Legendary Los Angeles rock radio DJ Jim Ladd, who was an integral part of Roger Waters‘s 1987 concept album “Radio K.A.O.S.,” will take a job with satellite radio provider SiriusXM.
Ladd will host a nightly show on the service’s “Deep Tracks” Channel 27 starting in January. It’ll be the first time Ladd will be heard nationally.
“Traditional FM radio has turned its back on the very thing that made rock radio the magical experience it was intended to be,” Ladd says. “SiriusXM is kicking down the doors of the stagnant, preprogrammed fodder that passes for radio today by encouraging me to do my free-form show so we can all share this experience live as it happens.”
Ladd played the part of the DJ on Roger Waters’s “Radio K.A.O.S.” album, conversing with the album’s protagonist Billy, a Welsh boy living with this uncle in Los Angeles who can talk with communication satellites.
Cumulus Radio Inc. abruptly fired Ladd from Los Angeles station KLOS at the end of October after a 14-year run.
L.A.’s KFI 640 AM made news when it allowed Ladd on the air Nov. 5, shortly after leaving KLOS, so he could air a three-hour farewell show. Ladd was the inspiration for Tom Petty‘s “The Last DJ.” Ironically, KFI is owned by radio giant Clear Channel Communications, which banned Petty’s song from its 850 stations for being “anti-radio.”
Petty told a crowd at a Oct. 29 benefit concert, “Jim Ladd was fired for having an imagination.”
Ladd will be selecting all the music he plays on his SiriusXM program, something nearly unheard of in today’s over-the-air market. “I will be playing everything I want, from Pink Floyd to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, from The Doors to Moby Grape, freely and with no play lists,” he says.
SiriusXM broadcasts more than 135 satellite radio channels of commercial-free music, sports, news, talk, entertainment, traffic, weather, and data services to more than 21 million subscribers.
Shine on, Jim!
