GTA 6 Radio Explained: the stations, on-demand podcasts and music on foot

On October 8, Rockstar named six GTA 6 radio stations and announced two things the series has never had: on-demand podcasts, and radio you can hear on foot through earbuds plugged into Jason’s and Lucia’s phones. The station hosts Rockstar printed are characters, El Martillo, Delta Dawne, DJ Kerry, not celebrities.

The famous names came a few hours later, from press copy and music sites. That’s where the dial got crossed.

The Six GTA 6 Radio Stations Rockstar Named

Rockstar called it “the biggest and widest-ranging selection of in-game radio yet” and then showed “six of the stations” (Official). Six is the sample, not the dial. Here’s the sample, in Rockstar’s words where it gave them:

• Cocoteo FM, hosted by El Martillo and La Gata. Modern Latin: bachata, merengue, dembow, reggaeton. Rockstar’s tagline: “el party que nunca se apaga.”
• Back Country Radio, hosted by MW and Delta Dawne. Renegade country “to the Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, and beyond,” plus a roving swamp meteorologist, Mud Dog Mike, filing from his airboat.
• AfroBank FM, hosted by Burna and Palmsy. 20th-century African classics, deep cuts, amapiano, 3-step. “Turn up the gbedu.”
• The Chamber 106.6, hosted by DJ Kerry and DJ Tom. Metal, and “Leonida’s deep metal roots.”
• Flash FM, hosted by Robyn and Alex. Pop, billed as “the Vice City institution.”
• Dirty South Classics, hosted by Trick and Trina. Regional rap “from the beach to the block.”

Flash FM is the returning name. Vice City players met it in 2002. Rockstar calls it an institution. It did not say the old playlist is coming back with it.

One trap: Rockstar’s sentence about the dial spanning everything “from Classic Rock to Talk Radio” describes a range. It does not name a Classic Rock station or a Talk Radio station. Talk is coming, though. Rockstar’s Rupert Humphries told LOVE magazine there are “some great political talk shows on the radio” (Reported). Nobody has named one.

Podcasts and Earbuds Are the Real Change

This is the line that changes how you play: “for the first time ever, Grand Theft Auto VI introduces a series of on-demand podcasts for Jason and Lucia to experience beyond Leonida’s terrestrial radio, with both radio and podcasts available to listen to in vehicles and on foot through newly introduced headphones and earbuds connected to their smartphones” (Official, Newswire).

Three things in that sentence. Podcasts are on demand, so they sit apart from the stations, which keep broadcasting whether you listen or not. The phone is the radio. And the music follows you out of the car. In every GTA before this one, the song died the second you opened the door. Now you can walk into a store, a beach or a bad decision with Flash FM still going.

What Rockstar didn’t print: a single podcast title, a host, an episode count, or how the phone menu works. TmarTn2 imagined podcasts that resume where you left off on a long drive. Nice idea. Rockstar never said it. Creators also pictured pulling one earbud out to catch street chatter. Also not in the copy.

What the Preview Players Actually Play

The music page has a player for each of the six stations. Each one runs a station ident and three songs, and the songs are labeled inside the player (Official, but read the fine print):

• Cocoteo FM: Bad Bunny, “EoO” · Axel Rulay ft. Farruko & El Alfa, “Si Es Trucho Es Trucho (Remix)” · Romeo Santos & El Chaval de la Bachata, “Canalla”
• Back Country Radio: David Allan Coe, “Need a Little Time Off for Bad Behavior” · Loretta Lynn, “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ On Your Mind)” · Hank Williams, Jr. & Waylon Jennings, “The Conversation”
• AfroBank FM: Asake, “Joha” · Pat Thomas ft. Ebo Taylor, “Gye Wani” · DJ Lag & Robot Boii ft. Kamo Mphela, “Shay’sana”
• The Chamber: Black Sabbath, “I” · Pantera, “I’m Broken” · Slayer, “Raining Blood”
• Flash FM: Charli xcx, “Good Ones” · MGMT, “Electric Feel” · Zara Larsson & PinkPantheress, “Midnight Sun (Girls Trip)”
• Dirty South Classics: David Banner ft. Lil’ Flip, “Like A Pimp” · JT Money ft. Solé, “Who Dat” · DJ Khaled ft. Trick Daddy, Rick Ross & Pitbull, “Born N Raised”

That’s 18 songs, three per station. It’s a preview, not a playlist. GTA stations run for hours. Nobody outside Rockstar knows the rest.

This list is also where the mix-ups started. Bad Bunny is the artist on the first Cocoteo song. Slayer is the artist on the third Chamber song. Trick Daddy is a featured artist on a DJ Khaled track. Being on the playlist and hosting the show are different jobs. I’ve done both. The host gets fewer royalties.

Who Voices the Hosts: Press Reports, Not Rockstar Pages

On October 8, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, DJ Mag and Gaming Age all paired the characters with real people, and Gaming Age printed press-release copy with lines like “El Martillo is voiced by Bad Bunny.” Here’s the reported cast (Reported):

• El Martillo and La Gata: Bad Bunny and RaiNao
• MW and Delta Dawne: Morgan Wallen and Lana Del Rey; Mud Dog Mike: Jeremy Dufrene, Del Rey’s husband
• Burna and Palmsy: Burna Boy and Palms Trax
• DJ Kerry and DJ Tom: Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer
• Robyn and Alex: Robyn and model Alex Consani
• Trick and Trina: Trick Daddy and Trina

RaiNao also gave Pitchfork a statement about lending her voice to the game. That’s on record, from her.

So why isn’t it Official on this site? Because the Newswire and the music page, as we read them on October 9 and 10, print the character names and stop there. A press release passed around to outlets is good reporting. It isn’t a Rockstar page you can open. If Rockstar adds the credits to its own site, we’ll move them up.

Three corrections for your group chat:

• “Slayer hosts a station.” No. Two members of Slayer reportedly voice two DJs. The band is a song in the preview.
• “Morgan Wallen’s song proves he hosts.” No. “Last Thing You Need” is an album single from September 17. His hosting is the separate press report above.
• “Every station has a celebrity host.” MrBossFTW said this on YouTube. We know about six stations. The rest of the dial hasn’t been shown.

The Album Is Not the Radio Dial

Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album is a separate product: 34 original tracks made with Atlantic Records, out November 19 with the game (Official). Six singles came out September 17. Rockstar’s X account added two more late on October 8 ET: Fuerza Regida’s “Suzuki” and Cardi B’s “Don’t Chart.” That’s eight out, and the music page lists all eight.

Rockstar hasn’t numbered them. Posts giving Cardi B a track number aren’t quoting Rockstar, because Rockstar hasn’t published a tracklist. And none of the eight sits in a station preview. Whether album songs play on the in-game dial, in missions, or only on your Spotify is one of the open questions. Rockstar has also promised a “dynamic score” and hasn’t described it.

What We Still Don’t Know About GTA 6 Radio

• How many stations there are. Rockstar says biggest yet. It hasn’t given a number.
• Podcast names, hosts and episode counts.
• How the phone, the earbuds and the volume work in practice.
• Whether there’s a streamer-safe mode that mutes licensed music. TGG and GTA Base pointed to preview sessions; Rockstar hasn’t announced it. Unverified.
• How the dynamic score and the radio share the air.
• The ads. Rob Nelson told IGN there are more radio and TV ads than ever (Reported). Nobody has heard one yet.

Six Stations Down, the Rest of the Dial on November 19

GTA 6 is out November 19 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, and US store listings unlock it at 12:00 a.m. ET. Until then you get six stations, 18 preview songs, eight singles, and a promise that the radio walks with you now. Hub pages: GTA 6 radio and the soundtrack. The day-one news story: headphones carry the dial off the dashboard. The first six singles: /679.

Radio hub · Soundtrack · Vice City retrospective · Confirmed · What we know

Sources: Rockstar Newswire · Rockstar VI music page · Rockstar Games on X · Gaming Age · Rolling Stone · Pitchfork · IGN · TmarTn2

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