GNR Building Plaza (Fallout 3)



Galaxy News Radio (GNR) is a remnant of the pre-War Galaxy News Network.

Run by DJ Three Dog, GNR splits its time between Wasteland news, survival advice, and Big Band music. Three Dog operates the station as part of the "Good Fight," which he explains later is his attempt to tell inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland how "things really are" and the Enclave's true intentions. He also explains that the reason he plays the same few songs over and over is because these are all the records he's been able to locate in playable condition.

GNR's initial signal quality is poor; it can barely be heard in Megaton and fades out entirely if one gets any further away. People in Moriarty's Saloon comment on this being a recent development, and when the player eventually meets Three Dog as part of the main quest line, he explains that his previous antenna was destroyed when a Super Mutant took a shot at it. After the player obtains a replacement antenna dish from the Virgo II lunar lander in the Museum of Technology, the station becomes one of three that can be heard anywhere in the Capital Wasteland (the other two being Enclave Radio and Agatha's Station).

As the player advances in the game, they may hear Three Dog report on their exploits, each based on how the player handled a given situation. These are, by and large, related to major quests -- for example, if the player disarms the nuke as part of The Power of the Atom, Three Dog will mention this event specifically in a news broadcast. Smaller quests will go unnoticed, such as saving the slaves from Evergreen Mills.

Before each quest-related news broadcast, Three Dog will refer to the player by their current Karma level. For example, if the player's current Karma ranking is "Paladin", Three Dog will introduce the player by stating that "a Paladin walks among us!".

As part of the main story, the player is sent to GNR after finding out that James visited Three Dog.

Should Three Dog die (most likely because the player killed him), he will be relieved on-air by Margaret, his technician. She is far less glib than Three Dog and will simply play record after record, occasionally breaking in to announce that she's taken over for the normal DJ because he's dead and all she has to play are the records; this ends any sort of news reports for the duration of the game.

Sci-fi fans will recognize some references in some of Three Dogs announcements: right after you fix the antenna at the Washington Monument, Three Dog will announce that "You can't stop the signal", a line from Joss Whedon's Serenity (you will have to wait for the song(s) to finish), while his line "Last, best hope for humanity," when you reach that Karma rank, comes a speech by Abraham Lincoln.

Directions to Galaxy News Radio
You must go through the Tenleytown/Friendship Station, which can be reached through the Farragut West Station maintenance tunnels. Once in the station, make your way through to the Chevy Chase North access. Outside you will see the Brotherhood of Steel fighting Super Mutants in a bombed out building. Once the Super Mutants are killed (by your hands or the Brotherhood of Steel), follow them through the alley to a Super Mutant infested building. On the way to this building you should notice a dead Brotherhood of Steel soldier laying on a bed on the ground; he will have a Power Armor and some Energy Cells that you can take. The last stop in this battle will be the plaza in front of the GNR building itself, where you will battle the final group of Super Mutants.

Be warned: shortly after all the Super Mutants in the plaza are dead, a Super Mutant Behemoth will break through the buses on the left side of the GNR building. (This can cause you quite a lot of damage and some rads if you're standing too close to the buses, although the maddened Behemoth will probably be the foremost of your concerns.) A dead Brotherhood of Steel soldier lying in or near the fountain will have a Fat Man on him - this is the most expedient means to kill the Behemoth. If one Mini-Nuke isn't enough to drop him, two definitely will, or you and any surviving Brotherhood can finish him off with conventional weapons.

On a side note, if you have found a way to continue the main storyline without finishing the Following in His Footsteps quest, then you will still have to fight through the Super Mutants, just without the help of the Brotherhood of Steel, until you reach the station and find the Brotherhood waiting... and the Super Mutant Behemoth charging. The dead soldier with the Fat Man can be found near the fountain, or you can buy one from Flak 'N Shrapnel's in Rivet City. If Fawkes (or any other companion) is with you, he will very likely be killed by the Behemoth. You can save your companion by telling him to stay put in a safe spot nearby, such as the closed off metro entrance on the square; this way he will have cover and is less likely to take damage from the Behemoth or friendly fire, especially the Fat Man. Talking to Three Dog will still finish the Following in His Footsteps quest.

Killing the Super Mutant Behemoth without a Fat Man is not difficult, but it is time consuming. Directly south of the fountain in front of GNR is a covered area with a balcony. If you stand under the balcony, the Super Mutant Behemoth will not be able to harm you. You can stay there and shoot at him with a Hunting Rifle. This will eventually kill it. If you do run out of ammo, anything dead in the area will have an assault rifle and some ammo for it on their body.

The fountain in the center of the plaza can prove useful if one wants to take a more dynamic approach at killing the Super Mutant Behemoth. Keep the fountain always between yourself and the behemoth by staying close to the fountain and strafing around it. As soon as he turns his attention to you (if you did not have it from the start), it will try to reach you, but as it cannot run straight towards you, you will be faster, thus being always face-to-face with him. This enables you to get easy close range headshots without taking damage - preferrably with a weapon suited for this job, like the Combat Shotgun.

Licensed songs
The following 20 licensed tracks cycle on Galaxy News Radio, listed here by song title and performer in the order found in the Fallout 3 credits. Songs licensed from APM Music, Inc do not credit performers; the composer is listed if available.
 * "I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire" by The Ink Spots
 * "Anything Goes" performed by Cole Porter
 * "A Wonderful Guy" by Tex Beneke
 * "Boogie Man" by Sid Phillips
 * "Butcher Pete (Part 1)" by Roy Brown
 * "Crazy He Calls Me" performed by Billie Holiday
 * "Civilization" performed by Danny Kaye with The Andrews Sisters
 * "Easy Living" performed by Billie Holiday
 * "Fox Boogie" composed by Gerhard Trede
 * "Happy Times" performed by Bob Crosby & the Bobcats
 * "I'm Tickled Pink" composed by Jack Shaindlin
 * "Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall" performed by Ella Fitzgerald with The Ink Spots
 * "Jazzy Interlude" composed by Billy Munn
 * "Jolly Days" composed by Gerhard Trede
 * "Let's Go Sunning" composed by Jack Shaindlin
 * "Maybe" by The Ink Spots
 * "Mighty, Mighty Man" by Roy Brown
 * "Rhythm For You" by Eddy Christiani and Frans Poptie
 * "Swing Doors" composed by Allan Gray
 * "Way Back Home" performed by Bob Crosby & the Bobcats

I've taken the liberty of compiling the songs into a "Galaxy News Radio" playlist, all songs included!: http://www.playlist.com/playlist/15214926859

The gentlemen at legal geekery have done a splendid job of compiling the lyrics for these songs over here: http://legalgeekery.com/2008/11/08/fallout-3-song-list/

Someone at Pandora has created a station that seems to use a lot of these songs as the seeds: http://www.pandora.com/stations/66024636e2270eef6c0bf0e01e2a6942e3c751ee3636d9de

Note that the song "Jazz Interlude" is often played at the beginning and/or end of The Adventures of Herbert Daring Dashwood broadcasts.

Other Reporters
If you kill Three Dog the maintenance woman Margaret will take over the GNR radio. She will say "hello" sometimes and "It's just me again... Three Dog's dead" and "I hope people are listening to this shitty radio station" and "Some asshole killed the DJ". She will not report on the Lone Wanderer's progress.

Broadcast Errors

 * For many quests with multiple possible solutions/outcomes, Three Dog may report the wrong one.
 * If you cross GNR without the "Following In His Footsteps" quest it is possible to hear a broadcast that you have been to Galaxy News Radio, even though you have not, although he may have been talking about James, the Lone Wanderer's father.
 * After the Enclave arrives at the end of Waters of Life, Three Dog will stop mentioning news stories about the player. He will continue to announce the arrival of the Enclave, give public service announcements, and give news updates on the status of The Wasteland (Confirmed PC)
 * Three Dog will stop broadcasting news stories about the player after the player reaches Level 20, but changing your karma will make him broadcast them again.
 * After Three Dog starts giving news updates involving the player's actions, he will stop announcing the songs he will be playing.
 * Occasionally, if you haven't completed any quests and reached a level beyond 2 with good or bad karma, Three Dog will get stuck on a news announcement loop (announcing that he has news several times in a row without actually delivering any).
 * He will keep repeating the story of you leaving Bryan Wilks in Grayditch if you chose to not find a home for him, even after you complete many quests after it. It seems he'll do this even if you have good karma.
 * If you recover the Soil Stradivarius from Vault 92 without starting the quest Agatha's Song and sell it to Abraham Washington in Rivet City, Three Dog will negatively report that you found out about the violin from Agatha and sold it instead of returning it to its rightful owner.
 * There is a broadcast about the Outcasts, but Three Dog never plays this one for some reason. Apparently they enjoy taking pot-shots at the GNR building.
 * There seems to be a glitch where Three-Dog might refer to you as the opposite sex, claiming that "You, girl, are truly a paradigm of humanity" for a male character with neutral karma. (This only happens when you are level 20 at Neutral karma. It is possibly not a bug, as Three Dog sometimes says something other than "girl" when broadcasting about a female character, instead of calling a male character a girl.)
 * Three Dog will say he's going to play music and then will go straight into talking about the player (found on x360)
 * Three Dog may mention the player's title but fail to deliver any quest-related news, skipping straight to generic news - e.g., if the player's rank is "Ranger of the Wastes", Three Dog will mention the "ranger of the Wastes", but instead of following this statement with a quest-related news segment, he'll instead skip to saying "This is Three Dog with a bit of news!" and deliver a generic news piece.

Other Broadcasts
Galaxy News Radio also proudly presents on occasion the adventures of Herbert "Daring" Dashwood and his stalwart Ghoul manservant Argyle. Radio dramas tell us about encounters with such evil villains as the slaver leader from Paradise Falls - the infamous "Black Widow"! Now broadcasting in a wasteland near you!

Location

 * Galaxy News Radio building and GNR Plaza is located in the Chevy Chase district.

Loot in Galaxy News Radio

 * 1) Nuka-Cola Vending Machine, lockers with Recon Armor, beds to sleep in
 * 2) Ammunition Boxes and First Aid Box
 * 3) First Aid Box
 * 4) Barracks with more lockers

Loot in GNR Studios

 * 1) Big Book of Science located in the GNR Studios near a red chair. This book costs karma to steal.
 * A. Three Dog

Trivia
The Galaxy News logo appears originally in the introductory movie for Fallout (the original game in the series). The popularity of Fallout (along with the distinctive style of the logo) led to the logo's adaptation into the brand symbol for Interplay, the original publisher of the game.

Using the PIPBoy, if you go to the notes, you can find a pip-boy picture of the building. This may have been a possible reward in Megaton.

The radio broadcast featuring the adventures of Herbert "Daring" Dashwood is a reference to the 1930s radio program The Green Hornet featuring masked vigilante Britt Raid fighting crime with the help of his faithful manservant Kato. The program has subsequently been converted to films and a television series the latter of which featured martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. Lee's performance in the series often overshadowed Raid's a fact that is parodied in the GNR broadcast.

It is possible that GNR is inspired by Pittsburgh-based NPR member radio station WDUQ. This suspicion arises since the producers of the game are apparently fond of references to the area and culture of their alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, given the references present in The Pitt. WDUQ is headquartered near Carnegie Mellon and broadcasts jazz music, as well as local and national news.

Bugs & Glitches

 * If you manipulate the quest to find Dad by going to Rivet City or straight to his location in Vault 112, and later return to the GNR Building Plaza, it is possible that no Brotherhood of Steel NPC's will spawn, except the door guards. Immediately upon discovery of the actual plaza, the Super Mutant Behemoth and Super Mutants will attack. Alternatively, the mutants in the courtyard will spawn dead, and just the Behemoth will attack you. Making life much harder for low levels who wanted to go to see Three Dog. There have also been reports of difficulty entering GNR after Raven Rock
 * In the PS3 version, if you trigger the Behemoth occurance after triggering the events listed above, THEN retreat a distance until the AI turns non-aggressive, you can sometimes return and enter the GNR building WITHOUT killing the Behemoth. The intercom will assess the combat as over even with the Behemoth standing right outside; however, this may not last, and later visits may cause the area to revert to its normal state.
 * I'm unsure if this is rare or not, but in Threedog's room,when attempting to reverse pickpocket the head wrap from him, dogmeat may appear, near where Threedog sleeps.

Related Quests

 * Following in His Footsteps
 * Galaxy News Radio
 * Caching in with Three Dog