Umlaut
 * 15) Discipline
 * 16) P.B. Spills The Coffee
 * 17) Playback Of Spill
 * 18) Sermon Continued
 * 19) Lick-A-Boot

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Negros A Go Go
 * 2) P.A.'S T.V. Guide
 * 3) Winnie The Pooh – "Eeyore's Birthday"

Episode #9 – Dr. Memory's Laff-A-While News
Originally aired live on KPFK on January 10, 1971

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Good News Items
 * 2) News Opening
 * 3) Production Code
 * 4) Bear Story
 * 5) Cops Broadcasting
 * 6) Hippie Words
 * 7) Newscasters
 * 8) Offensive Words
 * 9) More Cops
 * 10) Old Postman
 * 11) Jackie Globenfelt Story
 * 12) Selma W. Selma Song
 * 13) The Morgans
 * 14) Gump Door(?)
 * 15) Rocket
 * 16) Mixville
 * 17) Bringing Up Father
 * 18) Baxter Ward On Fiji
 * 19) Famous Speakers School
 * 20) Car Wash Ad
 * 21) Dr. Memory

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Fiji Islanders
 * 2) Welsh Accents
 * 3) Prohibited Words
 * 4) Exercises
 * 5) Greaso Practice
 * 6) Cigarette Ads
 * 7) Ecology
 * 8) Army Recruiting
 * 9) Garden Club News
 * 10) French Mother Goose Song And Story
 * 11) Production Code Standards
 * 12) Russian Book
 * 13) Children's Zoo
 * 14) Disappearance Of Animals
 * 15) P.P.'S Grandfather's Letter
 * 16) Mixville Rocket
 * 17) George Put-Put News Ad
 * 18) Dr.Memory

Episode #10 – All Nite Images
Originally aired live on KPFK on January 17, 1971

Tracks – side one

 * 1) P.B.'S Voice Prints Of The 60s Spot
 * 2) P.P. On Concerts
 * 3) Sleep Researchers
 * 4) Truck Stop Cafe'
 * 5) Cell Meeting
 * 6) Mental Illness Statistics
 * 7) Fighter Ace
 * 8) Dall Show
 * 9) Bottomless Hot Dog Stand
 * 10) Professional Digester
 * 11) Glutton's Church
 * 12) The Pause
 * 13) Trains
 * 14) Roman Games Trip
 * 15) "Doing His Thing" Bit
 * 16) P.P.'S Ed's Restaurant Spot
 * 17) Broadcaster's School
 * 18) Jew In Palm Springs
 * 19) Yale And Bimidji
 * 20) Business Meeting: Priests
 * 21) Help The Hoove Fund
 * 22) Dialset Story
 * 23) Negro Records
 * 24) Duke Of Madness Motors Spot

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Latin-Rocket Trip
 * 2) First Buffalo
 * 3) Extinct Animals
 * 4) Ike Speech
 * 5) State Of The Union Race
 * 6) Big Bomb Scare
 * 7) "The Young Polluters"
 * 8) Hoove T.V. Series
 * 9) Sex Mailer
 * 10) And Dirty Pix
 * 11) Sex On T.V.
 * 12) Review Of "Trash"
 * 13) Homosexuals
 * 14) The Talking Porpoise
 * 15) Blind Kids Sniff Pot
 * 16) Lady Driver
 * 17) Russian Driver
 * 18) Kidnappers
 * 19) Reminisences Of T.F.T.
 * 20) Alchemy
 * 21) Summer Police & Doctors Festival
 * 22) Outdoor Sales
 * 23) Beaners
 * 24) Crucified TV
 * 25) Truck Stop Reprise

Episode #11 – Welcome To Microorganism State Park
Originally aired live on KPFK on January 24, 1971

Tracks – side one

 * 1) Jiver Intro
 * 2) Melon Mtn. Opening
 * 3) Technical Breakdown
 * 4) Popularization Of Art
 * 5) Saigon Yale Club
 * 6) Jewish Times Story
 * 7) Kung Fu Ad
 * 8) Dr. Dog As Brickbreaker
 * 9) Pet Pills At Fair
 * 10) Kid Roundup
 * 11) Kids In The Street
 * 12) Gravity On Reds
 * 13) Merc. In Fish
 * 14) Pres. Punter & Color T.V.S
 * 15) Rabbit Pellets
 * 16) Beaners Scoring Weed
 * 17) Cow Trip (The Cows Are Not Afraid Of The Dr.)
 * 18) Dr. Whiplash Show
 * 19) Bazerko Lounge Spot
 * 20) Dear Nominee Set
 * 21) P.B. In Holiday Inns
 * 22) Sheep
 * 23) 4th Record – Jim & Spade Nixon
 * 24) Dr. Memory Set

Tracks – side two

 * 1) Jefferson And The Mason (From the October 18, 1971 live broadcast)
 * 2) P.P. On Sheep
 * 3) D.O.'S Ecology Pitch
 * 4) Tenner's Guide
 * 5) Whiskey Law
 * 6) Voices, Forest Growing
 * 7) Witches Brew
 * 8) Conquistador Club
 * 9) Animals You Won't See
 * 10) Earthworms
 * 11) (Etc. A Mix Of All These To:)
 * 12) Forest Fire Stories
 * 13) "We'll Never Forget"
 * 14) Clock Striking
 * 15) Rent Parties
 * 16) Chinese-Spades
 * 17) Robert Kelly Reading
 * 18) Talk About The Poem
 * 19) Dirty Words
 * 20) Marijuana Scare – Replay
 * 21) 5 Min Light
 * 22) Hollow Trees
 * 23) Where Trees Come From & What They Are Made Of
 * 24) Russian Poem To Sleep
 * 25) Dr. Memory Tag

Episode #12 – Is This The Machine That Answers No "N" Yes?
Side one originally aired live on KPFK on February 3, 1971 and October 18, 1970. Side two originally aired live on KPFK on February 17, 1971.

Tracks – side one

 * 1) "Dead Air"
 * 2) P.B.'S Mick Jagger Story – 1:20
 * 3) Fanfare
 * 4) Old Men-Vegetables
 * 5) Rain Falling & Plants Growing
 * 6) Judgement Of The Birds
 * 7) Arm Band Plays "Rudolph"
 * 8) Ascap Financial Report
 * 9) Agnew
 * 10) Plastique
 * 11) "La Condicion Humaine"
 * 12) Propane Car
 * 13) Bing Crosby On Teens
 * 14) Youth-Sex Games On Parade
 * 15) "Paranoia" Piece
 * 16) P.B.'S Andalusion Dog Poem
 * 17) P.P.'S Statement Of Principals
 * 18) P.A.'S Monte Cristo
 * 19) D.O.'S Swing Music (From the February 17, 1971 live broadcast)
 * 20) Station Break (The Firesign Theatre's "Single" release – side A)

Tracks – side two

 * 1) "Rainin" Music Out
 * 2) Cabin Rest. Spot
 * 3) Yes and No Machine
 * 4) Quotes And Questions
 * 5) Ben Hur
 * 6) Women In Wwii
 * 7) New Money
 * 8) Monastery In White House
 * 9) Elkheart Trains
 * 10) Laugh Track
 * 11) Stanford Train Trip
 * 12) Computors On Acid
 * 13) Subway Tour Guide
 * 14) "Mr. Prominent"
 * 15) Bundles
 * 16) Forward Into The Past (The Firesign Theatre's "Single" release – side B)
 * 17) Termites Eat Steel
 * 18) US Seal
 * 19) Old Cars
 * 20) Statistics
 * 21) Earthquake Farewell

Issues and reissues
These shows were distributed to radio stations on 12 inch, white label LPs.

Selected parts of these shows were released by the group on the Columbia Records label as the double album Dear Friends in 1972. Other parts were released — without mention of their origin — as parts of the group's Just Folks... A Firesign Chat album on Butterfly Records in 1977.

Between June 15 and September 28, 2010, New York radio station WFMU (with the cooperation of the Firesign Theatre) aired a 16-week series of archival shows which included all but episodes 1, 8, 10, and 12 of the syndicated Dear Friends in chronological order along with an unsyndicated Dear Friends episode broadcast on September 16, 1970 ("Big Brother Is Washing") and episodes of their other KPFK series, The Firesign Theatre Radio Hour Hour and Let's Eat. As of October 2010, the individual programs from this run are available for streaming via the WFMU website, and a selection of the shows rebroadcast by the station are also available via iTunes.