Grand Theft Auto III's radio stations have been highly praised since its October 2001 release. It almost feels like you are listening to radio stations, including rap and opera music stations, as you walk through Liberty City. Twenty years later, you can still enjoy the radio commercials that provide some of the most hilarious satire available in video games. Here is where Rockstar Games' soul is revealed.
One commercial features the Miabatsu Monstrosity. This is a reference the gas-guzzling SUVs which appeared in the early aughts. Ponzer and Rakin, personal injury lawyers, are on the airwaves declaring: See, the best thing about this country? You can sue anybody for almost anything and you'll likely win.
Who produced and wrote these commercials? They were sung by who? How do these spots look today, in the eyes and ears of those who work in radio and advertising? WIRED recently asked these questions to Lazlow Jones, a key Rockstar figure.
Rockstar fans know Lazlow for his memorable hosting role on several radio stations throughout the GTA, including Chatterbox FM's debut in GTA III radios. Lazlow worked for Rockstar cofounder Dan Houser for almost two decades before he left the company in April 2020. He was also a producer, director, writer and producer.
GTA III's 20th anniversary and Rockstars' announcement that next-generation remastered versions will be released of GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas, on November 11, we offer an insider look at how GTA IIIs commercials came about and why they still resonate today.
A Star Is Born
Lazlow would be first to say that his rise to the status of video gaming royalty was unlikely. He worked as a journalist at a digital advertising agency and as a radio host for Technofile, a syndicated daily show about technology and video gaming.
In 2001, he arrived at Rockstar's Manhattan offices to record a radio segment about the upstart videogame company. Dan [Houser] said they were creating a game with radio and wanted to mock American stations. Since I was a child, I have been obsessed with radio. My father was a blues/soul DJ, and I worked at a Midwest rock station before I was born.
Houser and Lazlow began talking about the bizarre state of American radio in the 1960s, as well as how cookie-cutter nearly every station sounded. Lazlow says that they were bound to have a deep-voiced man trying to sound tough, or make terrible sex jokes. He was invited to the Rockstar team shortly after.
Lazlow recalls that Rockstars' first office was small and messy. The office didn't even have a conference room. Houser's apartment was home to the pair once a week, where they would meet up for creative sessions. They were fueled by diet Cokes, anchovy onions pizza and cigarettes.
