99.0 The Underground

Overview

99.0 The Underground is the in-fiction pirate radio station in Saints Row 2. Where every other station broadcasts uniformly across Stilwater, The Underground is transmitted through a single tower on Mount Claflin and the signal strength fades with distance from it. Driving north-east through the Hotels & Marina or Museum districts puts the radio out of range entirely; closer to Mount Claflin the signal is clean.

This makes The Underground the only Saints Row 2 station with a real-world broadcast model. Volition coded the inner radius (full strength) and outer radius (cuts out completely) into the game files; between the two the radio plays interference. The radio tower is also a destructible object: blow it up and the station goes silent.

It is the default radio for the University Loft crib.

DJ Ken

Ken hosts the station and plays a hostile, snobbish music elitist. He insults listeners on air, looks down on anyone listening to commercial pop and harbours strong opinions about indie bands. Where Veteran Child on Generation X is abrasive but ironic, Ken is sincere about it.

His station IDs include lines like "This is Ken for pirate radio. I hate you", "I'm Ken and you suck. 99.0 pirate radio", and "Didn't like that song? Well fuck you, you're stupid". He often credits regional scenes when introducing tracks - Shipwreck's House of Cards gets the line "straight from Champaign, Illinois to your ears".

Tracklist

There are 14 licensed songs in the bank, drawn from late-2000s indie rock. Highlights include Tokyo Police Club, Kasabian's Shoot the Runner, Okkervil River's For Real, Marnie Stern, The Twilight Sad's expansive And She Would Darken the Memory of Youth, and Deerhunter's Hazel St.. The shortest cut is Tokyo Police Club's Cheer It On at 1:35.

Despite the pirate framing, the station still plays scripted commercials and news bulletins from Jane Valderamma during breaks.