DENNIS MITCHELL: Waking up Beatles fans

Disc jockey shares his love of all things to do with the band on weekly radio show

Top, disc jockey Dennis Mitchell, host of "Dennis Mitchell?s Breakfast With The Beatles" on 91.5 KUNV-FM in Las Vegas, admires a bass guitar signed by all of the Beatles members at the gift shop for Cirque du Soleil?s "Love" show at The Mirage. Mitchell has run the national radio program for more than 16 years and has a strong fan base. Right, Mitchell opens up about his show, which broadcasts every Saturday at 7 a.m. photos by jenna dosch/view Advertisement

Historically, being a radio disc jockey is considered a transitory job, and many people consider Las Vegas to be a transitory town. So, it's no small feat that Dennis Mitchell has managed to keep the locally produced "Dennis Mitchell's Breakfast With The Beatles" radio program running for 17 years, outlasting many of his fellow disc jockeys and a fair number of other formats and stations.

HOW IT STARTED

Mitchell, 53, started working on the show in 1991, just a few years after he moved to town. He didn't create the show; in fact, it was running here for three or four years before he came on board. It isn't necessarily a unique show -- according to Mitchell, when he started it, such radio shows were a standard in the industry. Many simply were an hour of Beatles music looped by a computer with no disc jockey presence. What makes "Dennis Mitchell's Breakfast With The Beatles" program so different is its longevity and his dedication.

"I just researched it, and there are only 13 'Breakfast With The Beatles' shows left in the country," Mitchell said. "The others are all localized where someone is putting in the time and effort to present a good Beatles show. The most famous is the L.A. one that started with Deirdre O'Donahue, who passed away, and now it's been taken over by Chris Carter of the band Dramarama. Occasionally, I get e-mails from Southern California with folks confusing the shows, so that's why I put my name at the front."

FINDING A HOME

For most of the program's life, it was on 96.3 KKLZ-FM, but a recent format change at the station left it temporarily without a home. It was quickly picked up by 91.5 KUNV-FM, which broadcasts from a location on Tropicana Avenue in the southeast. "So far, all the responses we've gotten about him have been positive," said David Reese, the station's general manager. "We plan to keep him for as long as we can."

Mitchell has syndicated the weekly hour-long show, which broadcasts locally at 7 a.m. on Saturdays, for the last five years, and it has become his full-time job.

"The Beatles show is up 50 markets, and we had a couple of very significant promotions, one of them being the 'Across the Universe' DVD. We got very involved in promoting that," he said. "We're also starting a subscription service where people with mobile phones can subscribe to, not my show, but a service of my show where I'll provide news about the Beatles, past interview clips and things that are exclusive to the club."

Mitchell currently is trying to get the show in Top 20 markets across the nation, which he feels are underserved for Beatles shows. He recently added Denver to the roster.

"That was really big," he said. "I'm on The Mountain (99.5 FM) in Denver, which is a very respected and heritage station."

He's also interested in moving beyond terrestrial, or land-based, radio.

"No one seems to be able to secure the rights to get a satellite Beatles channel. There isn't one, and people keep wondering why I'm not doing that, and I would like to know," Mitchell said. "I think it comes down to the four entities and what they will give their blessing to, and I don't think they're ready to make a pronouncement on that just yet."

THE SHOW

"Dennis Mitchell's Breakfast With The Beatles" is a mix of Beatles tracks, interviews, historical information and an assortment of other Beatles-related things. Mitchell keeps track of the extended Beatles family and circle to update his listeners. Both surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr have released new albums in the last year and a half, and Mitchell prominently featured some of the tracks.

He also plays something every week that isn't by the Beatles. "At the end of every show, I have a feature called 'The Odd Track Out,' which is not by the Beatles, but it's by somebody and it's about the Beatles. It could be a cover version or something about them, and I usually feature something by Julian or Sean (Lennon) when they have a new product out. Yoko (Ono), even, I've played her material. I've interviewed her a number of times on the program," Mitchell said.

He deeply loves doing the show and researching the Beatles, even if some of that research sometimes leads to dead ends. He tracked down the woman who started the infamous "Paul is dead" rumor, which began at a Southern Illinois University newspaper in September 1969.

"I spent hours tracking her down and finally found her," he said. "She was in Southern California selling pottery or something, and she just didn't want to talk about it."

Over his years in Las Vegas, Mitchell also has met people who were at the Beatles' only two Las Vegas concerts, when the band performed two shows at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Aug. 20, 1964.

"I had a woman call in who claimed she was the one who ran up and snipped a lock of Ringo's hair," he said. "She moved out of town before I could interview her."

A LOVE FOR THE MUSIC

Mitchell is old enough to have seen the second appearance of the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show." His father wouldn't let him watch the band -- considered radical for its time -- during the Beatles' first appearance, so he slipped over to a friend's house and caught the show when the band played again the following week.

"A lot of my audience is about my age, some older, some younger," Mitchell said, "but the most enthusiastic messages I get are from people who are (just getting into it) in their 20s, and (who are) like 'wow! I didn't know about this,' and 'not only is this music unbelievable, but this story you're telling me is even more so.' "

THE LAS VEGAS CONNECTION

Mitchell said he enjoyed seeing "Love" at The Mirage, but that he is even more fond of the music. "I was very fortunate and privileged to get to sit in on an advance listening session with Giles Martin and got to meet (his father) Sir George Martin when they were promoting the 'Love' CD; that was a huge thrill," he said. "(Giles) did tantalize us by saying there were a number of tracks that were done up and not included in either the show or the CD, so somewhere, they've done up some collage work that we haven't heard yet. They did mention 'Twist and Shout.' I'm sure we'll hear it eventually."

Mitchell has put polls on his Web site, www.bwtb.net, asking the classic Beatles fan question -- "Who is really the fifth Beatle?" Sir George Martin, who produced almost all of the Beatles' records, wins by a landslide every time the question is asked.

Of the local Beatles tribute shows, Mitchell calls the one performed by The Fab Four at the Sahara "one of the best in the world, as far as looking, sounding and the authenticity and creating excitement."

Mitchell also likes The Fab. He sometimes hosts the band's shows.

"These are five guys who don't wear costumes and don't try to look the part, and they don't have a John or a Paul, but they recreate the music perfectly," he said of The Fab.

Mitchell was involved in last year's Fest For Beatles Fans, which returns to The Mirage June 29 through July 1.

"It's the biggest Beatles convention in the world," he said. "I got to meet (pop duo) Peter (Asher) and Gordon (Waller), hang out with Pete Best (the Beatles' original drummer) and Denny Laine (co-founder of Wings with Paul McCartney). All these guys whose music I've loved and I've Idolized."

As for his favorite Beatles' song, Mitchell has a ready answer -- "The next one that I hear."