A mystery has erupted in Canada as radio station started playing a Rage Against the Machine song non-stop.
Early Wednesday morning, people in Vancouver, Canada woke up to listening 'Killing in the Name' by Rage Against the Machine, after a pop and soft rock station played it over and over again.
By midday, the song had played hundreds of times on Kiss Radio 104.9 FM.
The song’s lyrics include the repeated line: “F**k you, I won’t do what you tell me!”.
However, the station played the clean radio version.
And frustrated people were left speculating that the singular choice was a protest following layoffs by parent company Rogers Sports and Media.
Two of the biggest names on the radio station, Kevin Lim and Sonia Sidhu, announced on Tuesday morning (June 28) that they would no longer be with the radio station after five years on air.
"KiSS is changing and unfortunately we were informed that we won't be part of this new chapter," write the hosts in a Facebook post.
"We are so incredibly thankful for everyone who shared their mornings with us and invited us into their lives through the radio and our podcast. We've never taken you for granted."
Industry insiders have however argued it was a stunt to signal a formal change at the station to alternative rock.
One person took to Twitter to explain: "After looking over the gossip forums, I'm positive now that 104.9 is stunting before a format change.
"Hopefully the choice of song means a switch to a metal/punk/hard-rock format, maybe even a 90s hard rock format. It would be welcome on Vancouver's airwaves."
But, others saw the comedic side to the prank with one writing: "Mystery as Canadian radio station plays Rage Against the Machine song nonstop".
Another wrote: "I've been listening to KiSS radio play Killing in the Name for the past half hour, and someone just called in [saying] 'I'm sick of the same old music all day. Can someone play Rage Against the Machine for a change?'."
Listeners called in asking the station to explain why they were playing the song on repeat, but the man who answered the calls could not explain - nor was willing to provide his real name.
Instead, he requested to go by the name Apollo, after the character in the Rocky films.
“I’m not allowed to say. I’m just a guy in a booth, just letting the Rage play over and over,” said Apollo.
“What do you think? Do you like it?”
Come Wednesday, callers then attempted to request other songs.
But anything besides Killing in the Name were denied.
The song looped several times between requests - with no detectable beginning or end. Rather, the song just became one long version of Killing in the Name.
Apollo told the Guardian that the song was already on when he arrived at work, but couldn’t say exactly when it began.
“I don’t know. I should, probably. If you’re writing an article and my boss reads it, I’m gonna get in trouble,” he said.
The Guardian's reporter then answered: “Well, I mean, I think you might get in trouble anyway.”
“Good point,” he replied back.
