If You Tune In To Vancouver’s Kiss 104.9 (opens in new tab) radio station anytime in the last 24 hours, there’s every chance you’ve heard a pop radio station playing a little outside your usual remit: Rage Against the Machine’s protest anthem killing in the Name, Cause that’s the only song they’re playing,
It’s quite a change of direction for the station, whose news pages are filled with headlines like “Summer Bucket List Activities: 41 Fun Things to Do” and “Ranked: The 25 Best Cupcake Flavors.”
The Morning Show co-hosts Kevin Lim and Sonia Sidhu announced their departure from the station after five years, thanking fans on Facebook and confirming they were moving on.
“KiSS is changing and unfortunately we were informed that we will not be part of this new chapter,” he wrote. “While it comes with mixed feelings, we want to express an overwhelming feeling: gratitude.
“First and foremost, thank you you…our loyal listeners and friends now. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who shared their mornings with us and invited us into their lives through radio and our podcasts. We never took you lightly.”
and it’s done killing in the Name From then on, played on a loop that is interrupted only by the recording of callers who immediately want to hear something else. requests that are then ignored. And sometimes, the loop is interrupted by people who really want to listen. killing in the Name Again.
So what is going on? Guardian called the station to find out (opens in new tab), and spoke to an employee who went by the unlikely name of Apollo. “I am not allowed to say,” said Apollo. “I’m just a guy in a booth, just letting Rage play over and over. What do you think? Do you like it?”
We have a theory. While it would be nice to think that Kevin and Sonia have somehow wrestled control of the transmitter from their former employers and are playing RATM as a giant crap, the way Tom Morello is definitely clinging to that guy. , we suspect this is simply a clever public relations ploy.
If there is a change in the station’s music policy, what better way to give innocent journalists a new direction than to loop an iconic anthem of protest? Finally, the version of killing in the Name What they’re looping over is neat editing, and if Kevin and Sonia were truly dissatisfied they would certainly have chosen the sworn version.
If so, we’ve been sucked in.
