Wave 103

"Wave 103 - where the boys wear more make-up than the girls! Smashing!"

- Station jingle in GTA Vice City

"New wave steamrolled onto Vice City's music charts in the early 80s, thanks in large part to the efforts of celebrated radio personality, Adam First. This station features revolutionary acts broken by Wave 103 such as Flock of Seagulls and Blondie."

- GTA Vice City Website

"I'm the bastard lovechild of punk and disco. I'm the Wave 103."

- Station jingle in GTA Vice City Stories

Wave 103 is a radio station in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (where it is styled as The Wave 103). The station started broadcasting in 1981, and is co-hosted by Adam First and Trish Camden in 1984 and by Adam in 1986. The station plays new wave, synthpop and post-punk.

Description
Much like the real life new wave genre, Wave 103 assumes an intellectual, pop-art, post-punk nihilistic and technology-loving attitude. It celebrates the advance of digital equipment in music, through idents like "Who needs music with soul? We've got drum machines!" and "Who needs guitars? We've got little computer synthesizer thingies." The station also celebrates new wave's fashion quirks, like that "the boys wear more make up than the girls" and the "sexual ambiguity".

Its DJ, Adam First, acts like a connoisseur of modern music that knows vanguard British bands before they are known in the United States. He is a big fan of new wave acts and can mention years and dates about them. At one point, however, he voices his non-conformity with the fact that in the new era of video clips and, the image of a band is more important than its music, something that comes at odds with the new wave essence, as the genre greatly benefitted from having a more visual medium where it could showcase its eccentric fashion aesthetics.

Individual Songs

 * ' "" was played in the second trailer for GTA Vice City
 * It also played the Vice City trailer for the Xbox version of Grand Theft Auto Double Pack.
 * 's "" is the first song that plays when one starts GTA Vice City and tunes into Wave 103.
 * 's "" and 's "" play inside Stadium Events in the Hyman Memorial Stadium.
 * 's "" play inside The Pole Position Club.

Individual Songs

 * 's "" plays in the background at the beginning of the cutscene of the mission White Lies, as well as inside the White Stallionz Bar during the mission The Bum Deal.
 * 's "" was used for Reni Wassulmaier trailer on the GTA Vice City Stories website.

General

 * The name of the station is a reference to both the new wave music on the station's playlist, and to the radio station Wave 102 in, Scotland, where DMA Design (which subsequently became Rockstar North) was founded.
 * 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 or Vic carjacks their Gang Burritos or Gang Ranchers.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

 * The Wave 103 CD included in the European release of the 7-CD Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Soundtrack Box Set contains 's "", despite the fact this song actually appears on Flash FM in the game.
 * This is the only radio station to retain all of its original songs in the 10th Anniversary Edition and later re-releases.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

 * The "Midnight Mix" of the 's "" contains lyrics of the original song's chorus at the end of the song; however, the in-game version omits it and fades out slightly before.

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