Rage Against The Machine’s 1992 hit “Killing In The Name” is a good song, widely regarded as one of the most memorable and defining singles of its era. It continues to do well today, as it has over 600 million streams on Spotify, easily the most of any Rage song. If you’re a fan of the song, then yesterday’s broadcast on Vancouver’s KISS-FM 104.9 radio station was heavenly, as they played the track on repeat for hours on end.
Writer Tracey Lindeman, who described KISS-FM as a “soft-rock station,” noticed this and shared some insight about what the experience was like, tweeting, “Whenever someone calls in for a request, they deny it and replay the Rage song again.” She added, “They play it a few times between requests. There are no pauses between when one play ends and the next one begins so it just sounds like one long, long song,” as well as, “Last person to make a request requested ‘Killing In the Name Of.’ The host replied, ‘stick around – i don’t know when we’ll be able to play it but we will play it’ Then immediately launched into ‘Killing In the Name Of.’”
She even tried to get some answers but came up empty, tweeting, “When I called the radio station the host wouldn’t say why they were doing it. […] He refused to confirm whether it’s a stunt or a protest.”
Rolling Stone later noted there was speculation this whole thing was indeed a publicity stunt to usher in a newly announced rock-leaning station. To that point, the KISS-FM website now notes, “Thank you for listening to KiSS RADiO in Vancouver & The Valley. This KiSS is saying goodbye but you can still listen to the KiSS Radio in Edmonton, Ottawa, and Toronto on their websites or on your smart speaker devices. […] If you’d like to try something new, you could listen to SONiC – The New Alternative.”