Wave 103

Wave 103 is a radio station in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. The station is hosted by Adam First in the former and by Adam and Trish Camden. Wave 103 features New Wave and Synthpop music.

Wave 103 is one of two preferred radio stations tuned in by the Streetwannabes, the other station being Flash FM. Wave 103 can be heard after Tommy carjacks their gang vehicles.

An album of the songs from the station is available separately or as part of the GTA Vice City soundtrack box set. Customers received this volume when they placed a pre-order down payment of $10 on the PC version of the game at Best Buy. Flash FM's "Japanese Boy" also appears on the European version of the Wave 103 CD album.

The name of the station apes that of an actual local radio station Wave 102 in Dundee, Scotland, the original birthplace of the game's design company Rockstar North. Coincidentally, during the 1980s and early 1990s there was a Pop/New Wave format radio station in Miami, Florida, the city that Vice City is based on, named WAXE (pronounced "waxy")102.7. The name may also allude to the New Wave music on the station's playlist.

Like most DJs in Vice City, Adam believes that his kind of music is the best. He further fancies himself a music connoisseur, despite making some glaring mistakes such as calling 1986 the "finest hour" for Blondie, and saying they've been around for a few years when in fact the band broke up in 1982. (Though, he may have meant the song "Atomic", which is part of the soundtrack)

From his chatter on the radio it is known that he likes money, is a big fan of hang gliding, and despises music videos because they show that the artists' looks are more important than actual talent. He seems to have some kind of problem with his mother, as he goes out of his way to say that she had "nothing to do" with his "personal choice" of going into radio.

By 1992, he either lives in or is vacationing in San Andreas. While there, he calls in to the conspiracy theory show Area 53 on WCTR. He claims that while hang-gliding in the San Andreas desert (Bone County), he saw a man at a trailer compound performing strange rituals with a Domestobot. The show host Marvin Trill (who is later revealed to be the man that Adam saw) tells him to get a real hobby and hangs up.

GTA Vice City Playlist

 * Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "Two Tribes (1984)"
 * Sigue Sigue Sputnik - "Love Missile F1-11 (1986)"
 * Gary Numan - "Cars (1979)"
 * The Human League - "(Keep Feeling) Fascination (1983)"
 * Blondie - "Atomic (1980)"
 * Nena - "99 Luftballons (1983)"
 * Kim Wilde - "Kids in America (1981)"
 * Tears for Fears - "Pale Shelter (1982)"
 * Corey Hart - "Sunglasses At Night (1984)"
 * ABC - "Poison Arrow (1982)"
 * A Flock of Seagulls - "I Ran (So Far Away) (1982)"
 * Psychedelic Furs - "Love My Way (1982)"
 * Animotion - "Obsession (1985)"
 * Spandau Ballet - "Gold (1983)"
 * Thomas Dolby - "Hyperactive! (1984)"
 * Romeo Void - "Never Say Never (1982)"

GTA Vice City Stories Playlist

 * Human League - "Love Action (I Believe in Love) (1981)"
 * Thompson Twins - "Love on Your Side (1983)"
 * Depeche Mode - "Everything Counts (1983)"
 * Blondie - "Heart of Glass (1979)"
 * Frankie Goes to Hollywood - "Relax (1983)"
 * ABC - "(How To Be A) Millionaire (1984)"
 * New Order - "Blue Monday (1983)"
 * Japan - "Quiet Life (1979)"
 * Kajagoogo - "Too Shy (Midnight Mix - 1983)"
 * Heaven 17 - "Penthouse and Pavement (1981)"
 * Berlin - "Sex, I'm A... (1982)"
 * Howard Jones - "Like To Get To Know You Well (1984)"
 * The Cure - "A Forest (1980)"
 * A Flock of Seagulls - "Space Age Love Song (1982)"
 * Yazoo - "Don't Go (1982)"

Trivia

 * The song, "Sex, I'm A..." by Berlin was excluded from the European release of the game.
 * The number of the station is a reference from the Pan Am flight 103, known as the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.
 * The station is referred to as The Wave 103 (with the word "the") in GTA Vice City Stories.

Wave 103 Wave 103 Wave 103