Yahoo Finance A Canadian Radio Station Played Rage Against the Machine for 30 Straight Hours: A 'Tad Disruptive'
Steve Thorne/Redferns/Getty Rage Against the Machine
Fans of the Canadian radio station KiSS 104.9 FM who wanted to listen to literally anything but Rage Against the Machine's "Killing In the Name" were out of luck on Wednesday.
Because once the station started playing the 1992 protest anthem, it simply never stopped, leaving the song on repeat for 30 hours.
"I'm not allowed to say [why]," an anonymous staffer told the Guardian. "I'm just a guy in a booth, just letting the Rage play over and over. What do you think? Do you like it?"
The outlet reported that calls to the station requesting other songs were denied in favor of "Killing In the Name," which was written as a battle cry against police brutality in light of the beating of Rodney King and the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
"The host just took a caller who was sick of it," a Twitter user wrote. "After a [b]it of banter, she asked what they wanted to hear, caller said "I dunno, anything other than—" and then they cut her off and launched directly into Killing In the Name again."
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While the reasoning behind the repeat plays was initially unclear, fans speculated that the song was chosen as a protest against the layoffs of three popular hosts who announced their departures on Tuesday.
Morning hosts Kevin Lim and Sonia Sidhu and afternoon host Tara Jean Stevens all said their goodbyes this week, and a social media statement from the morning hosts hinted at some internal strife that could possibly have inspired the stunt.
"KiSS is changing and unfortunately we were informed that we won't be part of this new chapter," the statement read, in part.
Today was our last show on KiSS RADiO. Thank you for everything ♥ pic.twitter.com/rRZHySgkMU
— Kevin Lim (@KevinLimOnAir) June 28, 2022
However, Christian Hall, Content Director of SONiC RADIO and JACK 96.9, Rogers Sports & Media, confirmed to PEOPLE that the non-stop raging was actually a way of transitioning the station from pop into a new alternative rock format.
"In keeping with radio's reputation of being fun and the format's reputation as being a tad disruptive, we couldn't think of a better way to capture our local listeners' attention than by playing the iconic anthem Killing In the Name by Rage Against the Machine non-stop for 30 hours, and well… it wound up catching the world's attention," Hall said.
Regardless of the reason, the song was a hit among Twitter users, many of whom tuned in to KiSS specifically to hear "Killing In the Name."
Something about a radio station looping "Killing in the Name," for hours, fills me with such hope for the world.
— Taylour the Terrible (@nonstartercult) June 30, 2022
"Something about a radio station looping "Killing in the Name," for hours, fills me with such hope for the world," one user wrote.
Added another user: "I'm listening to these guys and someone just called in and said "I'm loving your playlist!" and the host responded "It's pretty diverse, isn't it?" before immediately jumping back into Killing in the Name."
The popularity of "Killing In the Name" has endured over the years, and it saw a huge bump in 2009 after a British campaign meant to keep the winner of The X Factor from getting the U.K. Christmas No. 1 successfully got the song to the top of the charts.
