Jim Ladd - Radio Show Style

Radio Show Style

Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries, Ladd personally selected every song he played on his weeknight show on KLOS-FM in Los Angeles. Station management gave him complete control over show content. He combines music with atmospheric sound samples and social commentary, often inviting listeners to participate on the air. Most of his music sets center around a theme or story-line, such as Wild West outlaws, beautiful women or fast cars. He regularly adds appropriate listener requests to his themed sets; sometimes a request will inspire an entire set.

He had three theme-based shows every week, on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday nights. On Monday, Jim featured the Blues on 'MOJO MONDAY' from 10PM pst to 11PM. On Wednesday at midnight, he performed an hour-long, uninterrupted segment called "Headsets." This is a theme-based collage of music blended seamlessly together, with one song leading into the next, incorporating sound effects such as voice overs and quotes from movies relating to the theme. On this program Ladd creates what he calls the "Theater of The Mind" (headphones are recommended). Two "Headsets" albums, both done in collaboration with Billy Sherwood, have been released.

Sunday night began at 9PM PST (to Midnight), a theme show called "Theme of Consciousness", where Ladd played listeners' requests for songs based on a single word or phrase, such as "Colors", "Fire", "Dance", etc. This show recreates what Ladd calls the "Tribal Drum", describing the communal effect of radio in his pioneering days of FM radio. His repertoire combines classic rock standards by artists like the Beatles, the Doors and Led Zeppelin with songs and artists not normally heard on commercial radio. As was once standard in radio, most of his broadcasts end with a long song, such as the Doors' "When The Music's Over," Led Zeppelin's "Achilles Last Stand" or even Pink Floyd's 23-minute-long "Echoes."