Radio stations: the precedent, since nothing is announced
No station has been named. Vice City shipped nine of them in 1986, and the shape of that line-up is the only real basis for a prediction.
Rockstar has announced no station names, no presenters and no tracklist for Grand Theft Auto 6. That is normal. Station names have historically arrived in the final weeks before release, usually on the game's own website rather than in a trailer.
So this page is not a list of what the stations are. It is a record of what the series has done before, which is the only honest basis anybody has for a prediction.
The 1986 line-up, which is the relevant precedent
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City shipped in 2002 with nine stations covering a single city in a single year. It is the closest structural comparison to Grand Theft Auto 6, because the new game is also one city plus its hinterland rather than a whole coast.
| Station | What it played | Presenter |
|---|---|---|
| Flash FM | Period pop and rock | Toni |
| V-Rock | Rock and metal | Couzin Ed |
| Wave 103 | New wave, synth-pop, post-punk | Adam First |
| Emotion 98.3 | Soft pop, power ballads, soft rock | Fernando Martinez |
| Fever 105 | Disco, funk and soul | Oliver Biscuit |
| Radio Espantoso | Latin jazz, mambo, son, salsa, Latin funk | Pepe |
| Wildstyle | Hip hop and electro | Mr Magic |
| K-Chat | Celebrity interviews | Amy Sheckenhausen |
| VCPR | Talk radio and topical discussion | Maurice Chavez |
The shape matters more than the names. Nine stations, of which two carry no music at all, and seven that between them cover the mainstream, the rock audience, the club, the ballad, the Latin audience and the hip hop audience. Rockstar has repeated that spread in every game since.
What has changed since 1986
Two of those nine slots exist because of the era. Wildstyle played electro because in 1986 hip hop radio was still a niche, and Radio Espantoso played mambo because the Cuban-American population of Miami was a generation older than it is now.
A 2020s Vice City inverts both. Hip hop is the mainstream rather than the niche, and the Latin audience Rockstar is writing for now is reggaeton and Latin trap rather than salsa. Real Dimez exist in the story as a rap act with a promoter and a studio behind them, which is a strong signal about where the centre of this soundtrack sits.
The numbers to expect
Grand Theft Auto V launched with over 240 licensed songs across 17 stations and grew past 750 tracks through Grand Theft Auto Online. Vice City managed its nine stations on a far smaller library, because a single-year setting narrows the licensing problem enormously.
Grand Theft Auto 6 has the harder version of that problem. A contemporary setting means the music has to sound current at launch and will date, and a map that runs from a city out to a swamp has historically earned a country station of its own.
What is not known
Everything specific. No station has been named, no presenter has been cast in public, and Rockstar has not said whether it has commissioned original music as it did for the Red Dead Redemption 2 score.
Several artists have publicly mentioned being contacted by or working with Rockstar. None of that is a confirmed placement and this page will not list it as one. For the songs that are actually confirmed, see radio and the soundtrack.