--- title: San Francisco: Radio Station Bans 'Royals' Ahead of World Series description: A San Francisco radio station vowed to ban Lorde's breakout single "Royals" until the end of the 2014 World Series matchup with Kansas City canonical: https://time.com/3524375/world-series-royals-lorde/ author: Dan Kedmey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-20T12:59:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:13:53.885Z og:title: San Francisco Radio Station Bans Lorde's 'Royals' Ahead of World Series og:description: Lorde's breakout single og:url: https://time.com/3524375/world-series-royals-lorde/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18b4eeeb80335ce4/6987619d2dce0100499db05f/484635163.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Lorde og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: San Francisco Radio Station Bans Lorde's 'Royals' Ahead of World Series twitter:description: Lorde's breakout single twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18b4eeeb80335ce4/6987619d2dce0100499db05f/484635163.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # San Francisco Radio Station Bans Lorde's 'Royals' for World Series  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Oct 20, 2014 12:59 PM UTC  Lorde performs onstage during day 2 of the 2014 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 12, 2014 in Indio, Calif. Lorde performs onstage during day 2 of the 2014 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club on April 12, 2014 in Indio, Calif.Kevin Winter—Getty Images  by [Dan Kedmey](https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/)  ## Dan Kedmey Oct 20, 2014 12:59 PM UTC A San Francisco radio station has vowed not to air Lorde’s breakout single “Royals” until the end of the 2014 World Series matchup between the Kansas City Royals and San Francisco Giants. KFOG Radio [tweeted](https://twitter.com/KFOGRadio/status/522970746373820416) out its ban on Friday after listeners objected to the station playing a song that could be interpreted as an endorsement for the rival team. > [](https://twitter.com/KFOGRadio/status/522970746373820416) The connection between the song and the team is, in fact, not so far off base. Lorde has said in a previous interview that the lyrics for ‘Royals’ came to her in a moment of inspiration after she was struck by an image of a baseball player wearing the Royals jersey in _National Geographic,_ Yahoo News [reports](http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/big-league-stew/lorde-hit-song-royals-inspired-kansas-city-baseball-022130607--mlb.html). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3524375/world-series-royals-lorde/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3524375/world-series-royals-lorde/"},"headline":"San Francisco Radio Station Bans Lorde's 'Royals' for World Series","datePublished":"2014-10-20T12:59:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:13:53.885Z","description":"'No offense, Lorde,\" tweeted KFOG Radio","url":"https://time.com/3524375/world-series-royals-lorde/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Baseball","Lorde","Kansas City Royals","world series"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18b4eeeb80335ce4/6987619d2dce0100499db05f/484635163.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Kedmey","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dan-kedmey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt18b4eeeb80335ce4/6987619d2dce0100499db05f/484635163.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Lorde","caption":"Lorde","creditText":"Kevin Winter—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3524375/world-series-royals-lorde/","name":"San Francisco Radio Station Bans Lorde's 'Royals' for World Series"}}]}] ```