Abstract.Using the surface photometric analysis data for a well defined sample of 79 nearby radio galaxies (z ≤ 0.12), it is shown that the level of radio emission associated with an elliptical galaxy during the radio-loud phase is related to the presence of large amounts of isophotal twist in its optical image. In particular, radio galaxies with P 408 > 3 × 10 25 W Hz −1 appear to show a preference to be associated with elliptical hosts exhibiting an isophotal twist in excess of ∼20• .