Jim Ladd, the longtime Los Angeles FM deejay often called “The Lonesome L.A. Cowboy” who had hosted a SiriusXM present for 12 years and was the inspiration for Tom Petty‘s album The Final DJ, died Saturday of a coronary heart assault at his L.A. dwelling. He was 75.
His demise was introduced at this time by fellow veteran DJ Meg Griffin, who hosted Ladd’s Deep Tracks present in his place at this time. Griffin stated his spouse Helene Lodge-Ladd had requested her to announce the information at first of his present that aired stay weekdays from 2-6 p.m. PT. It was Ladd’s first nationwide program.
“I’m so sorry for the shock that simply hit you as you’re listening proper now,” Griffin instructed listeners. “He by no means stopped caring. He delivered the reality. He lived for the music.”
“As I’ve all the time completed all through my profession, I will likely be selecting all my very own music,” Ladd stated in asserting his satcaster gig. “I will likely be enjoying every little thing I would like — from Pink Floyd to Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, from the Doorways to Moby Grape — freely and with no playlists.”
He all the time stated he was broadcasting from “excessive within the Hollywood Hills.”
Ladd started his satellite tv for pc radio stint months after being laid off from Los Angeles radio outlet KLOS-FM in October 2011. It was his third stint on the rock station, having labored there from 1969-75, when he moved to archrival KMET till the station modified codecs in 1987. After a few different stints elsewhere — together with startup KLSX-FM, which launched the “basic rock” format to L.A. — he returned to KLOS within the nighttime slot till his exit.
A Jim Ladd “Lord Have Mercy” T-shirt c. 1995
Erik Pedersen/Deadline
Ladd made a reputation for himself enjoying what he termed “freeform radio,” eschewing playlists and creating themed units of music and urging listeners to name in. Famed for the catchphrase “Lord have mercy” and for dubbing his feminine followers “long-legged ponies,” he was a mainstay on the SoCal FM dial who additionally hosted the syndicated radio present InnerView, throughout which he spoke with rock’s largest stars. One other well-liked present was Headsets, throughout which Ladd performed thematic units meant for listening in headphones.
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He additionally was the inspiration for The Final DJ, the 2002 Petty album and title observe that skewered the radio trade. Ladd’s longtime buddy Petty and the Heartbreakers performed the tune throughout an intimate present at Cal State Northridge days after Ladd’s firing. “Jim Ladd was fired this week for having an creativeness,” the singer stated from the stage that evening earlier than lamenting how music stars now are made on “sport exhibits.” “All people wins, however you get f*ckin’ ripped off.”
The band later performed the album’s standout observe “Have Love Will Journey,” which options the traces: “And the lonely DJ’s digging a ditch/Attempting to maintain the flames from the temple.”
Ladd additionally was a longtime buddy and supporter of Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, and it’s his voice on the singer’s 1987 solo album Radio Ok.A.O.S. When the group’s seminal album The Wall was launched in late November 1979, Ladd debuted Facet 1 in its entirety for his L.A. radio viewers. He famous on-air that the songs have been going to movement into each other. “You understand how the Floyd does,” Ladd instructed his listeners.
Born on January 17, 1948, Ladd was round for the start of the underground album-oriented rock format. He started his profession in radio — what he typically known as “theater of the thoughts.” He labored at Lengthy Seashore outlet KNAC-FM within the late Nineteen Sixties. An FM staple by the mid-’70s Ladd was branded the Prime Rock Jock by the Los Angeles Occasions in 1980. The paper cited his “ardour that he brings to each the songs he performs and the phrases that set the temper. Ladd cares, and it exhibits.”
He was honored with a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame in 2005.
He additionally authored the 1991 guide Radio Waves: Life and Revolution on the FM Dial, which chronicled his life on the airwaves from FM’s rebellious early years by way of its defeat by the hands of “the format machine” within the ’80s. The guide was optioned by The Odd Couple and The Manchurian Candidate producer Howard W. Koch for Paramount Footage in 1994.
Ladd made a behavior of infuriating his bosses with frequent feedback in regards to the corporatization of radio. He typically performed the Kinks’ 1981 observe “Across the Dial,” which laments the sudden absence of a favourite disc jockey. Pattern lyric: “The place did you go Mr. D.J.?/Did they take you off the air?/Was it one thing that you simply stated to the company guys upstairs?”
Griffin performed the tune as she introduced Ladd demise on SiriusXM at this time. She adopted that up by enjoying “The Final DJ,” which opens with the traces: “Properly you’ll be able to’t flip him into an organization man/You’ll be able to’t flip him right into a whore/And the boys upstairs simply don’t perceive anymore.”
There goes the final DJ, who performs what he needs to play and says what he needs to say.
