San Francisco Radio Stations Ban Lorde's 'Royals' for World Series

— -- This year's World Series rivalry is playing out over the airwaves.

Two San Francisco-based radio stations have banned Lorde’s 2013 hit song “Royals” from their rotation, because of the song’s casual connections to the American League champion Kansas City Royals. The San Francisco Giants face the Royals in this year’s World Series, which begins Tuesday.

The song was banned by 96.5 KOIT, with program director Brian Figula writing on Friday, “Our listeners told us to do it, so we did it! As of 4pm today we've removed Lorde-Royals from the our playlist until the end of the World Series. Go Giants, beat the Royals!”

KFOG made a similar gesture.

“I hope Lorde understands – I mean, we're talking World Series-bound San Francisco Giants here!” a station employee wrote on Facebook.

As a result of the ban, Kansas City’s 99.7 The Point is playing the song hourly ahead of Tuesday’s World Series opener.

The New Zealand singer, 17, was inspired with “Royals” after seeing a photo of Brett in a July 1976 issue of National Geographic, “of this dude just signing baseballs. He was a baseball player and his shirt said ‘Royals.’ It was just that word. It’s really cool,” she told VH1.

The team sent Lorde a signed Brett jersey the first time she performed in Kansas City, and Lorde met her inspiration in April.