GTA radio stations through the series, game by game

Radio station counts for each GTA game from III to V, where each count comes from, what it includes, and the six GTA VI stations named Oct 8 2026.

Ask how many radio stations a Grand Theft Auto game has and you will get different answers, often for the same game, because "a station" can mean a music station, a talk station, a later addition, a one-platform extra or a custom station that plays your own files. This page gives a count for each game from GTA III to GTA V, labels how strong each count is, and ends with the six GTA VI stations Rockstar announced on October 8, 2026. For the GTA VI dial in depth (hosts, formats Rockstar promised, listening features), see GTA VI radio stations.

At a glance

Item	Figure	Source
Radio in the series since	The first game, 1997	CVG via GamesRadar, 2008
GTA III	9 stations: 8 music plus Chatterbox FM talk	Rockstar's GTA III manual
Vice City	9 stations: 7 music plus 2 talk	GameSpot, Oct 2002
San Andreas	11 stations (10 music plus WCTR talk), 20 DJs	GamesRadar, Oct 2004
GTA IV and its two episodes	19 music stations across all three stories	Rockstar Newswire, Apr 2013
GTA V	17 stations	Rockstar press release, Sep 2014
GTA V on PC, April 2015	17 plus The Lab plus Self Radio	Rockstar Newswire, 2015
Biggest single GTA Online music update	3 new stations, over 250 new tracks (Dec 2020)	Rockstar Newswire
GTA VI stations revealed so far	6 (Oct 8 2026); first on-demand podcasts; radio on foot through new headphones and earbuds	Rockstar Newswire

What is counted, and how

Rule one: a station is something on the in-game dial. We count music and talk stations together, because the dial does, and the table says which is which where a source separates them.

Rule two: platform and patch extras are listed separately. GTA V is the clearest case. Rockstar's September 2014 release gave the game's count as 17. The PC version then added The Lab, a new station hosted by The Alchemist and Oh No, and Self Radio, a custom station for the player's own music files. Simple addition gives 17 + 1 + 1 = 19 dial entries on PC at its April 2015 launch. That 19 is our arithmetic from Rockstar's posts, not a number Rockstar published.

Rule three: say where each count comes from. Three kinds of source are used, and they are not equally strong:

A count printed by Rockstar or an outlet. San Andreas (GamesRadar, 11), GTA IV and its episodes (Rockstar, 19 music stations), GTA V (Rockstar, 17).
Our tally of a Rockstar document. GTA III's 9 is the number of station credit sections in Rockstar's GTA III manual, read from the scan on archive.org. Vice City's 9 adds GameSpot's "seven different music stations" (Oct 28 2002) to the two talk stations its review names; the review says Vice City has "twice as many talk radio stations" as GTA III, which had one.
A floor from Rockstar's playlist post. For Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, the only count we could open is Rockstar's April 2013 list of Spotify and iTunes playlists. That post covers only music it could put on those services and leaves out talk radio, and it misses at least one station: it lists seven GTA III music stations, while the manual credits eight. So its figures for the two Stories games are minimums.

We found no source we could open that counts GTA 2's stations, so it has no figure. Fan wikis carry counts for every game; we did not use them.

Rule four: names, not songs. We list station names, genres and hosts as Rockstar or a contemporary outlet printed them. We reproduce no lyrics and no tracklists. For GTA VI we print only the host names Rockstar uses. Outlets have linked those personas to real artists; that is the outlets' identification, not Rockstar's (FACTS R12), so it is left out here.

The count, game by game

Game	Year	Stations	What the figure covers	Source
Grand Theft Auto	1997	Not counted here	Radio present from the first game	CVG via GamesRadar, 2008
London 1969	1999	Not counted here	Kept the radio stations, now with 1960s songs	CVG via GamesRadar, 2008
GTA 2	1999	Not counted here	No source we could open	-
GTA III	2001	9	Head Radio, Double Cleff FM, Flashback FM, K-Jah, Rise FM, Lips 106, Game FM and MSX FM, plus Chatterbox FM talk radio. Spellings are the manual's; Rockstar's 2013 playlist post also spells Double Cleff FM, but gives Flashback FM as "Flashback 95.6" and Game FM as "Game Radio FM"	Rockstar GTA III manual (our tally); Rockstar Newswire, Apr 2013
Vice City	2002	9	Seven music stations plus two talk stations, K-Chat and Vice City Public Radio; nine hours of radio in all	GameSpot, Oct 2002; CVG via GamesRadar, 2008
San Andreas	2004	11	Ten music stations plus WCTR talk radio; 20 DJs	GamesRadar, Oct 2004
Liberty City Stories	2005	At least 9 music	Includes Head Radio, Lips 106 and Double Cleff FM again, plus Radio Del Mundo and The Liberty Jam; talk radio not covered	Rockstar Newswire, Apr 2013
Vice City Stories	2006	At least 8 music	Includes Flash FM, V-Rock, Emotion 98.3 and Wave 103 again, plus Fresh 105 FM, Paradise FM and VCFL; talk radio not covered	Rockstar Newswire, Apr 2013
GTA IV, with The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony	2008 to 2009	19 music	Music stations across the base game and both episodes; Rockstar does not split them by game	Rockstar Newswire, Apr 2013
GTA IV, PC	2008	Adds 1	Independence FM, a station that plays the player's own music files	Rockstar GTA IV PC manual
Chinatown Wars, iPhone	2010	Adds 1	Independence Radio, built from the player's iTunes playlists	Rockstar press release, Jan 2010
GTA V	2013	17	The game's count, restated for the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions with over 100 new songs	Rockstar press release, Sep 2014
GTA V, PC	2015	17 + 2	Adds The Lab and Self Radio	Rockstar Newswire, Mar and Apr 2015
GTA Online	2020	Adds 3	Still Slipping Los Santos, K.U.L.T. 99.1 FM and The Music Locker	Rockstar Newswire, Dec 2020
GTA Online	2021	Adds media sticks	Los Santos Tuners (Jul 20 2021): collectible USB sticks with new music and a customizable radio wheel	Take-Two 8-K, Aug 2 2021
GTA Online	2021	Adds 1	The Contract (Dec 15 2021): Motomami Los Santos, hosted by Rosalia and Arca	Take-Two 8-K, Feb 7 2022
GTA VI	2026	6 revealed	Six named; Rockstar has not published a total	Rockstar Newswire, Oct 2026

The pattern in that table is the real story. From GTA III to San Andreas the count held near ten while the music on it grew: GamesRadar said San Andreas carried a track list three times the size of GTA III's. Then the dial stopped being fixed. GTA IV on PC let players add their own music in 2008, Chinatown Wars on iPhone did the same through iTunes, and GTA V on PC added both a new station and a custom one. GTA Online then turned the dial into a live service, with stations arriving inside content updates years after GTA V shipped.

Talk radio grew too. GTA III had one talk station, Chatterbox FM, hosted by Lazlow. GameSpot's 2002 review counted twice as many in Vice City. GTA IV's PC manual also credits WKTT Radio, Public Liberty Radio and Integrity 2.0, three stations that are not on Rockstar's list of 19 music stations.

San Andreas, 2004: the dial as GamesRadar printed it

San Andreas is the earliest game for which we could open a full station list printed before launch, with genres and DJs. GamesRadar printed it eight days before the North American launch, with the line that 11 stations would carry 20 DJs and a track list three times the size of GTA III's.

Station	Genre as printed	DJ as printed
Master Sounds	Soul, groove and funk	Johnny "The Love Giant" Parkinson
Playback	Hip-hop	Forth Right MC
Bounce FM	Funk	The Funktipus
K-DST	Classic rock 'n' roll	Tommy "The Nightmare" Smith
K-Jah West	Dancehall, ragga, reggae and dub	Marshall Peters and Johnny Lawton
CSR	Jack swing and modern soul	Philip "PM" Michaels
Radio X: The Alternative	Alternative rock	Sage
K-Rose	Country and western	Mary-Beth Maybell
Radio Los Santos	West Coast hip-hop	Julio G
SF-UR	House	Hans Oberlander
WCTR Talk Radio	Talk	Not revealed

The same piece said the stations were no longer simple loops: DJs would react to game events, including CJ's progress, with weather, news, call-ins and adverts mixed in.

GTA V and Online: the dial that kept growing

For the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions, Rockstar said in 2014, the 17 stations would get over 100 new songs and new DJ mixes. The PC version then added The Lab, hosted by score composers The Alchemist and Oh No, on April 14, 2015, a week before their standalone album, and Self Radio for the player's own audio files.

GTA Online pushed further. On December 10, 2020, Rockstar called its Cayo Perico music drop the biggest ever musical update to GTA Online: three new stations and over 250 new tracks, counting new mixes on FlyLo FM and Worldwide FM. Two of the new stations had named hosts: UK DJ Joy Orbison on Still Slipping Los Santos, and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes on K.U.L.T. 99.1 FM. Take-Two's filings record two more music changes in 2021. Los Santos Tuners, on July 20, added collectible USB sticks with new music and a customizable radio station wheel. The Contract, on December 15, added Motomami Los Santos, hosted by Rosalia and Arca.

GTA VI: the six stations announced October 8, 2026

Rockstar's post promises "the biggest and widest-ranging selection of in-game radio yet," spanning formats from classic rock to talk radio. It named six stations. Because Rockstar has not given a total, the honest count today is six revealed, total unknown.

Station	Format, per Rockstar	Hosts, as Rockstar names them	Detail from Rockstar's copy
Cocoteo FM	Modern Latin: bachata, merengue, dembow, reggaeton	El Martillo and La Gata	Billed as Leonida's home for modern Latin music
Back Country Radio	Renegade country	MW and Delta Dawne	Reporter Mud Dog Mike calls in from an airboat in the Grassrivers
AfroBank FM	African music, from 20th-century classics to amapiano and 3-step	Burna and Palmsy	Described as a curating duo
The Chamber 106.6	Metal	DJ Kerry and DJ Tom	"Decades" of metal
Flash FM	Pop	Robyn and Alex	Called a Vice City institution
Dirty South Classics	Regional rap and hip-hop classics	Trick and Trina	Pitched as repping Leonida and the South

Two changes matter more than any single station. GTA VI adds on-demand podcasts, a first for the series. And radio and podcasts can be heard on foot as well as in vehicles, through newly introduced headphones and earbuds connected to Jason's and Lucia's smartphones. The radio now travels with the character. Rockstar also says the game has a dynamic score, with more details to come, and that Grand Theft Auto VI: The Album, 34 original tracks, arrives on November 19 (FACTS F55).

Where the six stations sit on the map is covered in our Leonida guide; the two leads are profiled in Lucia and Jason.

Trivia

The Vice City soundtrack reached shops with the game in North America. Take-Two's 10-K says Epic Records released a seven-CD compilation "simultaneously with the domestic launch" in October 2002.
Chinatown Wars on iPhone was, per Rockstar's January 2010 release, the version that introduced Independence Radio, which built a station from the player's own iTunes playlists.
The 2021 Definitive Edition of the PS2 trilogy added an updated Radio Station selection wheel, according to Rockstar's product page.
Rockstar's 2013 playlist post calls GTA III "the first entry in the series to mix licensed music tracks with original ones" made for the game.
Back Country Radio's roving reporter and swamp meteorologist, Mud Dog Mike, is the one radio character in Rockstar's October 8 post who is not a host.