Killing in the Name played again on Radio 104

Early on Wednesday morning, someone at a pop and soft rock station in Vancouver, Canada played the song Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine.

They played it again.

The song had played hundreds of times on Kiss Radio 104.9 FM by midday, leading to online speculation that the singular choice was a protest against layoffs by parent company Rogers Sports and Media.

Industry insiders argued that it was a stunt to signal a format change at the station to alternative rock.

The song's lyrics include the repeated line : Fuck you, I won t do what you tell me! The sanitized radio edit was played by the station.

A call to the radio studio did not yield clarity.

The man who answered the phone would not explain why they were playing the song on repeat, nor provide his real name. He asked to be named Apollo after the character in the Rocky films.

I am not allowed to say anything. Apollo said I m just a guy in a booth, just letting the Rage play over and over. The incident came a day after the co-hosts of the station's morning show posted on Facebook that they had suddenly been fired.

Our five years on KiSS RADiO have come to an end. KiSS is changing and we were informed that we won't be part of this new chapter. Although this comes with mixed emotions, we want to express one overwhelming feeling of gratitude, wrote ex-hosts Kevin Lim and Sonia Sidhu.

On Wednesday, callers trying to request anything other than Killing in the Name were denied.

The song looped several times with no discernible beginning or end between requests. It was just one long version of Killing in the Name.

Apollo told The Guardian that the song was already on when he arrived at work, but he couldn't say exactly when it began.

I don't know. I should probably do it. If you are writing an article and your boss reads it, you're going to get into trouble, he said.

This reporter said, Well, I think you might get in trouble anyway, because I think you're going to get into trouble.