VCPR (Vice City Public Radio)

Updated 2 November 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

VCPR, or Vice City Public Radio, is a talk station in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) and Vice City Stories (2006). It parodies American public radio. In Vice City it carries one show, Pressing Issues, a discussion programme hosted by the short-tempered Maurice Chavez, broken up by pledge-drive appeals. Vice City Stories adds several new shows.

What is VCPR in GTA Vice City?

Vice City Public Radio is one of two all-talk stations in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, next to the celebrity chat station K-Chat. It is a send-up of American public broadcasting: earnest, worthy in tone and always short of money. There is no music at all. For the full line-up of stations in the game, see the GTA radio stations hub.

What is Pressing Issues?

In Vice City the station runs a single programme, Pressing Issues. Its host is Maurice Chavez, voiced according to the GTA Wiki by Philip Anthony-Rodriguez. Chavez invites guests to debate a topic of the day, and the guests are exaggerated versions of familiar 1980s types and causes. Chavez is permanently irritated, hates having his name mispronounced and struggles to keep control of his own studio. In one episode a guest, the preacher Pastor Richards, holds him at gunpoint, and Chavez talks his way out of it.

Between episodes, two station announcers run pledge drives. They plead with listeners for donations and try to make them feel guilty for not giving, while mocking Chavez behind his back. The joke rests on the gap between the station's high-minded image and what actually goes out on air.

What changed in Vice City Stories?

The 1984 prequel Vice City Stories keeps the station but widens the schedule. Pressing Issues returns and, according to the GTA Wiki, is the only VCPR show heard in both games. New shows include Bait and Switch, a fishing programme recorded at a boat show, and New World Order, a foreign-affairs show. There are also two old-time radio serials presented as re-runs from the 1940s.

Where can you hear VCPR?

Any car radio can be tuned to it. The GTA Wiki notes that taxis in Vice City tend to play VCPR or the Latin station Radio Espantoso. VCPR and K-Chat were also left out of the game's official soundtrack box set, since neither carries music.

How was Vice City's talk radio received?

Wikipedia says Vice City carries about three times as much talk radio as Grand Theft Auto III, whose Chatterbox FM started the idea, and that many reviewers praised the game's radio and talk shows. Later games kept the format with stations such as WCTR in San Andreas and Public Liberty Radio in GTA IV.