Mystery as Canadian radio station plays Rage Against the Machine song nonstop

Authored by theguardian.com and submitted by _easilyamused
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Early on Wednesday morning, someone at a pop and soft rock station in Vancouver, Canada, began playing the song Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine.

By midday, the song had played hundreds of times on Kiss Radio 104.9 FM, prompting online speculation that the singular choice was a protest against layoffs by parent company Rogers Sports and Media.

Industry insiders, however, argued it was a stunt to signal a format change at the station to alternative rock.

The song’s lyrics include the repeated line: “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!”. The station, however, played the sanitised radio edit.

After looking over the gossip forums, I'm positive now that 104.9 is stunting before a format change. Hopefully the choice of song means a switch to a metal/punk/hard-rock format, maybe even a 90s hard rock format. It would be welcome on Vancouver's airwaves. — Hailey Heartless (@SadistHailey) June 29, 2022

A call to the radio studio did not yield clarity.

The man who answered the phone would not explain why they were playing the song on repeat, nor provide his real name. Instead, he asked to be called Apollo after the character in the Rocky films.

“I’m not allowed to say. I’m just a guy in a booth, just letting the Rage play over and over,” said Apollo. “What do you think? Do you like it?”

The incident came a day after the co-hosts of the station’s morning show posted on Facebook that they had suddenly been fired.

“Our five years on KiSS RADiO has come to an end. KiSS is changing and unfortunately we were informed that we won’t be part of this new chapter. Although this comes with mixed emotions, we want to express one overwhelming feeling: gratitude,” wrote ex-hosts Kevin Lim and Sonia Sidhu.

On Wednesday, callers’ attempts to request anything besides Killing in the Name were denied.

Between requests, the song looped several times with no discernible beginning or end. Rather, it was just one long version of Killing in the Name.

Apollo told the Guardian that the song was already on when he arrived at work, but couldn’t say exactly when it began.

“I don’t know. I should, probably. If you’re writing an article and my boss reads it, I’m gonna get in trouble,” he said.

This reporter answered, “Well, I mean, I think you might get in trouble anyway.”

Ordinary-Ear9912 on June 30th, 2022 at 04:10 UTC »

Radio stations do this all of the time when they are getting set to flip the format.

Nothing new.

DMGlowen on June 30th, 2022 at 02:48 UTC »

There is no mystery many many radio stations will do a day where they play one song over and over just before they change formats.

vegetarian_slut on June 30th, 2022 at 02:47 UTC »

Canada: hey can you play anything besides that one Rage Against the Machine song?

The radio station: FUCK YOU I WONT DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!