GTA 6's first six radio stations, who hosts them, and the change that lets you hear them on foot

On 8 October Rockstar named the first six radio stations in Grand Theft Auto 6, put previews of them on its music page, and confirmed something the series has never done before: you can keep listening after you get out of the car.

When we wrote up what was confirmed about the soundtrack in September, there were songs but no station names. Now we've got some of them.

The first six stations

The on-air names come from Rockstar's own descriptions. The real people voicing them come from Rockstar's announcement, as reported by CharlieIntel and repeated across the music press.

• Flash FM. Pop, and the one returning name. It was the pop station in Vice City in 2002 and Vice City Stories in 2006, and Rockstar calls it a Vice City institution. Hosted by Robyn and Alex Consani.
• Cocoteo. Modern Latin: bachata, merengue, dembow and reggaeton. On air as El Martillo and La Gata, voiced by Bad Bunny and RaiNao.
• Afro Bank FM. Amapiano, African classics and 3-step, from Burna Boy and Palms Trax, credited on air as Burna and Palmsy.
• The Chamber. Metal from the eighties on, hosted by DJ Kerry and DJ Tom, who are Kerry King and Tom Araya of Slayer.
• Dirty South Classics. Regional rap and hip-hop, with Trick Daddy and Trina. They're both from Miami, which feels right for a station broadcasting to a fictional Miami.
• Back Country. Country, presented by MW and Delta Dawne, with a roving swamp weather reporter called Mud Dog Mike who files from an airboat. Several outlets have named who's behind MW and Delta Dawne, but they don't agree with each other, and Rockstar's page only uses the on-air names. So we're leaving it there until Rockstar names them.

The bigger change is the headphones

Every GTA before this tied the radio to a vehicle. Step out and the music stopped. In GTA 6, Jason and Lucia can connect headphones or earbuds to their phones and keep listening on foot, to the radio or to on-demand podcasts, which are also new to the series.

That's going to change how the whole world sounds. You spend a lot of a Rockstar open world walking: into a shop, round a marina, across a beach. Talk radio has always been where the writers hide their best jokes, and until now you only heard them in traffic. Rockstar hasn't named any of the podcasts yet.

Six is only the first wave

GTA 5 launched with seventeen stations, fifteen of them music and two talk, and Rockstar hasn't said anything to suggest the new game ships with fewer. It hasn't given a total either. Coverage of the announcement already points to classic rock and talk radio still to come.

The radio's separate from the album, too. *Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album* is thirty-four original tracks, out on 19 November, with singles already listed from Yung Lean with Future and Metro Boomin, Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen, Fuerza Regida, Rauw Alejandro, Cardi B and Keith Richards. Justice, who are credited with the score, released the album's lead single with the launch trailer on 15 October.

You can hear the previews now

Rockstar's music page has a preview of each station. Pick one and choose Preview Station. They run about two minutes each, and you get the on-air chatter as well as the songs.

One thing nobody's answered yet is whether you'll be able to build your own station from music you own, the way GTA 5 let you on PC. We'll update the radio stations wiki page as that, the full station count, Back Country's hosts and the podcasts each get answered.