The soundtrack to the 2002 video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City consists of music played on the various in-game radio stations the player can tune into after entering most types of cars and motorcycles, but it has also been released in a box set of seven separate CDs (dubbed the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Soundtrack Box Set), with the European editions of the CDs containing a few extra songs that are not on the United States edition.
Most radio stations play a mixture of music, DJ chat, and spoof advertising, all of which are included on the CDs. The stations each reflect one style of music intended to evoke the atmosphere of the time.
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DJ: Fernando Martinez
Genre: Power ballad, Rock
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by Fernando Martinez (voiced by Frank Chavez[1]) and features power ballads. An album of the songs from the station is available separately or as part of the Vice City soundtrack box set, and is the only radio station with all of its songs on the official CD.
An exaggerated stereotype of a Latin Lothario, Martinez believes he has a gift with the ladies and as a match-maker. With his first appearance, in Grand Theft Auto III, he is exposed as a Caucasian pimp from upstate New York during a radio interview in Chatterbox FM.
As a note, Crockett's Theme by Jan Hammer is a direct reference to Miami Vice since it is the theme for character James "Sonny" Crockett.
Fernando claims he was eventually forced out of Vice City when he reappears in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a caller to and then impromptu host for the Lonely Hearts Show program on WCTR, before appearing as the owner of Fernando's New Beginnings (revealed to be a prostitution business, with Fernando as a pimp) in GTA III.
DJ: Pepe
Genre: Latin jazz, salsa
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by DJ Pepe (voiced by Tony Chiroldes[1]) and plays Caribbean-themed music, and Latin jazz. Espantoso, a radio station spoken entirely in Spanish, is the preferred station of the Cuban gang, as evidenced by the fact that Tommy often finds himself listening to it after carjacking cars that belong to them. It is also popular among taxi cab drivers. An album of the songs from the station is available separately or as part of the Vice City soundtrack box set.
Note: The word "Espantoso" in Spanish means "horrible" or "terrible".
DJ: Oliver "Ladykiller" Biscuit
Genre: Post-Disco, Boogie, R&B
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by Oliver "Ladykiller" Biscuit (voiced by Julius Dyson[1]) and plays post-disco, soul and R&B. Fever 105 is one of two preferred radio stations tuned in by the Haitian gang, which can be heard after the player carjacks their gang vehicles. The station is also the default radio station set when the player enters Lance Vance's white Infernus sports car. An album of songs from the station is available separately or as part of the Vice City soundtrack box set. By coincidence, Will Smith sampled The Whispers' song "And The Beat Goes On" in his hit song "Miami" and Vice City is modeled after Miami, Florida.
DJ: Toni
Genre: Pop, rock
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by Toni (voiced by Maria Chambers,[1] for the second time), and plays period pop music. Flash FM is also one of two preferred radio stations tuned in by both the Haitian gang and the Streetwannabes, heard after Tommy carjacks their gang vehicles. An album of songs from the station is available separately or as part of the Vice City soundtrack box set.
According to her chatter between songs, Toni is an excited, Valspeak-using party-girl who gets invited on tour buses and to backstage parties, notably to one with Love Fist. However, she expects to do something important with her life by the time she's 30 — an in-series joke, as she is still a radio DJ 15 years later, in Liberty City's Flashback 95.6. It is possible that Flash FM was renamed Flashback FM sometime in the early to mid 90's. However it is more likely that they are entirely different stations since they are based out of two different cities. As further reference to GTA III, Toni mentions that "I was dancing with my lighter and my hair went up like a Christmas tree." on Flash FM, an incident she has since forgotten in GTA III when she claims, "Luckily I've never have been [on fire]... I've done a lot of crazy things, I can tell you that... but I've never been on fire... at least not to my knowledge.", and later on she mentions being asked by friends: "do you remember the 80s?"; to which she replies: 'well, I certainly don't remember anything else since then!"
Flash FM is also the first station the player normally hears. During the first mission the player is asked to get into a car which is automatically tuned into Flash FM, playing "Billie Jean".
DJ: Lazlow
Genre: Heavy metal, hard rock, thrash metal, glam metal
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by Lazlow,[1] who also scripted and produced many of the radio stations and commercials in the game, V-Rock features heavy metal music and hard rock. The station is preferred by Vice City's Biker gang, which is tuned in by default after the player hijacks their gang motorcycles. An album of the songs from the station is available separately or as part of the Vice City soundtrack box set.
It is interesting to note that on Grand Theft Auto III's Chatterbox FM chat show, which is set circa 2001, Lazlow claims that he hosts Chatterbox because he "got kicked off the rock station." A hidden track on the V-Rock CD hints at how Lazlow got fired. In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which takes place in 1992, Lazlow interviews celebrities on a radio show called "Entertaining America" on the public talk radio station WCTR. He mentions that he is still getting over the 1980s and is having trouble adjusting to the 1990s. In Vice City Stories, set two years prior to Vice City, Lazlow is the co-host of V-Rock and constantly belittled by the DJ Couzin Ed, and at one point retorts "Well I'm going to broadcasting school next year. Then I'm gonna come back to Vice City and be a V-Rock DJ." (In GTAIII, Lazlow offhandedly claims that he has gone to broadcasting school, after being complemented on the show) One of the call-ins in Vice City is in fact Couzin Ed, who is now driving a bus after Lazlow stole his job. Though not specifically mentioned, the firing is vaguely referenced in one of the image promos in the GTA4 station Integrity 2.0, where the voice says that people "keep giving him jobs".
DJ: Adam First
Genre: New Wave, synthpop, dance, pop rock
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by Adam First, who is voiced by Jamie Canfield,[1] 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 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. 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. The name may also allude to the New Wave music on the station's playlist.
Flash FM's "Japanese Boy" also appears on the European version of the Wave 103 CD album.
Like most DJs in Vice City, Adam believes that his kind of music is the best, and fancies himself a music connoisseur. He also mentions that he likes money, is a big fan of hang gliding, despises music videos because they show that the artists' looks are more important than actual talent, and insists that his mother had "nothing to do" with his "personal choice" of going into radio.
Adam makes a cameo appearance in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a caller to the conspiracy theory show Area 53 on WCTR. He says that while hang-gliding in the San Andreas desert (Bone County), he saw a man at a trailer compound performing strange rituals with a Domestabot. 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.
DJ: Mr. Magic
Genre: Old school hip hop, electro
Tracklist:
Summary: Hosted by famed DJ "Super Rocking" Mr. Magic,[1] who was an actual rap DJ during the 1980s, when the game takes place. The station plays hip hop and period electro music. An album of the songs from the station is available separately or as part of the Vice City soundtrack box set.
There are also two "talk" radio stations which have not been released separately:
Celebrity talk station hosted by Amy Sheckenhausen (voiced by Leyna Weber[1]). Sheckenhausen is a ditzy girl with a cheery voice, who tends to gush over her famous guests while ignoring those she tends to find boring. She sometimes reads a book during interviews and forgets when there's a commercial playing. Of the nine radio stations in the game, KCHAT is one of the two stations not represented in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack.
K-Chat runs "live" interviews with both local and national celebrities, along with listener call-in participation. During the broadcast played in the game, Amy talks with seven interviewees, some of whom appear elsewhere in the game.
One of the characters that appears elsewhere in the game is Jezz Torrent, of the fictional band Love Fist. After this segment is an interview with professor and exaggerated feminist Michaela Carapadis (Mary Birdsong). She is over-obsessed with hating men and even dresses as one. She also discusses her recently-published thesis, which describes an undercover experience on her study into the male psyche: cross-dressing so as to approach males and study their mentality. She is later insulted by a caller on air after being told that her work is totally nonsense and is nothing but a "load of crap" as she says. Following that is an interview with Pat "Mr. Zoo" Flannerdy, an anachronistic Steve Irwin parody with an unconventional love for animals.
After Mr. Zoo is removed from the studio, Amy interviews a New Age priestess by the name of Gethsemanee Starhawk Moonmaker. During this interview, a caller makes lewd comments to Gethsemanee, asking her for punishment in a BDSM manner; this same caller calls Lazlow, the host on Chatterbox FM, the talk radio station in Grand Theft Auto III, asking to be spanked by a nanny. The next interviewee is BJ Smith, an aggressive and overzealous American football legend (voiced by real-life legend Lawrence Taylor). Late in the game, Tommy Vercetti, through the player's choice, is able to buy a used car dealership from Smith. He also appears in commercials on other radio stations advertising his used car dealership and "B.J.'s Fit For Football" fitness courses.
The final two interviewees appear in commercials on other radio stations in the game. The first is Claude Maginot, a classically-trained actor who is ashamed at his recent forced career change, a successful audition for the part of the father in Just the Five of Us, a fictional sitcom with a ridiculous premise involving a "mix-up at the adoption agency" and "three zany new house guests". Both this sitcom and his unsuccessful interpretive dance performance, In the Future, There Will Be Robots, are advertised on other stations. Finally, Norse deity Thor (or a reincarnation, impersonator or channeler of him — it is not explained which in the game) appears to further explain and sell his series of self-help tapes, which give very ancient (and often violent) answers to common personal problems, such as decapitating one's girlfriend and parading her head on a stick as a declaration of love. He is critical of women, exampled in his treatment of the host - "Go and live in a chimney, ye troll!" and "Wench Amy" - and he is known to speak in the third person. Thor has a fan club in the city, who call themselves the Bloods. They invite Thor during his interview to pillage with them. The caller also calls in Chatterbox FM in Grand Theft Auto III complaining about the English and Soccer and in GTA 3 and this game he talks about "Freddie".
Vice City Public Radio, abbreviated as VCPR, is hosted by Maurice Chavez (voiced by Philip Anthony Rodriguez[1]), with supervisors Jonathan Freeloader (Patrick Olsen[1]) and Michelle Montanius (Kelly Guest[1]). Along with KCHAT, the other talk radio station in the game, VCPR has not been released as part of the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City soundtrack.
Chavez's name and voice suggest that he is of Cuban origin, and he becomes irritated when his name is pronounced incorrectly. In one edition of his program, he is held at gun-point by the power-crazed Pastor Richards, but he survives through quick thinking and flattery. Although normally calm, he loses his patience when his guests don't "press the issue," and even hits one of his guests, Jeremy Robard, with a paperweight.
Chavez is oblivious to the fact he is commonly degraded by Jonathan Freeloader and Michelle Montanius, the announcers at VCPR who call him a "useless, talentless asshole". Over the course of several editions of the show, it is learned that Chavez made a living as "Sal, the Wheat-Free Clown" circa 1980, an occupation that earned him less than $2000 a year. Around the same time, he also tried to become a movie star, and despite going up for 17 auditions that year, he only got a job as a fluffer in a sex education video. He became so desperate that he even considered a sex change at one point. However, according to Vice City Stories, he was rescued by Montanius and in return he impregnated her. It is implied that she became part of the main VCPR crew not long after, and her pregnancy would account for her abrasive behavior to Chavez. It can also be implied that Chavez did not want people to know about his affair with Montanius, because he called her "Melissa" in one of commercial breaks.
Freeloader is probably a reference to the website Freeloader.com, which at one point offered "light" versions of the Original GTA as well as GTA: London 1969 (i.e. without in-game music), but later moved them to a paid subscription service. It currently offers Grand Theft Auto 2 as part of its free subscription service [1], though full versions of both GTA and GTA2 are now offered as free downloads from Rockstar Classics.
Much like KCHAT, VCPR features "live" interviews; unlike the celebrity interviews on KCHAT, however, the show broadcast on VCPR within the game is called Pressing Issues, and focuses on exactly that—particular issues are chosen, and Maurice Chavez mediates an informal debate between selected guests. Three such issues are broadcast within the game.
Also on VCPR are the frequent donation drives by Michelle Montanius and Jonathan Freeloader, who beg for support money between shows (as VCPR is a public station, it relies on donations) and try to make the listener feel as guilty as possible about listening to, yet not supporting Public Radio. Obviously, this is a parody of actual public radio stations in the United States like NPR.
The first debate on the station concerns public safety, particularly in the context of the rising tide of crime promoted in no small part by Tommy Vercetti, the game's protagonist. The three guests during this segment are:
The second segment deals with issues of general morality. The three guests for this debate are:
During the interview, Pastor Richards complains that "[American] newspapers are owned by Canadians with an agenda". This could be a reference to the mockumentary The Canadian Conspiracy, which details how the Canadian government is subverting the United States by taking over its media, and came out in 1985, one year before the setting of the game.
There is a perception amongst some gamers that Pastor Richards is a caricature either of former televangelist Jim Bakker or Pat Robertson. Rockstar Games has set up a toll-free telephone line that, when called, plays a recording of Pastor Richards discussing his "Salvation Statue." This plays off much of the left-over paranoia over the then-USSR. "You look out the window, and there are Russian paratroopers droppin' in to take over", he told the listeners on the radio show (this line, and the lines that follow immediately, are a direct reference to the eighties Russian-invasion movie Red Dawn). His "Salvation Statue" is, as he puts it, a 50-story statue of himself complete with living quarters. If there are any disasters such as "nuclear holocausts, plagues of flying rodents", those who pay him can take refuge in his statue, which could deflect alpha, gamma and beta radiation, if Richards is correct. In addition, the blueprint for the statue was drawn up to include booster rockets. This is in case, as he says, "the poopie hits the proverbial fan, [they] can load up those who saved themselves through generous donations, blast into space, and colonize Saturn, with a race of morally correct, affluent people, ruled by [Richards]." Toward the end of the show, Richards reveals that he did, "use money from the statue to make my own palace in Hawaii", another reference to dishonest televangelists who trick people out of their money.
Also, Chavez mentions "rock groups joining together to provide famine aid to Alaska with the song Do They Know It's The Fourth of July?" This is a reference to the famous Live Aid series of concerts and its hit single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"
By the end of this segment, Pastor Richards snaps, and, disgusted by Stark's nudism, pulls a gun on Stark and shoots him in the genitals, while Brown passes out. Barry survives and "is in need of a proctologist". Richards also ends up claiming the station as his own for a short while. The show then cuts away to Jonathan and Michelle under Maurice's excuse that "This is public radio. We need breaks to appeal for money, or cut away when people start brandishing guns in the studio! Like this!"
This is the only episode on this loop that gets two separate station breaks during the show (the other two episodes only got one break each during the episodes).
The final issue is that of perception and attitude. The three guests for this debate are exaggerated gothic artist Konstantinos Smith (voice artist credited as Konstantinos.com[1]); positive thinker, motivational speaker and shyster Jeremy Robard (Peter Silvestro[1]), who claims that his 3 step program called "Think Your Way To Success" has changed people's lives and made him very rich; and Jenny Louise Crab (Mary Birdsong[1]), a woman mentally scarred by the murder of her foster parents, but seemingly addicted to high strength mood elevators in an effort to block the memory, making her insanely hyperactive and scarily cheerful.
Konstantinos is a parody of a stereotypical "goth". He tells Maurice things like, "The world is a lie, man. Only darkness is truth." He mentions that he had never been out in open sunlight in upwards of 18 years. Maurice calls him a "manically depressed loony with anemia." At times, however, Konstantinos comes across as the most practical and stable person on the show.
During the show, Robard persistently tries to sell his motivational tape series. This series is advertised elsewhere on Vice City radio, and it's worth noting that the initials for each program spells out the name of a popular illegal drug: "Motivate, Demonstrate, then Motivate Again" spells out "MDMA", the scientific abbreviation for Ecstasy; "Learn, Start, Doing" spells out "LSD", the abbreviation for lysergic acid diethylamide; "Think, Hold that thought, Complete" spells out "THC" the abbreviation for Tetrahydrocannabinol, the primary chemical in marijuana. Later in his dialogue he mentions, "And if you want to think really fast, try my crank-it-out program" (Crank is slang for Methamphetamine). Another notable reference to drugs is when he tells Crab, "Sweetheart, I can get you something much better [than the antidepressant]," implying that he has connections to drugs somewhere. Interestingly, Robard's self-help tapes are not his first entrepreneurial endeavor. In Vice City Stories he ran an "Import/Export" business where clients could lease a boat and ferry "special" cargo to and from an island base not too far from Vice City. Like the implied nature of his self-help tape business, his prior enterprise actually consisted of drug-running.
Near the end of the show, Maurice eventually sees that Robard's program is worth nothing, that it hasn't gotten him anywhere, that he is not a rich successful businessman, that he hasn't changed anyone's lives, and that he is nothing but a poor desperate fraud. He notes that whatever the three discuss in the debate, Robard has covered this topic in one of his "tapes." After an exchange of insults, which includes Robard telling Konstantinos to put a hex on Maurice, Maurice becomes incensed and breaks Jeremy's nose with a 'heavy paperweight' on the air. Robard then threatens to sue, but is quickly cowed when Maurice threatens further violence. Maurice then mentions that he feels great about himself.
All the radio stations feature publicity breaks. Some advertised products are related to the game, while others link to segments in the radio shows or are just parodies of products of the time period.
The publicities that match elements of the game are:
The publicities mentioned on the radio stations are:
The stand-alone publicities include:
Some of the above-mentioned items would reappear in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas:
The Domestabot and Musty Pines (presenter of "Breathing World") also make brief cameos on Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. Finally, the player will actually get to control a Domestobot during a mission in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories titled, "Domo Arigato Domestoboto", making it the first product advertised on radio - not counting stores - to be used during a gameplay mission.
Vice City includes a few songs present in the game, through various cutscenes, that are not featured on any radio station. These include:
Two unidentified songs in Café Robina, not played on Radio Espantoso, can be heard in the cutscenes to the missions "Naval Engagement" and "Trojan Voodoo".
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