Jason and Lucia will be able to pull out a phone, put in earbuds and keep listening to the radio after stepping out of the car. It is a first for the series, and it was the gameplay news tucked inside the music announcement Rockstar published on Thursday, October 8, alongside the first six GTA 6 stations.
All six have audio previews on the game's official music page (rockstargames.com/VI/music), with snippets of idents, host chatter and songs, according to Shacknews. Rockstar bills the lineup as the biggest and most varied radio selection the franchise has had; the exact wording differs from outlet to outlet, so we are sticking to the gist. The full list, updated with each reveal, lives in our guide to every GTA 6 radio station.
The six stations
Names and descriptions below come from the official page. The songs come from Paste, Kotaku and VGTimes, who listened to the previews.
- Cocoteo (modern Latin). Bachata, merengue, dembow and reggaeton with El Martillo and La Gata. Songs named: Bad Bunny's "EoO", Axel Rulay's "Si Es Trucho Es Trucho (Remix)", Romeo Santos's "Canalla".
- Back Country (country). The official blurb promises "airboat-ready renegade country" from MW and Delta Dawne, plus reporter Mud Dog Mike. Loretta Lynn ("Don't Come Home A-Drinkin'"), David Allan Coe, Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings are on the playlist.
- Afro Bank FM (amapiano, African classics, 3-step). With Burna and Palmsy. Asake, Pat Thomas ("Gye Wani"), Ebo Taylor, DJ Lag, Robot Boii and Kamo Mphela feature.
- The Chamber (metal). "Jump in the pit" with DJ Kerry and DJ Tom. Black Sabbath, Pantera and Slayer's "Raining Blood".
- Flash FM (pop). With Robyn and Alex. MGMT's "Electric Feel", Charli xcx's "Good Ones", Zara Larsson and PinkPantheress's "Midnight Sun".
- Dirty South Classics (regional rap and hip-hop). "A little southern hospitality" from Trick and Trina. David Banner ("Like A Pimp"), JT Money ("Who Dat"), Lil' Flip, Rick Ross, Pitbull and DJ Khaled.
Flash FM is the only one returning from an earlier game: the official page calls it "the Vice City institution", and it was the pop station in GTA: Vice City.
Who is behind the on-air names
This is where outlets split, and the difference matters. On its official page Rockstar only uses the on-air names: El Martillo, La Gata, MW, Delta Dawne, Burna, Palmsy, DJ Kerry, DJ Tom, Robyn, Alex, Trick and Trina. Matching each one to an artist is the press's doing:
| On air | Reportedly |
|---|---|
| El Martillo and La Gata | Bad Bunny and RaiNao |
| MW and Delta Dawne | Morgan Wallen and Lana Del Rey |
| Mud Dog Mike | Jeremy Dufrene |
| Burna and Palmsy | Burna Boy and Palms Trax |
| DJ Kerry and DJ Tom | Slayer's Kerry King and Tom Araya |
| Robyn and Alex | Robyn and Alex Consani |
| Trick and Trina | Trick Daddy and Trina |
Dexerto treats those names as confirmed by Rockstar. Guided.news says the opposite: Rockstar confirmed the stations and their genres, and the identities come from Pitchfork's reporting. Kotaku does not name the hosts at all. Since we could not open the full Newswire post (only its title loads for us), we cannot say for certain who is right. Some are obvious from the nickname alone, such as Burna, Trick and Trina. Others, like Delta Dawne being Lana Del Rey, rest entirely on the press.
Two coincidences back the list up, and this part is our own observation. Morgan Wallen is already on GTA 6: The Album with "Last Thing You Need", one of the six tracks released so far, which makes "MW" on a country station not much of a mystery. And Cocoteo plays one of Bad Bunny's own songs. We covered the album in six songs out, 28 to be revealed and a vinyl with two prices.
Radio on foot, and podcasts
Up to GTA V, radio belonged to vehicles. In GTA 6, according to Dexerto, Kotaku and Guided.news, the protagonists can listen outside the car through headphones connected to their phones. Kotaku calls it a franchise first.
The other addition is on-demand podcasts, playable on foot or behind the wheel. Rockstar has said next to nothing about them: Guided.news lists the format, topics, number of episodes, running time and whether they unlock as the game progresses as unknown.
Three new screenshots came with the announcement, per Dexerto and VGTimes.
What about players outside the English-speaking world?
We write from Brazil, so we checked: none of the six stations is Brazilian, and no Brazilian artist appears among the songs named by the outlets we read. Cocoteo is the closest it gets: Latin, but built on bachata, dembow and reggaeton, with hosts who mix English and Spanish, judging by the official tagline ("El party que nunca se apaga").
That weighs more because GTA 6 will not have Portuguese voice acting. Radio hosts talk fast, over the music, while you are driving. Whether station chatter and podcasts will be subtitled is a question Rockstar has not answered, and for anyone who does not follow spoken English it decides how much of the stations' humor gets through.
What Rockstar has not said yet
In the sources we read, these were left out:
- How many stations the game has. Six is the first batch; the total was not given.
- The full track list for each station.
- Talk radio, a series tradition. Shacknews mentions talk shows, without names.
- Everything about the podcasts, beyond the fact that they exist.
- Subtitles for hosts and podcasts.
A note on platforms: VGTimes lists PC among them when mentioning the release. That is not what Rockstar has announced. On November 19 the game launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.