Radio Stations in Grand Theft Auto III

All the radios in GTA III, with their original logos, in color.

Radio Station Wheel in Grand Theft Auto III - The Definitive Edition.

The radio stations in Grand Theft Auto III are a huge expansion over the radio stations of its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 2. Like GTA 2, radio stations can only be heard while in a vehicle. Most radio stations play a mixture of music, DJ chat, and spoof advertising. GTA III includes different genres of music and for the first time in the game series, it also introduces a talk radio station and a custom radio station. In law enforcement vehicles, the commercial radio is replaced by a police radio.

Although many of the songs that appear in the game were written specially for the soundtrack (or in some cases for the soundtracks of previous games in the series), a large number of tracks were contributions by real artists. Craig Conner and Stuart Ross created the original tracks, often with vocals and performances by other musicians.

There are nine in-game radio stations and one custom station modified by the player. The songs are listed in the same order as they appear in the game. Authors of the original songs are listed aside the song title in superscript. Please select a radio station to jump to its section.

Radio Stations

Head Radio

Head Radio is hosted by Michael Hunt and plays pop, alternative rock and adult contemporary music.

• Dil-Don't – "Stripe Summer" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)}
• Whatever – "Good Thing" (2001) ^{(Allan Walker, Craig Conner)}
• Craig Gray – "Fade Away" (2001) ^{(Stuart Ross)}
• Conor & Jay – "Change" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner, Julie Wemyss)}
• Frankie Fame – "See Through You" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)}
• Scatwerk – "Electronic Go Go" (2001) ^{(Stuart Ross)}
• Dezma – "Life Is But A Mere Supply" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)}

Double Clef FM

Double Clef FM is hosted by Morgan Merryweather and plays classical music. The English translations of the titles are in subscript.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – "Le Nozze di Figaro: Non più andrai farfallone amoroso" (1786)
  • Performed by Orchestra e Corodi Roma della RAI, Zubin Mehta, Sesto Bruscantini, and Teresa Berganza (1968)
• Giacomo Puccini – "Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro" (1918) ^{(PS2 only)}
  • Performed by Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano della RAI, Massimo Pradella, and Cecilia Fusco (1963)
• Giuseppe Verdi – "La traviata: Libiamo ne' lieti calici" (1853)
  • Performed by Nino Verchi, Renata Scotto, José Carreras, and Sesto Bruscantini (1973)
• Gaetano Donizetti – "Lucia di Lammermoor: Chi mi frena in tal momento" (1835)
  • Performed by Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, Renata Scotto, Luciano Pavarotti, and Piero Cappuccilli (1967)
• Giuseppe Verdi – "Rigoletto: La donna è mobile" (1851)
  • Performed by Orchestra and Chorus of Teatro Comunale of Florence, Carlo Maria Giulini, Luciano Pavarotti, and Renata Scotto (1966)
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – "Don Giovanni: Finch'han del vino" (1787)
  • Performed by Orchestra e Corodi Roma della RAI, Carlo Maria Guilini, Sesto Bruscantini, Nicolai Ghiaurov, and Alfredo Kraus (1970)

K-JAH

K-JAH, also known as Jah Radio, is hosted by Horace "The Pacifist" Walsh and plays dub and reggae music. All the tracks came from the 1981 album "Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires", by Scientist.

• Scientist – "Dance of the Vampires" (1981)
• Scientist – "Your Teeth In My Neck" (1981)
• Scientist – "The Corpse Rises" (1981)
• Scientist – "The Mummy's Shroud" (1981)
• Scientist – "Plague of Zombies" (1981)

Rise FM

Rise FM is hosted by Andre the Accelerator and plays trance and house music. All songs were mixed by Terry Donovan.

• Chris Walsh & Dave Beran – "Shake (Revolt Clogrock Remix)" (2001) ^{(mixes in again at the end of the radio)}
• Shiver – "Deep Time" (2000)
• R.R.D.S. – "Innerbattle" (2001)
• Slyder – "Score (Original Mix) (2000)"
• Slyder – "Neo (The One) (2000)"

Lips 106

Lips 106 is hosted by Andee and plays Top 40 music, including pop, alternative rock, hip hop and funk.

• Fatamarse – "Bump To The Music" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)}
• April's In Paris – "Feels Like I Just Can't Take No More" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)}
• Lucy – "Forever" (2001) ^{(Stuart Ross)}
• Boyz 2 Girlz – "Pray It Goes Ok?" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)}
• Da Shootaz – "Grand Theft Auto" (1997) ^{(C.Conner, Robert DeNegro)}
• Funky BJs – "Rubber Tip" (2001) ^{(Stuart Ross)}

Game Radio

Game Radio is hosted by Stretch Armstrong and Lord Sear and plays underground and east-coast hip-hop and gangsta rap music. All songs were mixed by Stretch Armstrong.

• Royce Da 5'9" – "We're Live (Danger)" (2001)
• Nature – "Nature Freestyle" (2001)
• JoJo Pellegrino – "JoJo Pellegrino Freestyle" (2001)
• Royce Da 5'9" & Pretty Ugly – "Spit Game" (2001)
• Royce Da 5'9" – "I'm the King" (1999)
• Black Rob – "By a Stranger" (2000)
• Agallah & Sean Price – "Rising to the Top" (2001)

Background Music

• Reef – "Scary Movies (Instrumental)" (1998)
• Rush – "Instrumental Bed 1" (2001)
• Rush – "Instrumental Bed 2" (2001)

MSX FM

MSX FM is hosted by MC Codebreaker and play drum 'n' bass and jungle music. All songs were mixed by DJ Timecode.

• Calyx – "Quagmire" (2001)
• Rascal & Klone – "Get Wild" (2000)
• Ryme Tyme – "Judgement Day" (2000)
• Hex – "Force" (2000)
• Omni Trio – "First Contact" (2001)
• Aquasky – "Spectre" (2001)
• Rascal & Klone – "Winner Takes All" (2000)
• Ryme Tyme – "T Minus" (2000)
• nCode – "Spasm" (1999)
• D. Kay – "Monolith" (2000)
• Dom & Ryme Tyme – "Iceberg" (2000)

Flashback 95.6

Flashback 95.6 is hosted by Toni and plays 1980s pop and post-disco music. All the songs featured come from the soundtrack of the 1983 hit film "Scarface" and were composed and produced by Giorgio Moroder.

• Debbie Harry – "Rush Rush" (1983)
• Elizabeth Daily – "Shake It Up" (1983)
• Paul Engemann – "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" (1983)
• Amy Holland – "She's On Fire" (1983)
• Elizabeth Daily – "I'm Hot Tonight" (1983)

Chatterbox FM

Chatterbox FM is a talk radio station hosted by Lazlow Jones, featuring call-ins from various citizens of Liberty City.

The following persons are credited for guest voices:

Lucien Jones, Karin Bykowski, Hank Stewart, Abbi Davis, Mellowvision.com, Paul Maloney, bernieS, Frank Fava, Kit Halsted, Joe Casalino, Dan Houser, Jay Crutcher, Frank Chavez, DJ Rush, A.M. Watson, Laura Bykowski, Navid Khonsari, Sherry Wohglmuth, Porkchop, Renaude Sebbane, Kyle Machlachlan, Sabby, Kim Schaefer, Debi Mazar, Nick Mandelos, David Connell, Reed Tucker, Jennifer Kolbe, Ami Plasse, Keith Broadus, Cameo Carlson, JD Leeds, Michael Madsen.

MP3 Player/CD Changer

GTA III allows players to play their songs in the PC and Xbox ports of the game. This custom radio station is named "MP3 Player" in the PC port, and "CD Changer" in the Xbox port.

"MP3 Player" only supports .mp3 and .wav music formats. Tracks are played in alphabetical order according to their file names and cannot be skipped. Inserting custom music into "MP3 Player" consists simply of placing music files into the "mp3" folder located within the primary game folder (i.e. Program Files\Rockstar Games\Grand Theft Auto III\mp3). For the Xbox version, a CD must be installed into the console's hard drive.

Other Songs

The following list of songs was either not included on the in-game radio or they can be heard briefly as snippets or as background music:

• Marydancin – "Wash Him Off" (2001) ^{(Craig Conner)} - Originally intended to air on Lips 106. A sample is played at the start of the radio's transmission, when some of the songs intended to be played on the station are briefly shown. Paramedics will also sing lyrics from this song.
• Rev. Rooney & The Rocksta Choir – "God Bless All the Universe" (1997) - Reused from Heavenly Radio; the instrumental version is used as background music on Lips 106.
• TJ Rizing – "Agent 007" (2000) - Mentioned in the game's manual and mixed with other songs on the MSX FM set.
• Animal Testing Centre - "DSP" (1997) ^(C.Conner) - Reused from The Fix FM; used in the mission Chaperone as the music coming from Warehouse Rave Venues.
• Tom Novy – "Back to The Streets" (2000) - Used in the German TV commercial. The song was likely planned to be a part of the soundtrack, likely removed together with Tom Novy's in-game appearance.
• Derrick May - "Kaotic Harmony" (1996) - Used in the reveal trailer for GTA III.
• Ruggiero Leoncavallo - "I Pagliacci: Vesti la giubba" (1892) ^{Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Nello Santi, and Plácido Domingo (1971)} - Used in the Japanese TV commercial; the song later appeared on Double Clef FM in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.

Additionally, there are a number of places, such as Red Light District or Hepburn Heights, that play short snippets of uncredited music. It is currently unknown whether the songs used were made in-house or were taken from the stock music library.

Commercials

Main article: Commercials in GTA III

Commercials in GTA III are included in-between songs in the radios, a kind of feature that was successful in the previous game and was repeated for GTA III. The commercials are one of the hallmarks of the radios and advertize fictional products using adult humor, zany banters and recognizable marketing clichés and tropes used in real life commercials.

They are all written by Dan Houser and Lazlow (the latter of whom also produced them). Several adverts mention telephone numbers and official websites. Rockstar actually created these websites, and though many links just eventually lead back to the Rockstar site, some are really quite detailed. The Petsovernight.com website displays pictures of animals and promises "If it's got a central nervous system, we've got it ready to go in a box to your house", tying in with the humour in the commercials.

Some examples of commercials in GTA III are: "Sue Your Boss" (a scheme to gain money through lawsuits and faking injuries), "Fernando's New Beginnings" (Fernando Martinez's method of saving stale marriages... through letting the husband use the services of a mistress that satisfies his sexual needs) and "Liberty City Survivor" (an extremely violent reality show, "we will take 20 recently paroled guys, equip them with grenade launchers and flamethrowers, and let them hunt each other down").

Non-Selectable Radio Stations

There are several stations that can be seen advertised on billboards throughout Liberty City. However, these cannot be listened to by the player. They are Liberty FM, WLLC The Zone 34.9 FM, and Liberty Soul FM. It is unknown whether these stations were due to appear before being dropped during development or if they were simply designed to sit alongside other fake brands advertised in the game.

Another possible non-selectable station is what has been referred to as Orbit FM. However, close inspection of the ad (both in the game and in the instruction manual) shows that the correct name is OR-Bit. There is no ‘FM’ and no evidence that it is a radio station.

The logo for Liberty FM.

The logo for Liberty Soul FM.

The logo for WLLC The Zone 34.9 FM

The logo for Orbit, a possible beta radio station.

Soundtrack Sampler

Main article: Grand Theft Auto III Soundtrack Sampler

European cover

US cover

Trivia

• The number of new songs in this soundtrack is 55.
  • There is one song repeating from a previous game (Da Shootaz's "Grand Theft Auto"), so in total the radio soundtrack features 56 songs.
• The year with the most licensed songs is 2000, with 11 songs.
• For this edition, Rockstar greatly increased the use of licensed tracks, unlike what the company used for previous games in the series. However, the soundtrack still relies to a large degree in original creations, unlike what they would do in their next game, GTA Vice City.
• The game introduced the first talk radio in the series, Chatterbox FM, and the first custom radio station.
• This is the first game to feature recurring hosts Lazlow and Fernando Martinez.
• In Lips 106, Marydancin's "Wash Him Off" can be heard briefly, this song was removed from the final release of the game. Rockstar would nevertheless release the song later, in its full form, as part of the soundtrack of the game.
• One fictitious band makes a reprise from GTA 2: Conor and Jay ("Vegas Road", "Change”), they would later make an appearance in GTA: Liberty City Stories with a third song (“Train”).
• The game uses a generic police radio track used in countless films, series and games ("5 George K, number 30 Broad street" is said in the track). This police track was used too in GTA and GTA 2.
• The oldest piece of music in the entire Grand Theft Auto series can be heard in this soundtrack: Mozart's "Non più andrai farfallone amoroso", from his opera "The Marriage of Figaro" (1786).

See Also

• Radio Stations in GTA
• Radio Stations in GTA London
• Radio Stations in GTA 2
• Radio Stations in GTA Vice City
• Radio Stations in GTA Advance
• Radio Stations in GTA San Andreas
• Radio Stations in GTA Liberty City Stories
• Radio Stations in GTA Vice City Stories
• Radio Stations in GTA IV
• Radio Stations in GTA Chinatown Wars
• Radio Stations in GTA V
• Radio Stations in GTA Online