Radio K.A.O.S.

In 1979, Waters met Jim Ladd for a radio documentary on The Wall album, beginning a friendship which remains today. Ladd was an inspiration as he brought some light into Waters's dim view of L.A. life, initially through listening to the bizarre Fish Report from KMET. Waters became increasingly interested in Ladd's plight with his radio station KMET, and his eventual sacking to change the programming format of the station in search of market-researched profits. In 1985, Waters wrote a song called "Get Back to Radio," which seemed to be partly based on the experiences of Ladd, and partly from childhood memories – Waters fondly remembers listening to Radio Luxembourg well into the night as a child.

An event from the 1985 miners' strike in Britain where a striking worker threw a concrete block off a motorway bridge, killing a taxi driver who was taking a working miner to his job, seemed to register in Waters's subconscious, emerging in the second song written, "Who Needs Information" and later, "Me or Him." The album, with a working title of Home, took only three months to record, developed from 16 songs throughout 1986 and was worked into a now familiar Waters concept album.[1]

The Ronald Reagan campaign ads during "Me or Him" are sampled from an actual 1980 political advertisement of Reagan's[2][3][4]

The popular culture of Los Angeles and the radio industry in the area at the time was the inspiration for the fictional Radio KAOS station that plays a significant role in the album.

Billy is a 23-year-old Welshman from the South Wales Valleys. He is mentally and physically disabled, confined to a wheelchair and only able to work his upper body.[5] Though he is perceived as mentally challenged, his disability has actually made him not only a genius, but also superhuman, as he also has the ability to literally hear radio waves throughout all frequencies without aid.[6]

Billy was living with his twin brother Benny, who was a coal miner, wife Molly, and their children. Unfortunately, Benny has lost his job in the mines due to the "market forces." One night, Benny and Billy are out on a pub crawl when they pass a shop full of TV screens broadcasting Margaret Thatcher's "mocking condescension." Benny vents his anger on this shop and steals a cordless phone. Next, in theatrical fashion, Benny poses on a footbridge in protest to the closures; the same night, a taxi driver is killed by a concrete block dropped from a similar bridge by Benny ("Who Needs Information" – track 2). The police question Benny, who hides the phone in Billy's wheelchair.

Benny is taken to prison, and Molly, unable to cope, sends Billy to live with his uncle David in Los Angeles, California, United States. Since Billy can hear radio waves in his head ("Radio Waves" – track 1), he begins to explore the cordless phone, recognising its similarity to a radio. He experiments with the phone and is able to access computers and speech synthesisers, and learns to speak through them. He calls a radio station in L.A. named Radio KAOS and tells them of his life story about his brother being in jail ("Me or Him" – track 3), about his sister-in-law not being able to cope and sending him to L.A. to live with his uncle Dave ("Sunset Strip" – track 5), and about the closures of the mines ("Powers That Be" – track 4).

Billy eventually hacks into a military satellite and fools the world into thinking nuclear ICBMs are about to be detonated at major cities all over the world while deactivating the military's power to retaliate ("Home" – track 6, and "Four Minutes" – track 7). The album concludes with a song about how everyone, in thinking they were about to die, realises that the fear and competitiveness peddled by the mass media is much less important than their love for family and the larger community. ("The Tide Is Turning" – track 8).

In the sleeve notes, Waters dedicated the album "to all those who find themselves at the violent end of monetarism."

The album was recorded at Waters' own personal studio in London called The Billiard Room and mixed at Odyssey Studios in London.

Recording was done with the aid of Roger Waters' Bleeding Heart Band.

The record was first announced via a press release from EMI on 6 April 1987, confirming Waters's new album, its details and release date.[1] The press release mentioned that the project was conceived to be a full-out rock opera, complete with a stage show, film and live album, much like Waters's original vision for the album.

Waters also made a Video EP for this album featuring the songs "Radio Waves," "Sunset Strip," "Fish Report," "Four Minutes" and "The Tide Is Turning (After Live Aid)."

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[12]
Los Angeles Times	[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[14]
The Village Voice	B[15]

Waters felt a moral disappointment with the album, even going as far as saying he regrets recording it.

The album was first released on 15 June 1987 in the United Kingdom and the United States, and was met with mixed reviews. Internationally, the album only charted in these two countries, peaking at number 25 in the United Kingdom and number 50 in the United States.

J. D. Considine of Rolling Stone gave the album a positive review, highlighting the album as "by no means perfect" but "powerful";[16] although the themes and style of the album were criticized, he deemed the record to be an improvement on Waters's debut studio album, The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking.[1] Robert Christgau from The Village Voice wrote: "In which Waters's wheelchair-bound version of the deaf, dumb and blind boy learns to control the world's computers with his cordless phone, then simulates impending nuclear holocaust just to scare the shit out of the powers that be. I have serious reservations about any record that can't be enjoyed unless you sit there reading the inner sleeve, but this is not without its aural rewards — a coverable song or two and some nice comping on shakuhachi, as well as the deep engineering that made Floyd famous. As pretentious goes, not stupid."[15]

Since the release, Waters has expressed his dislike for the album and the effort put into creating it.[1] He confessed in an interview that the attempt to make the album sound "modern" had ruined the record:

Between Ian Ritchie and myself, we really fucked that record up. We tried too hard to make it sound modern. I allowed myself to get pushed down roads that were uncomfortable for me. I should never have made that record.

In addition to being dissatisfied with the production, Waters regrets his decision to trim the album from a double to a single one, thus losing much of the concept.[17]

In a retrospective review, Mike DeGagne of AllMusic gave the album three-and-a-half stars, stating that the album, unlike some of Waters's other works, manages to convey the music more than the narrative, but also that "While both The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking and Amused to Death convey his talented use of concept, imagination, and lyrical mastery, this album seems to be nothing more than a fictional tale with a blatantly apparent message."[12]

All tracks are written by Roger Waters.

• Radio K.A.O.S. on IMDb
• Roger Waters: Radio K.A.O.S. full video EP on YouTube