Radio Stations in GTA III

The radio stations in Grand Theft Auto III are a huge expansion over the radio stations of its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 2. Like GTA 2, radio stations can only be heard while in a vehicle. Most radio stations play a mixture of music, DJ chat, and spoof advertising. GTA III includes different genres of music and for the first time in the game series, it also introduces a talk show radio. In law enforcement vehicles, basic radio cannot be heard, but a police radio can be heard instead.

Although many of the songs that appear in the game were written specially for the soundtrack (or in some cases for the soundtracks of previous games in the series), a large number of tracks were contributions by real artists. Craig Conner and Stuart Ross created the original tracks, often with vocals and performances by other musicians. It is worth noting that virtually none of the contributing real artists were particularly well-known at the time, and appearing on such a popular video game was no doubt greatly advantageous to their careers.

The player can listen to the following radio stations: In addition to the in-game radio stations, PC and Xbox players can add their own music to the game. These will be played on the MP3 Player on the PC version and the "CD Changer" on the Xbox version.
 * Head Radio - Pop Rock, Adult Contemporary
 * Double Clef FM - Classical
 * K-Jah - Dub, Reggae
 * Rise FM - Trance, Rave, Dance
 * Lips 106 - Pop, Top 40
 * Game FM - Underground Hip Hop, Gangsta Rap
 * MSX FM - Drum 'n' Bass, Jungle
 * Flashback 95.6 - 80's Pop
 * Chatterbox FM - Talk Radio

Radio stations

 * The songs are listed in the same order as they appear in the game.
 * If not noted, the year of release of the song is that of GTA III: 2001.
 * Authors of the song, at the side, in superscript (if it is an original creation).
 * 1 - This song was mixed for the game.

Head Radio
Head Radio is hosted by Michael Hunt (voiced by Russ Mottla), and plays pop rock and adult contemporary music.
 * Dil-Don't - "Stripe Summer" (Craig Conner)
 * Whatever - "Good Thing" (Allan Walker, Craig Conner)
 * Craig Gray - "Fade Away" (Stuart Ross)
 * Conor and Jay - "Change" (Craig Conner, Julie Wemyss)
 * Frankie Fame - "See Through You" (Craig Conner)
 * Scatwerk - "Electronic Go Go" (Stuart Ross)
 * Dezma - "Life Is But A Mere Supply" (Craig Conner)

Double Clef FM
Double Clef FM is hosted by Morgan Merryweather (voiced by Gerry Cosgrove), and plays classical music.
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso" (1786)
 * Gaetano Donizetti - "Chi mi frena in tal momento" (1835)
 * Giuseppe Verdi - "Libiamo ne'lieti calici" (1853)
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Finch'han del vino" (1787)
 * Giacomo Puccini - "O mio babbino caro" (1918) (PS2 only)
 * Giuseppe Verdi - "La donna è mobile" (1851)

K-Jah
K-Jah or Jah Radio is hosted by Horace "The Pacifist" Walsh (voiced by Herman Stephens), and plays dub and reggae music. All the tracks come from the 1981 album "Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires", by Scientist.
 * Scientist - "Dance of the Vampires" (1981)
 * Scientist - "Your Teeth In My Neck" (1981)
 * Scientist - "The Corpse Rises" (1981)
 * Scientist - "The Mummy's Shroud" (1981)
 * Scientist - "Plague of Zombies" (1981)

Rise FM
Rise FM is hosted by Andre "The Accelerator" (voiced by Andre), and plays trance, rave and dance music. All songs are mixed by Terry Donovan.
 * Chris Walsh + Dave Beran + Revolt - "Shake (Revolt Clogrock Remix)"1 (mixes in again at the end of the radio)
 * Shiver - "Deep Time" (2000)1
 * R.R.D.S. - "Innerbattle"1
 * Slyder - "Score (Original Mix) (2000)"1
 * Slyder - "Neo (The One) (2000)"1

Lips 106
Lips 106 is hosted by Andee (voiced by Shelley Miller), acts as a mainstream Top 40 station, and plays pop, alternative rock, hip hop and funk music.
 * Marydancin - "Wash Him Off" (Craig Conner) (removed song, only heard briefly)
 * Fatamarse - "Bump To The Music" (Craig Conner)
 * April's In Paris - "Feels Like I Just Can't Take No More" (Craig Conner)
 * Lucy - "Forever" (Stuart Ross)
 * Boyz 2 Girlz - "Pray It Goes Ok?" (Craig Conner)
 * Da Shootaz - "Grand Theft Auto" (1997) (C.Conner, Robert DeNegro)
 * Funky Bjs - "Rubber Tip" (Stuart Ross)

Game FM
Game FM is hosted by Stretch Armstrong and Lord Sear as themselves, and plays underground hip-hop and gangsta rap music. All songs are mixed by Stretch Armstrong.
 * Reef - "Scary Movies (Instrumental)" (1999)1
 * Royce Da 5'9" - "We're Live (Danger)"1
 * Nature - "Nature Freestyle"1
 * JoJo Pellegrino - "JoJo Pellegrino Freestyle"1
 * Royce Da 5'9" + Pretty Ugly - "Spit Game"1
 * Royce Da 5'9" - "I'm the King" (1999)1
 * Rush - "Instrumental Bed 1" (Andy Thelusma) 1
 * Black Rob - "By a Stranger" (2000)1
 * Agallah + Sean Price - "Rising to the Top"1
 * Rush - "Instrumental Bed 2" (Andy Thelusma) 1

MSX FM
MSX FM is hosted by MC Codebreaker and DJ Timecode as themselves, and play drum 'n' bass and jungle music. All songs are mixed by DJ Timecode.
 * Calyx - "Quagmire"1
 * Rascal & Klone - "Get Wild" (2000)1
 * Ryme Tyme - "Judgement Day" (2000)1
 * Hex - "Force" (2000)1
 * Omni Trio - "First Contact"1
 * Aquasky - "Spectre"1
 * Rascal & Klone - "Winner Takes All" (2000)1
 * Ryme Tyme - "T Minus" (2000)1
 * nCode - "Spasm" (1999)1
 * D. Kay - "Monolith" (2000)1
 * Dom + Ryme Tyme - "Iceberg" (2000)1

Flashback 95.6
Flashback 95.6 is hosted by Toni (voiced by Maria Chambers) and plays '80s pop music. All the tracks come from the soundtrack of the 1983 hit film Scarface. All the songs were composed and produced by Giorgio Moroder.
 * Debbie Harry - "Rush Rush" (1983)
 * Elizabeth Daily - "Shake It Up" (1983)
 * Paul Engemann - "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)" (1983)
 * Amy Holland - "She's On Fire" (1983)
 * Elizabeth Daily - "I'm Hot Tonight" (1983)

Chatterbox FM
Chatterbox FM is a talk radio hosted by Lazlow himself. On this station Lazlow talks with guests and callers (mainly citizens of Liberty City).

The following persons are credited for guest voices:
 * Lucien Jones
 * Karin Bykowski
 * Hank Stewart
 * Abbi Davis
 * Mellowvision.com
 * Paul Maloney
 * bernieS
 * Frank Fava
 * Kit Halsted
 * Joe Casalino
 * Dan Houser
 * Jay Crutcher
 * Frank Chavez
 * DJ Rush
 * A.M. Watson
 * Laura Bykowski
 * Navid Khonsari
 * Sherry Wohglmuth
 * Porkchop
 * Renaude Sebbane
 * Kyle Machlachlan
 * Sabby
 * Kim Schaefer
 * Debi Mazar
 * Nick Mandelos
 * David Connell
 * Reed Tucker
 * Jennifer Kolbe
 * Ami Plasse
 * Keith Broadus
 * Cameo Carlson
 * JD Leeds
 * Michael Madsen

Commercials
The myriad commercials that appear throughout the game deserve a special mention. They are all written by Dan Houser and Lazlow (the latter of whom also produced them). They are fairly convincing as real adverts as they adhere to many typical marketing clichés and tricks. Several adverts mention telephone numbers and official websites. Rockstar actually created these websites, and though many links just eventually lead back to the Rockstar site, some are really quite detailed. The Petsovernight.com website displays pictures of animals and promises "If it's got a central nervous system, we've got it ready to go in a box to your house", tying in with the humour in the commercials.

Some examples of commercials within the game are: the Maibatsu Monstrosity adverts ("Mine is bigger!"), Fernando's New Beginnings ("A revolutionary new way to save your marriage."), the given phone number of which is 555-9292, and the new video game Pogo the Monkey ("He's got springs for legs!").

Non Selectable Radio Stations
There are several stations that can be seen advertised on billboards throughout Liberty City. However, these are not available for selection at any time during the game and have no songs or DJs associated with them. They are Liberty FM, WLLC ‘The Zone’, and Liberty Soul FM. It is not clear whether these stations were originally intended to be ‘real’ stations but dropped during development, or if they were simply designed to sit alongside other fake brands advertised in the game.

Another possible non-selectable station is what has been referred to as Orbit FM. However, close inspection of the ad (both in the game and in the instruction manual) shows that the correct name is OR-Bit. There is no ‘FM’ and no evidence that it is a radio station.

Trivia

 * The number of new songs in this soundtrack is 55.
 * There is 1 song repeating from a previous game (Da Shootaz's "Grand Theft Auto"), so in total the radio soundtrack presents 56 songs.
 * The year with the most songs is 2001, with 25 songs.
 * For this edition, Rockstar greatly increased the use of licensed content, unlike what the company used for previous games in the series. However, the soundtrack still relies to a large degree in original creations, unlike what they would do in their next game, GTA Vice City.
 * The game introduced the first talk radio in the series, Chatterbox FM.
 * First game in which recurring radio host Lazlow appeared.
 * Also first appearence of recurring radio host Fernando Martinez.
 * In Lips 106, the song "Wash Him Off" by Marydancin can be heard briefly, this song was removed from the final release of the game. Rockstar would nevertheless release the song later, in its full form, as part of the soundtrack of the game.
 * One fictitious band makes a reprise from GTA 2: Conor & Jay ("Vegas Road", "Change").
 * GTA creator Dan Houser can be heard in Chatterbox FM, he is the caller named "Freddy" that wants to be spanked by a nanny.
 * The game uses a generic police radio track used in countless films, series and games ("5 George K, number 30 Broad street" is said in the track). This police track was used too in GTA 1 and GTA 2.
 * The oldest song in the entire GTA series can be heard in this soundtrack: Mozart's "Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso", from his opera "The Marriage of Figaro" (1786).