Hunky Tops Radio is live. It's a free, always-on internet radio station playing the music of the '80s, '90s and 2000s, picked by a gay man for gay men who were there the first time. You can listen right now at radio.hunkytops.live. Hit play, then come back and read the rest. I'll wait.
This is the station I've wanted to hear for about forty years. It's Pet Shop Boys into Alaska y Dinarama into The Cure. It's Bronski Beat, Erasure and Culture Club sharing airtime with Los Fabulosos Cadillacs and Lucybell. It's the songs you danced to, the songs you cried to, and the songs you played in your bedroom with the door closed while you figured out exactly what kind of man you were going to be.
I'll tell you what's on it, who it's for, how it got here, and where it's going. And then I want to hear from you.
Featured product:
Why a gay radio station, and why me
When I was a kid in Chile, my sister and I used to play DJ. One of us would be the announcer, the other one worked the "station," which was a cassette deck and whatever records we could get our hands on. We did intros. We did the weather. We took calls from imaginary listeners. We were very professional about it.
One of my favorite songs growing up was Queen's "Radio Ga Ga." It came out in 1984, Roger Taylor wrote it, and it's a love letter to radio at the exact moment music video was starting to take over. I didn't know any of that at the time. I just knew it made me feel like radio was something worth defending. I still think it is.
Then there was Compadre Chris. Chris Ruhe was a DJ on Radio Galaxia in the second half of the '80s, and he played the English-language music I was obsessed with. I used to call the station to request songs. A kid named Chris calling a DJ named Chris, asking him to play something by a British band he'd never see live, on a phone line that was almost always busy. When I got through, it felt like the whole country was about to hear my song. Maybe it was.
What I didn't have words for back then was how much of that music was queer. Bronski Beat and Erasure and Pet Shop Boys were singing about us, sometimes in code and sometimes not in code at all. And in Spanish there were records like Alaska y Dinarama's "A Quién Le Importa," which said the quiet part out loud and turned it into something you could dance to. Radio was where a lot of us heard, for the first time, that somebody else felt the way we did.
So when I finally got the chance to build a station, I knew exactly what it had to sound like.
What Hunky Tops Radio plays
The short version: queer nostalgia. The '80s, '90s and 2000s, Gen-X coded, with a queer touch on every record.
That queer touch comes in three flavors:
- Real queer artists. George Michael, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, Bronski Beat, The Communards, Culture Club, Soft Cell, Dead Or Alive, Scissor Sisters, k.d. lang, Divine, Elton John.
- Songs with a queer sensibility. The anthems we claimed long before anybody asked our permission. Gloria Gaynor, Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," Madonna's "Vogue" and "Express Yourself," Donna Summer, Kylie.
- Songs you heard while you were questioning it all. The Cure, Depeche Mode, a-ha, Duran Duran, Tears For Fears, Yazoo, OMD, David Bowie. Nobody in these bands had to be gay for these records to live rent-free in the head of every gay teenager in 1986.
The library is ever expanding. New records go on the air every week, and there's always another stack of discs waiting its turn.
A few you might catch on any given afternoon: "Smalltown Boy." "A Little Respect." "Fastlove." "It's A Sin." "Relax." "Tainted Love." "Don't Leave Me This Way." "Heart Of Glass." "Just Like Heaven." "Never Tear Us Apart." "Missing." And yes, "I'm Too Sexy," because somebody has to.
The Spanish-language half
This is the part no other station does, and it's the part I care about most.
A lot of us, gay men in Latin America and gay Latinos in the US, grew up with two soundtracks running at once. We had The Cure and Soda Stereo, Madonna and Alaska, MTV and whatever the local FM was playing. Most nostalgia stations only give you one of those. Hunky Tops Radio gives you both.
So you'll hear Alaska y Dinarama and Alaska y Los Pegamoides. Los Fabulosos Cadillacs. Los Abuelos de la Nada. Mikel Erentxun. And Lucybell, a Chilean band whose songs I've carried around with me for thirty years.
Hits that were huge somewhere else
A record doesn't need a Billboard peak to earn a spot here. Plenty of songs barely registered in the US and were massive in Chile, Argentina, Spain or Mexico. Erasure's "Love To Hate You" is my favorite example: it never did much on the American charts, it was enormous in Chile, and it's the campest thing Erasure ever released. It plays a lot here.
If you grew up outside the US, or you grew up in the US with a family radio tuned somewhere else, you'll hear songs on this station that no American oldies format would ever touch. That's on purpose.
Who it's for
Hunky Tops Radio is for gay men who were there the first time. Guys who remember taping songs off the radio and cursing the DJ for talking over the intro. Guys who had a Walkman and a secret. Guys who found their people on a dance floor, in a record store, or in a song, before they ever found them in person.
It's for the Hunky Tribe, wherever you are. The station streams to the US, Canada and Mexico, so if you're reading this in Monterrey or Montreal, you're in.
And honestly, if you're not a gay Gen-Xer but you love this music, pull up a chair. Nobody's checking ID at the door.
Every song comes off a real CD
Every track on Hunky Tops Radio comes off a physical CD that I ripped myself. Some of those discs have been on my own shelves for decades. A lot of them came from record stores and secondhand sellers, one compilation at a time, because compilations and soundtracks get you more artists per disc and fewer filler tracks.
Then I listen, and I decide what makes it to air. Most of what I rip doesn't. The station is only as good as the songs I say no to.
It's slow. It's a little obsessive. It's also the only way I know how to do this properly. It means the station sounds like somebody's actual record collection, because it is one.
How to listen
Go to radio.hunkytops.live and hit play. That's it.
It works on your phone and your laptop, and on whatever speakers you can plug either one into. It's free, you don't need an account, and nobody's going to ask for your email before you hear a song. Leave it on while you work, while you cook, while you get ready to go out. It's on 24 hours a day.
Tell me what you want to hear
This is where you come in.
I built this library from my own memory and my own collection, which means it has my blind spots. There's a song out there that got you through 1991, and I haven't thought of it yet. I want to know what it is.
Send me the record you can't believe nobody plays anymore. The Spanish-language hit your older cousin played on repeat. The B-side that meant everything. The song that was playing the first time you walked into a gay bar.
Email me at christian@hunkytops.store. I read every one.
A heads-up on how radio works: I can't play a specific song for you at a specific time. That's a licensing rule for stations like this one, and it's the same rule most internet radio stations in the US play by. What your suggestion does is get the song considered for the library. If I can find it on CD and it fits the station, it goes into rotation, and one day you'll be doing the dishes and it'll just come on. Honestly, that's better. That's how radio is supposed to feel.
What's next for Hunky Tops Radio
The station is brand new. Here's what's already in the works.
More music, especially in Spanish. There's a stack of discs already ripped and waiting their turn, including Mecano, Juan Gabriel, RuPaul, Eurythmics, The Human League and Paula Abdul. They'll roll onto the air over the coming weeks. I'm also hunting down the Southern Cone records that almost never show up in American bins: Soda Stereo, Virus, Los Prisioneros. If you have a line on any of those, tell me.
Different sounds for different hours. Right now the station runs one format around the clock. Once I've lived with it for a few weeks, mornings will lean toward the big recognizable songs, and late nights will go deeper and moodier. The 2 a.m. crowd has different needs, and I respect that.
Weekly shows. The main format sticks to the '80s, '90s and 2000s. But there's a lot of great queer music being made right now, and there are records I love that don't quite fit the era. They'll get their own named shows on a regular schedule, so you'll know when to tune in.
Sponsored hours. I'm opening up hours of the station to sponsors. If you run a queer-owned business, a bar, a podcast, an event, or anything else you'd like the Hunky Tribe to hear about, you can sponsor an hour of Hunky Tops Radio. Want to sponsor an hour? Send me a message and let's talk.
More of me on the air. A station needs a voice. Expect more station IDs between songs over time, and eventually some of the stories behind the records.
Where is this going long term? Somewhere between the station my sister and I pretended to run as kids and the one Compadre Chris actually ran. A real station, with a real point of view, playing the soundtrack of our lives for the people who lived them.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hunky Tops Radio free?
Yes. Hunky Tops Radio is free to listen to at radio.hunkytops.live, with no account or sign-up required.
What kind of music does Hunky Tops Radio play?
Queer nostalgia from the '80s, '90s and 2000s: real queer artists like Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, George Michael and Bronski Beat, gay anthems, new wave and synth-pop, and Spanish-language pop and rock from Latin America and Spain.
Is Hunky Tops Radio a gay radio station?
Yes. It's an LGBTQ internet radio station programmed by a gay man, built primarily for gay men who grew up with this music. Everybody who loves the music is welcome to listen.
Can I request a song?
You can suggest one. The licensing rules for internet radio stations like this one don't allow playing a specific song on demand, but every suggestion sent to christian@hunkytops.store gets considered for the library, and songs that fit go into rotation.
Where can I listen?
Anywhere in the US, Canada or Mexico, on any phone or computer with a web browser. Just go to radio.hunkytops.live.
How do I sponsor an hour?
Email christian@hunkytops.store with a little about you and what you'd like to promote.
Turn it on
Radio only works if somebody's out there listening. So turn it on, leave it running, and tell me what's missing.
The guy who picks the songs also makes the shirts at hunkytops.com, in case you need something to wear while you dance around your kitchen.
Stay Hunky.
