Charles McPhee
Charles Lambert McPhee (April 24, 1962 – May 8, 2011)[1] was a researcher, author, and nationally syndicated talk radio host. On his call-in program, "The Dream Doctor Show", which began in 2000, he interpreted dreams for people.[2] He was a nephew of best-selling author John McPhee.
Life and career
McPhee had worked in the dream and sleep disorder fields for over 25 years.
Known as the Dream Doctor, he was the author of three books, an online column, and a magazine column. He hosted the nationally syndicated Dream Doctor
McPhee had been the Director of the Sleep Apnea Patient Treatment Program at the Sleep Disorders Center of Santa Barbara, California. He had also worked as a coordinator of the Sleep Disorders Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, and sleep research laboratory at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland.[6]
McPhee died at the age of forty nine, about five years after being diagnosed with
McPhee has been cited in numerous newspaper and magazine articles about dreams and dream interpretation, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to appearing as a dream expert on CNN, he was the host of the popular Dream Doctor Radio Show, heard weeknights for six years across the country, during which he interpreted thousands of dreams.
Publications
- Stop Sleeping Through Your Dreams: A Guide to Awakening Consciousness During Dream Sleep (Random House, New York, NY: 2002)
- Ask the Dream Doctor: An A to Z Guide to Deciphering the Hidden Symbols of Your Dreams (Henry Holt and Co., New York, NY: 1996)
- The Dream Doctor Dream Diary (Springhill Syndication LLC, Encino, CA: 2004)
Radio show
McPhee hosted the popular Dream Doctor Radio Show for six years. The show started on KRUZ-FM (HOT AC) in Santa Barbara, California, in 2000. In two years, the show became the #1 show in the market for its time slot for adults aged 25–54. In October 2002,
The radio stations that ran more dream interpretations did markedly better than those that did not. The show did well, but audience research revealed that there was a problem with the show. The audience far preferred listening to McPhee and his dream interpretations than to the music. In 2004, McPhee's manager, George Oliva, started a radio syndication company, Springhill Syndication, to distribute a version of the show without music. He moved McPhee back to California and launched the new three-hour talk show on November 11, 2004. The program was picked up by newstalk, talk, and even music stations in markets that included Houston, Minneapolis, Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, West Palm Beach, Monterrey, and Hartford. A one-minute feature devoted to the meaning of the most common dream symbols played in a number of markets, including New York and Los Angeles. A weekend show expanded the reach of the Dream Doctor to markets that included San Francisco and Hartford.
In March 2006, McPhee became aware of problems with his voice. After a number of tests, he was diagnosed with probable
Web site
McPhee launched www.dreamdoctor.com in 1997. It was among the first sites on the Internet devoted entirely to providing credible information about dreams and sleep. Through it, he had amassed the largest database of dreams in the world. With it, he broke their code. Taking a scientific approach to dream interpretation and understanding, he used the database to arrive at his findings about dreams, all of which are evidenced in his writings, radio show, and web site. He concluded that everyone dreams in the same language of dream symbols, regardless of age, gender, geography, culture, religion, or native language. As all languages evolve and are influenced by contextual realities ranging from personal experience to regionalisms, so, contended McPhee, does the language of dreams. He added that what makes every dream unique and specific to the dreamer is the waking life background that generated the dream.
Due to his illness and its increasingly severe physical limitations, McPhee focused his professional efforts on his web site. In August 2009, the site was upgraded. In addition to thousands of free pages of information about dreams and sleep, it now gives users access to audio and video clips of McPhee as well as a unique dream interpretation tool called the Dream Wizard.
Awards and reviews
- Internet Top Ten Site (June 19, 1998)
- "What's New ... On the Web" Yahoopick of the Day (June 4, 1998)
- Cool Stuff on the Net Award (June 14, 1998)
- Eye on the Web's Daily Top Site (June 19, 1998)
- Dummies Daily, Web after Five (June 29, 1998)
- ZDTVInternet Tonight (October 8, 1998)
References
- ^ Pershing, Ben (May 12, 2011). "'Dream Doctor' Charles McPhee dies at 49". The Washington Post.
- ^ Margalit Fox (May 14, 2011). "Charles McPhee, Host of 'Dream Doctor' on Radio, Dies at 49". The New York Times.
- ^ Taub, Eric A. (2 October 2006). "Radio's 'Dream Doctor' in a Nightmare Illness". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2011.
- ^ p. 4. "Dream Doctor" Archived January 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Dream Doctor Website, accessed December 31, 2010.
- ^ p. 3. "Dream Doctor" Archived January 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Dream Doctor Website, accessed December 31, 2010.
- ^ p. 2. "Dream Doctor" Archived January 11, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Dream Doctor Website, accessed December 31, 2010.
- ^ "Radio’s ‘Dream Doctor’ in a Nightmare Illness", The New York Times Article on 2nd October 2006, accessed December 31, 2010.