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 introduces a talk show radio. In law enforcement vehicles basic radio cannot be heard but police chatter 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:
 * Head Radio - Pop Rock, Adult Contemporary
 * Double Clef FM - Classical
 * K-Jah - Reggae, Dub
 * Rise FM - Trance, Rave, Dance
 * Lips 106 - Pop
 * Game FM - Hip Hop/Rap, Gangsta Rap, Underground Hip-Hop
 * MSX FM - Drum 'n' Bass, Jungle
 * Flashback 95.6 - 80's Music
 * Chatterbox FM - Talk Radio
 * MP3 Player (PC only) - User-Defined Track Player
 * CD Changer (Xbox only) - Plays Songs Ripped From CD's Stored On Hard Disk

Head Radio
Head Radio is hosted by Michael Hunt (voiced by Russ Mottla), and plays pop rock and Adult Contemporary music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Dil-Don't - "Stripe Summer"1
 * Whatever - "Good Thing"1
 * Craig Gray - "Fade Away"1
 * Conor and Jay - "Change"
 * Frankie Fame - "See Through You"1
 * Scatwerk - "Electronic Go Go"1
 * Dezma - "Life Is But A Mere Supply"1

Double Clef FM
Double Clef FM is hosted by Morgan Merryweather (voiced by Gerry Cosgrove), and plays only classic music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso"
 * Gaetano Donizetti - "Chi mi frena in tal momento"
 * Giuseppe Verdi - "Libiamo ne'lieti calici"
 * Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - "Finch'han del vino"
 * Giacomo Puccini - "O mio babbino caro" (PS2 only)
 * Giuseppe Verdi - "La donna è mobile"

K-Jah
K-Jah or Jah Radio is hosted by Horace "The Pacifist" Walsh (voiced by Herman Stephens), and plays reggae dub music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Scientist - "Dance of the Vampires"
 * Scientist - "Your Teeth In My Neck"
 * Scientist - "The Corpse Rises"
 * Scientist - "The Mummy's Shroud"
 * Scientist - "Plague of Zombies"

Rise FM
Rise FM is hosted by Andre "The Accelerator" (voiced by Andre), and plays trance and rave music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Chris Walsh + Dave Beran + Revolt + Terry Donovan - "Shake (Revolt Clogrock Remix)"2
 * Shiver + Terry Donovan - "Deep Time"2
 * R.R.D.S. + Terry Donovan - "Innerbattle"2
 * Slyder + Terry Donovan - "Score (Original Mix)"2
 * Slyder + Terry Donovan - "Neo (The One)"2
 * Chris Walsh + Dave Beran + Revolt + Terry Donovan - "Shake (Revolt Clogrock Remix)"2

Lips 106
Lips 106 is hosted by Andee (voiced by Shelley Miller), and plays pop music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Fatamarse - "Bump To The Music"1
 * April's In Paris - "Feels Like I Just Can't Take No More"1
 * Lucy - "Forever"2
 * Boyz 2 Girlz - "Pray It Goes Ok?"1
 * Da Shootaz - "Grand Theft Auto"1
 * Funky Bjs - "Rubber Tip"1

Game FM
Game FM is hosted by Stretch Armstrong and Lord Sear as themselves, and plays underground hip-hop/rap music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Rush - "Instrumental Bed 1"1
 * Reef - "Scary Movies (Instrumental)"
 * Royce Da 5'9" - "We're Live (Danger)"
 * Nature - "Nature Freestyle"
 * JoJo Pellegrino - "JoJo Pellegrino Freestyle"
 * Royce Da 5'9" + Pretty Ugly - "Spit Game"
 * Royce Da 5'9" - "I'm the King"
 * Black Rob - "By a Stranger"
 * Agallah + Sean Price - "Rising to the Top"
 * Rush - "Instrumental Bed 2"1

MSX FM
MSX FM is hosted by MC Codebreaker and DJ Timecode as themselves, and play drum 'n' bass and jungle music.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Calyx + Timecode - "Quagmire"
 * Rascal & Klone + Timecode - "Get Wild"
 * Ryme Tyme + Timecode - "Judgement Day"
 * Hex + Timecode - "Force"
 * Omni Trio + Timecode - "First Contact"
 * Aquasky + Timecode - "Spectre"
 * Rascal & Klone + Timecode - "Winner Takes All"
 * Ryme Tyme + Timecode - "T Minus"
 * nCode + Timecode - "Spasm"
 * D. Kay + Timecode - "Monolith"
 * Dom + Ryme Tyme + Timecode - "Iceberg"

Flashback 95.6
Flashback 95.6 is hosted by Toni (voiced by Maria Chambers) and plays music from the hit 80's film Scarface.

The following songs can be heard on the station:
 * Giorgio Moroder + Debbie Harry - "Rush Rush"
 * Giorgio Moroder + Elizabeth Daily - "Shake It Up"
 * Giorgio Moroder + Paul Engemann - "Scarface (Push It to the Limit)"
 * Giorgio Moroder + Amy Holland - "She's On Fire"
 * Giorgio Moroder + Elizabeth Daily - "I'm Hot Tonight"

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
 * Micheal 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.