Radio Espantoso

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Type	RADIO STATION
Radio Espantoso
Location	Vice City
Core genre	Latin Jazz Latin Funk Cuban son Salsa Cha-cha-cha Mambo
Appears in	Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Host	Hector Hernandez (1984) Pepe (1986)

“

¡Rrrradiooo Espantosooo!... ¡La voz hispana de Vice City! Más radio para las muchachas y para los muchachos, ¡América! El mercado músico con queso. La mejor emisora del mundo para la gente con los mejores oídos del mundo, tanta música que te hace la cabeza explotar, ¡Amo a los hombres!, ¿Qué digo?, ¡A la humanidad!

”

— GTA Vice City

“

The sound of Vice City's burgeoning latin scene of the early 1980's. Carribean-infused jazz to soothe the soul and take your mind off the city's troubled streets. Featuring specially selected tracks from Irakere, Lonnie Liston Smith and more.

”

— GTA Vice City Website

Radio Espantoso is a radio station that appears in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, and plays Latin jazz, mambo, son, salsa and Latin funk among other genres.

The dialogue in this station is in Spanish, apart from a few snippets in English.

In 1984, when GTA Vice City Stories takes place, the DJ is Hector Hernandez and, according to him, the station is sponsored by Jeremy Robard. In 1986, the setting of GTA Vice City, Pepe is the DJ.

In Vice City, Radio Espantoso is one of two radio stations to feature original material written and recorded especially for the game; the other is V-Rock.

Description

The word "espantoso" directly translates to as "horrible" or "awful" in Spanish.

Its GTA Vice City DJ, Pepe, is either Cuban or of Cuban descent. He has a jolly and cheery attitude towards life, reflexing the style of music he plays and Latin's generally more laid back attitude. He frequently makes humorous remarks like shouting "¡chicharrones musicales!" (musical pork skins). However, at the start of the playlist he says that although he likes the songs, he is becoming tired of playing them over and over again, a reference to the looping audio file of this radio, like all other radios in GTA Vice City.

Radio Espantoso is also the preferred radio stations of the Cubans/Los Cabrones.

Tracklist

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

For the original songs the year of release is that of GTA Vice City: 2002.

Authors of the original songs, at the side, in superscript.

Translations for the titles, at the side, in superscript.

• Cachao - "A Gozar Con Mi Combo" ^{(Let's Rejoice With My Combo)} (1994)
• Alpha Banditos - "The Bull is Wrong" ^{(Stuart Ross)}
• Tres Apenas Como Eso - "Yo Te Miré" ^{(I Saw You) (Craig Conner)}
• Deodato - "Latin Flute" (1973)
• Mongo Santamaría - "Mama Papa Tú" ^{(Mom, Dad, You)} (1969)
• Mongo Santamaría - "Me and You Baby (Picao y Tostao)" ^{(Chopped and Toasted)} (1969)
• Machito and his Afro-Cuban Orchestra - "Mambo Mucho Mambo" ^{(Mambo Lots of Mambo)} (1952)
• Unaesta - "La Vida Es Una Lenteja" ^{(Life Is A Lentil) (Craig Conner)}
• Lonnie Liston Smith - "Expansions" (1975)
• Irakere - "Añunga Ñunga" (1980) ^{(Incorrectly credited in the manual as "Aguanile"; Removed from the Rockstar Games Launcher version of the game)}
• Deodato - "Super Strut" (1973)
• Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra - "Jamay" ^{(Nahuatl word, means "adobe crafting place")} (1955)
• Benny Moré - "Maracaibo Oriental" ^{(Eastern Maracaibo)} (1958)
• Tito Puente - "Mambo Gozón" ^{(Enjoyable Mambo)} (1958)

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

• Ray Barretto – "Acid" (1968)
• Pete Rodríguez' band – "I Like It Like That" (1967)
• Tito Puente – "Oye Cómo Va" ("Listen How It Goes") (1963)
• Bobby Valentín – "Mi Ritmo Es Bueno" ("My Rhythm Is Good") (1974)
• Celia Cruz & Johnny Pacheco – "Químbara" (1974)
• Héctor Lavoe – "Mi Gente" ("My People") (1975)
• Eddie Palmieri & Ismael Quintana – "Revolt/La Libertad, Lógico" ("The Freedom, Logical") (1971)
• Willie Colón & Héctor Lavoe – "El Malo" ("The Bad") (1967)

Translation of Spanish dialogue

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

(At the start of Cachao - "A Gozar Con Mi Combo")
"Listen my brother! What a terrific song that was! But I'm getting tired of playing it over and over for you. When we get back, I'll take your "live" requests, I tell you, but what I'm telling you is... a lie! Just a few of you understand my words, you are my brothers!!! It's one big musical family, here, on Radio Espantoso!"

(Just before Alpha Banditos - "The Bull is Wrong")
"Ho ho ho. Okie dokie, my people, are ya having a good time? Watching soccer and football, or stealing cars or stealing roosters, huh? Or just enjoying the music? Ha ha ha."

(At the song's latter part)
"Hellooooooo! Viiiiice Cityyyyy! How are you feeling? Huh? I personally want to kill myself! My wife is tremendously fat and never makes love to me. I'm sleeping with the secretary and I never pay my taxes! But, who cares? Here we have the music you want to hear, in Vice City's number 1 station, Rrrrradio Espantoso."

(After Tres Apenas Como Eso - "Yo Te Miré")
"And now a commercial break, but don't go away, we'll be back with more great music, in the very same moment it is commercially possible."

(Before Deodato - "Latin Flute")
"Wooo! The other night me and my friends were drinking Giggle Cream, that surely has to be the funniest dessert in the entire world, waaa! I didn't know so much happiness could come out of a cow's tits, oh boy. He he. I have to calm down, because I'm getting excited again."

(At the song's latter part)
"Rrrrrrrraadioooo Espantosoooo.The Hispanic voice of Vice City. Radio, more radio for the girls and the boys. America! The musical market with cheese. The best radio station of the world for the people with the best ears of the world, so much music it'll makes your head explode! I love men! Huh? What am I saying? I love mankind! Rrrrradio Espantoso! Pepe, Pepe, Pepe, music, music, music."

(After Mongo Santamaría - "Mama Papa Tú")
"Oooh.! Unfortunately that song has finished. I'm gonna have to take a brief break, mmm, I have to calm down, because brother, I'm a bit excited and I think I have just done a huge mess! Ha ha ha, but it doesn't matter! That's the beauty of the radio, my people. I'll be back in a few minutes my friends, yes."

(Just before Mongo Santamaría - "Me and You Baby (Picao y Tostao)")
"Radio Espantoso, here in Vice City, The house of jazz and also my house, the house of Pepe, your best friend! Damn! I have to stop drinking so much coffee."

(At the start of Unaesta - "La Vida Es Una Lenteja")
"Radio, music, hens and chickens. Want another song? Because I do need it, listen everyone, stay with me, people."

(After the song)
"Hello, hello. You are listening to the radio station that makes the city dance and sweat. Shake your clothes. This song is ready for the ladies Radio Espantoso."

(At the start of Lonnie Liston Smith - "Expansions")
"This egg wants salt!! Ayayay!!!"

(Over the end of Lonnie Liston Smith - "Expansions" and the first second of Irakere - "Añunga Ñunga")
"Radio Espantoso. I love it man, I love it! Dance in the streets and sing the songs of love. Don't leave the meat out the refrigerator for a long time, it's hot in the streets! It's like that with this music."

(At the latter part of Irakere - "Añunga Ñunga")
"Mega music for the people who like to work the whole day and to vomit alot later! Uy! Drink a lot of liquids, he. Rrrradio, more rrrrrradio, more, more, more radio, let the radio tell you what to do. I'm Pepe! here on Radio Espantoso. With more jazz."

(After Deodato - "Super Strut")
"¡Ajajajajay! Musical pork skins. Vice City, get ready because I have the music which makes you crazy. I hate this work and all people. I'm a poor trained bear. Radio Espantoso. Don't go away, don't go away, please. Don't go away."

At the start of Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra - "Jamay"
"Radio Espantoso, dammit! It's good."

(After the song)
"In fact, the other day, a shit-eating, greasy Italian man tried to steal my car when I was driving, what's up with that, people? Sure that guy didn't know who he was messing with, eh? Here we go, more music!"

(After Benny Moré - "Maracaibo Oriental")
"Dammit! Radio Espantoso, people! Lots of music after the commercials."

Video

GTA Vice City soundtrack

GTA VICE CITY ESPANTOSO FM FULL RADIO STADION

GTA Vice City Stories soundtrack

Radio Espantoso (GTA VCS Version)

Trivia

• The only anachronistic song in the radios of GTA Vice City is Cachao's "A Gozar Con Mi Combo" (1994, from the album "Master Sessions Vol. 1").
• Mongo Santamaría's "Me and You Baby (Picao y Tostao)" is the first Espantoso's song that plays when one starts GTA Vice City and tunes into Espantoso.
• Tres Apenas Como Eso's "Yo Te Miré" and Unaesta's "La Vida Es Una Lenteja" play inside the Ocean View Hotel.
• After playing Xavier Cugat and his Orchestra's "Jamay" in GTA Vice City, Pepe says "In fact, the other day, a shit-eating, greasy Italian man tried to steal my car when I was driving, what's up with that, people? Sure that guy didn't know who he was messing with, eh? Here we go, more music!" (translated from the Spanish: "De hecho, el otro día un comemierda italiano grasoso me trató de robar el carro cuando estaba manejando; ¿qué es eso, gente? Seguro que ese tipo no sabía con quién él estaba jugando, ¿ah? Here we go, more music!"). This implies that it was the game's protagonist, Tommy Vercetti, that tried (unsucessfully, as Pepe's dialogue shows) to carjack him.
  • It would also mean that Pepe is one of the pedestrians going around the city.
• Although Irakere's "Añunga Ñunga" is incorrectly credited in the manual of GTA Vice City as "Aguanile", there's another song from the band called "Aguanile Bonkó".
• The matter about the station's name is addressed by Pepe in the first track of the Radio Espantoso CD from the 7-CD Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Soundtrack Box Set, where he makes an exclusive dialogue not included in the game. There, he states the name is intended to be ironic in nature. As he explains in this introductory track: "In Vice City we live in a «culo-tural» desert, a dirty stinking mess of a place where all of the music is made up by machines and people think you can tell how good a musician is by how much make-up he wears, eh? It is the way of the United States, that is why we call our station Radio Espantoso! Hehe... it is a little joke, OK?... all of the other radios is «espantoso», apart from ours!"
• In the 10th Anniversary Edition of GTA Vice City, this and Wave 103 are the only radio stations to feature all of the songs from the original game.

See Also

• San Juan Sounds - A radio station in Grand Theft Auto IV and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City which also plays Puerto Rican & Dominican music.
• IF99 - A radio station in GTA IV which plays another song by Lonnie Liston Smith.
• East Los FM - A radio station in Grand Theft Auto V which also plays Latin American and Mexican music.

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