Radio Waves: Life and Revolution on the FM Dial

by Jim Ladd

Book Overview

An explosive, unforgettable look at the FM radio business through the eyes of one of its most colorful and idealistic personalities. Ladd follows the birth, blazing success, and tragic demise of FM free-form radio. "A perceptive book on the corporate takeover of rock. . . . Devastating."--Boston Globe.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312077866
• ISBN13: 9780312077860
• Release Date: May 1992
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Remember the Mighty Met

Jim Ladd is a legend. This is his thinly veiled life observation of the battle between good and evil on FM Radio, music lovers rock vs corporate overlord rock. This is KMET vs KLOS in Los Angeles when the music mattered most. The good guys lost. As in any epic, the why is what matters. Jim tells us why. Jim is The Last DJ in the Tom Petty song. He also voiced the DJ on Roger Waters KAOS concept album. If you were ever a member of the tribe, this book belongs in your forever collection. Today you’ll still find Jim on SiriusXM Deep Tracks. He is still spinning freeform. He is The Last DJ.

THIS IS THE FULL STORY OF WHAT HAPPENED TO ROCK RADIO!!

As a professional disk jockey for a rock radio station, I absolutely LOVED this book. It's the Bible to some DJ's I know, myself included! Jim Ladd, the author, pretty much spews his autobiography here while telling an enchanting true tale of the rise and fall of free-form radio. If you've ever wondered why when you call a radio station, they won't play your request, this is where to find the answers...and you will be shocked to find out how things really operate in this, the age of the major corporation. He takes you thru the very beginning of rock radio in the California of the 60's and its emergence as the alternative to the scream-at-you style of the pop-music format. With quotes from his actual radio broadcasts and detailed interviews with such legends as the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, and, especially, the elusive John Lennon, Ladd relives the era in an easy-to-read page-turner spiked with radio antidotes, including a tale I found particularly amusing in one of the first chapters, where he rewards himself for being able to pull 2 shifts in a 12 hour period of time by smoking marijuana on the fire escape only to lock himself out! I also enjoyed his tales on getting his listeners to flood the White House phone lines with complaints about an herbicide being sprayed on marijuana, his experience hosting one of the few live performances of Pink Floyd "The Wall", and his revolt against corporate radio policies that eventually gets him fired. This book is an absolutely increadable read--it is a must for anyone who works or has worked in radio, and makes for good insight into this industry for the average radio listener. Pick yourself up a copy...you'll be delightfully surprised at its content!

Keeping Listeners in the Light

As Jim Ladd relates in this important and always-entertaining book, radio waves in their purest formare light. And they've been falling on his lucky listeners,unstrained, for a time that selective radio fans hope will never end.What's more important than this legendaryL.A. deejay soldiering on through those Monday nightswhen it might seem as though few are listening is that,in this age of corporate mergers and conformity, the mandares to take a stand.God always favors the principled man, especially the artist!During an era when Bruce Springsteen can be the opening act fora commercial venue like Staples Center, one of the ubiquitous stadiums to now baldly bear a corporate logo (this one's visible from the skies of L.A. in gargantuan red neon letters; let's not miss an advertising opportunity!) Ladd hasn't lost his integrity. He has, during his entire radio career, eschewed "the list," or the playlists that plague all of Los Angeles' and other major markets' airwaves. His genuine fondness and respect for the medium radiate from the pages of "Radio Waves."He's referred to radio as an "electronic campfire" by which those faithful to concepts such as freedom and brotherly love gather and warm themselves.Ladd was lucky enough to preside over a time in F.M. radio when it truly influenced and saturated every aspect of popular culture. His view--that the radio dial still possesses the power to unify and inspire us--is refreshing, and lamentably lacking in active supporters. While cynical survivors of the '90s might doubt that we can "get back to the garden" or visit that "mansion on the hill," isn't it nice that SOMEONE out there is telling us we can?Thank you, Jim Ladd, for all the terrific tunes, all the Monday nights you showed up sans playlist and gave of yourself creatively, and, most of all, for taking a stand for freedom of F.M. radio, which you do eloquently in "Radio Waves." We've all been lucky to bask in your light.

I can relate to this book

Jim Ladd hits home in this book which is almost like the story of a once legendary station, I used listed to called WHFS, which eventully was abused by a bunch of coporations. The part at end about rebelling and automation taking over is something that every progressive radio listener can relate to.

A magical trip, a true musical experience.

For those wondering what FM rock was like before the intervention of the omnipresent conglomerates, I recommend picking up a copy of Jim Ladd's "Radio Waves". In this book, Ladd relates his version of the dawning of FM rock in a narrative interspersed with names of actual radio personalities and rock performers as well as pseudonyms that are noted in a lengthy disclaimer.Portions of the story mirror the rise and ultimate demise of the late great Los Angeles radio station KMET where Ladd once ruled the airwaves. ( Back before "the Wave", KMET was the preeminent rock station!) Ladd, the self-proclaimed "Lonesome L. A. Cowboy" takes the reader on a magical trip that begins in the late 60s with the emergence of free-form radio play at FM radio station KAOS. The tale ends with an onslaught of corporate greed at the radio station fittingly named KASH.Being someone who grew up with Ladd providing (as he so eloquently describes it) "the soundtrack" of my youth, I appreciated the opportunity to relive that era. As a longtime deejay in the Los Angeles market, Ladd is known as much for his irreverence to authority as his dedication to providing the listener with a true musical experience. This book does not lack his attention on either count.

A Masterpiece!

This title is great! As a broadcaster who's too young to remember the first days of FM...I've read this book twice and have even given copies as gifts. This may be the most enjoyable book I've ever read!