Songs with radio clips?
July 27, 2021 4:40 PM

Just trying to compile a list of songs with radio announcer clips. Usually they make it sound very AM-ey so you get that it’s meant to be the radio. All I can think of so far is We Built This City and Rock Me Amadeus. Thanks in advance! Tangential examples like the phone operator in Young Lust also accepted.
posted by ftm to Media & Arts (75 answers total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
Mr. Blue Sky by ELO starts with radio tuning and then the weather forecast.
posted by typetive at 4:54 PM on July 27, 2021


One Night in Bangkok?
posted by Melismata at 4:56 PM on July 27, 2021


Chris Brown is not great, but the Chris Brown/T-Pain collab "Kiss Kiss" starts with T-Pain as a radio announcer.
posted by rogerroger at 5:00 PM on July 27, 2021


Public Enemy's Incident at 66.6 FM uses extensive samples of a talk show criticising them.
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 5:03 PM on July 27, 2021


The first one that comes to mind is “The Way” by Fastball.
posted by kevinbelt at 5:03 PM on July 27, 2021


Ten Years After - Baby Won't You Let Me Rock 'n Roll You starts with a scroll of the radio dial.
Also I think the Ramones - Rock and Roll Radio has a radio announcer type beginning.
posted by Carlo at 5:06 PM on July 27, 2021


Ramones - Do You Remember Rock and Roll Radio? has a (fake) radio announcer doing an intro and outro.
posted by Ufez Jones at 5:07 PM on July 27, 2021


The Buggles - Video Killed The Radio Star has that kind of effect though I'm not sure it's supposed to actually be a radio announcer.
posted by 2N2222 at 5:13 PM on July 27, 2021


Jonathan Coulton's Shop Vac has a segment in the middle with some radio news reports.
posted by wanderingmind at 5:15 PM on July 27, 2021


Silent Night/Seven O'Clock News Simon and Garfunkel
posted by QuakerMel at 5:22 PM on July 27, 2021


The Apples In Stereo album "Fun Trick Noisemaker" opens and closes (last 10 seconds) this way. It's a sample, not a simulation. (There are several other tracks with added crackle and limited frequency range on the album designed to sound similar, but no announcer.)
posted by eotvos at 5:25 PM on July 27, 2021


This is the old dude, Howie J. Reynolds, and you're listening to Less Than Jake
posted by General Malaise at 5:27 PM on July 27, 2021


Paradise By the Dashboard Light has that "calling a baseball game" section.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:32 PM on July 27, 2021


Jennifer Warnes’s “First We Take Manhattan” from Famous Blue Raincoat opens and closes with spoken German. Bonus: terrific guitar solo and fills by Stevie Ray Vaughn.
posted by conscious matter at 5:32 PM on July 27, 2021


Radio Number 1 by Air has an “announcer” cutting in at the end. Note that he sings along as opposed to saying announcer stuff
posted by O9scar at 5:32 PM on July 27, 2021


A deep cut to be sure, but Peterborough and the Kawarthas by Barenaked Ladies comes to mind.
posted by karizma at 5:33 PM on July 27, 2021


All of Proxima Estacion: Esperanza By Manu Chao
posted by chrisulonic at 5:44 PM on July 27, 2021


Go Home by Julien Baker has crackly audio of a radio evangelist at the end, underneath the instrumentals.

According to this interview, it was an accident: "... as I was recording the end of that we had these two directional mics set up while I played piano into the pre-amp. And then I hear this like, crackly TV noise and the dialogue happening through my headphones. Well, it wasn’t dialogue but the guy was talking. I just finish off the thing, the arrangement and everyone tells me that the pre-amp was picking up church radio, as I was playing."
posted by catoclock at 5:45 PM on July 27, 2021


Also, I'm not sure if it counts, since remixed radio is kind of their whole jam, but there are lots of radio clips on nearly every Negativland album. To pick a few random examples: A Big 10-8 place has a bunch of manipulated audio that was probably originally on their actual radio show. Dispepsi is mostly ads, more than half from TV but some from radio. There are many others.
posted by eotvos at 5:45 PM on July 27, 2021



Neko Case: "Outro With Bees (Reprise)"


The Who Sell Out has some great "ads" in it if that would work for you. I'm partial to Petra Haden's a capella cover of the album; here's her glorious version of "Tattoo", which is bookended with ads.
posted by table of malcontents at 5:53 PM on July 27, 2021


This might be more on the tangential side, but Janelle Monáe’s album “The Electric Lady” has a series of interludes that are radio announcements from a character named DJ Crash Crash.
posted by somedaycatlady at 5:53 PM on July 27, 2021


There is a radio tuning at the beginning of Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here". Not really radio announcer, but scanning past a station with some dialog happening before stopping on the guitar intro to the song.
posted by coppertop at 5:55 PM on July 27, 2021


The House of Love's The Beatles and the Stones starts with a little "radio montage"
posted by niicholas at 5:56 PM on July 27, 2021


Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf uses this as a gimmick throughout.
posted by TurnKey at 5:58 PM on July 27, 2021


Well, the most obvious is AM Radio by Everclear...
posted by hydra77 at 6:13 PM on July 27, 2021


Maybe some shortwave?

Tears for Fears did a B-side titled "Pharaohs" that used a section of a BBC Shipping Forecast transmission.

OMD used samples of shortwave in songs like This is Helena.

Wilco's "Phonetic Alphabet NATO" might be pushing the limit, though.
posted by JoeZydeco at 6:18 PM on July 27, 2021


Carpenters, Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft (at start)

Indeep, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life (at 3:10; lacks staticky verisimilitude but it is someone playing a DJ, kinda)

Also, on the Reservoir Dogs soundtrack, there are a bunch of interstitial radio DJ announcements supplied by Steven Wright but those aren't within the songs themselves.
posted by miles per flower at 6:36 PM on July 27, 2021


Skee-Lo's "I wish" has a fake radio intro, as does Petey Pablo's "Freek-a-Leek"
posted by dismas at 6:37 PM on July 27, 2021


RocketMan has a countdown at the beginning that sounds like it is coming over a speaker.
Don’t know that counts or not.
posted by SLC Mom at 6:38 PM on July 27, 2021


"This is the news" by ELO
posted by evilmonk at 6:44 PM on July 27, 2021


The end of Baby Driver by Simon and Garfunkel
posted by Rash at 6:57 PM on July 27, 2021


Wall of Voodoo- Mexican Radio
posted by The_Vegetables at 6:57 PM on July 27, 2021


The soundtrack to "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" has lots of radio bits sprinkled throughout. They're not part of the actual songs, however, but seem to be added to simulate what it was like to listen to the radio during that time in the 70s.
posted by Leontine at 6:57 PM on July 27, 2021


Don't Call Us (We'll Call You) by Sugarloaf - "On Stereo 92!"
posted by Rash at 7:03 PM on July 27, 2021


Daniel Caesar’s Entropy excerpts a (rather chilling) TV interview in the intro, if that meets your “tangential” standard.
posted by armeowda at 7:04 PM on July 27, 2021


Clap for the Wolfman by The Guess Who.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:05 PM on July 27, 2021


Roger Waters has basically a whole album with a fictional radio announcer guy talking in between and over some of the songs - Radio K.A.O.S. I was kind of obsessed with this album in high school.
posted by Mid at 7:14 PM on July 27, 2021


R.E.M - Radio Song

You mentioned Pink Floyd, the album track Wish You Were Here starts with some radio-ish sound.

They Might Be Giants have at times done a live show segment "Spin The Dial", where they actually tune in local stations on an FM radio, and then jam along with or make fun of what they hear.
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 7:17 PM on July 27, 2021


Sublime's "April 29, 1992" has some scanner traffic during the L.A. riots. Dr Dre's "The Chronic" has some tracks with TV announcers too. I'm sure I'm missing a bunch of others.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:17 PM on July 27, 2021


Bran Van 3000 - Drinking in L.A. has a radio DJ intro
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 7:38 PM on July 27, 2021


Parov Stelar - Ragtime Cat (short intro)
Tape Five - Party Like It's 1929 (more prevalent in the extended version)
Pink Floyd - Learning to Fly (audio of pilot checklists in a radio-like style, though relegated more in the background)
posted by SquidLips at 7:40 PM on July 27, 2021


Number One by David van Tieghem
posted by Rash at 7:53 PM on July 27, 2021


Searching for the young soul rebels by Dexys Midnight Runners
posted by askmehow at 7:54 PM on July 27, 2021


one more...
This is radio Etienne by St. Etienne

err actually this is only the radio part, on the album it segues seemlessly into the next track
posted by askmehow at 7:57 PM on July 27, 2021


Cornelius's "Fantasma" has a couple songs which simulate scanning across the radio dial (many of which are playing the songs on the album)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 7:58 PM on July 27, 2021


88 lines about 44 Women by The Nails. There are a couple of versions out there, the best one is basically narration by a DJ.
posted by AugustusCrunch at 9:21 PM on July 27, 2021


Cleveland Rocks.
posted by yqxnflld at 9:44 PM on July 27, 2021


Screen Kiss by Thomas Dolby ends with several radio broadcasts layered over each other and the music.
posted by mogget at 10:00 PM on July 27, 2021


Also Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J starts with a radio-type clip.
posted by mogget at 10:07 PM on July 27, 2021


Me Gustas Tu by Manu Chao has clips of radio DJs calling out the city and time. It's exactly what you're looking for, in Spanish.
posted by emd3737 at 10:31 PM on July 27, 2021




These might be too tangential, but:

-“Farrah Fawcett Hair” by Capital Cities starts with a radio announcer voice listing fake “sponsors” for the band (including NPR)
-“Lucky” by Britney Spears has an interlude with what I think is supposed to be a TV reporter but could be interpreted as a radio clip
posted by chaiyai at 1:06 AM on July 28, 2021


Kraftwerk: Nachrichten (News). Some of their other compositions also feature radio (AM and shortwave) noises, though just few of those include human vocals.
posted by Stoneshop at 2:49 AM on July 28, 2021


"Around the Dial" by the Kinks starts with radio chatter. Interestingly, they seem to have scraped off the last line "...become a hero in the Moslem world" which used to be what was there right before the song started. (And no, I'm not imagining this...)
posted by chavenet at 4:25 AM on July 28, 2021


Australian hip hop examples:

1955, Hilltop Hoods. Uses faux-1950s voice throughout.

Black Lives Matter, Birdz. The snippets (towards end of the song) are of newsreaders and interviewers talking about Aboriginal deaths in custody, a huge issue in Australia.
posted by chronic sublime at 4:33 AM on July 28, 2021


The end of Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim. A "radio caller" requesting Fatboy Slim starts singing "right about now..." and it leads directly into the Rockafeller Skank on the album You've Come a Long Way, Baby.
posted by pangolin party at 4:55 AM on July 28, 2021


I gather they got sued for it, so this link is a live version, but iNsuRge had a track Welfare State which sampled a certain Sydney radio oxygen thief.

(I only know this because I got a pre-release promo)
posted by pompomtom at 5:32 AM on July 28, 2021


The Beatles' I Am the Walrus features a live capture of a BBC performance of King Lear.

Interestingly, when George Martin remixed the song (using the original studio source tapes) for the Cirque du Soleil show Love, he was also able to acquire the original archived tape of the performance of Lear from the BBC.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:17 AM on July 28, 2021


The Carpenters - Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft

John Cage - Radio Music
posted by hydrophonic at 6:27 AM on July 28, 2021


excellent finds above. I'll add the outro to Aerosmith's Amazing

Wikipedia says "On the album Get a Grip, as soon as the song ends, a radio is heard being tuned into a recording of "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well", recorded by Lucky Millinder. Tyler says, "So from all of us at Aerosmith to all of you out there, wherever you are, remember: the light at the end of the tunnel may be you. Good night." Millinder's orchestra plays as the music fades out."
posted by adekllny at 6:57 AM on July 28, 2021


If you count a Wolfman Jack intro, there are a fair amount of 'em out there: 'One Summer Night,' 'You're So Fine,' 'Green Onions,' 'That'll Be the Day' (last two from the American Graffiti soundtrack, which has some more).
posted by box at 7:35 AM on July 28, 2021


Hands Off, by the Old 97s.
posted by MundaneNoodle at 8:44 AM on July 28, 2021


Prodigy - Weather Experience has a weather forecast from radio or TV in the background during the intro
posted by the antecedent of that pronoun at 9:27 AM on July 28, 2021


More on the technical sound side, but with a definite radio announcer vibe as the song opens:

"The following tone is a reference tone of 700
Hertz. The remainder of the tones, are
Recorded at this level with the exception of
The last tone, which is a reference tone at
Operating level."

The Smithereens, "A Girl Like You"
posted by MonkeyToes at 11:48 AM on July 28, 2021


Simon & Garfunkel's "7 O'clock News / Silent Night"
posted by MonkeyToes at 2:25 PM on July 28, 2021


In loosely related, Flash and The Pan were a 1970s band noted for often using heavily-filtered radio/telephone-ish vocal treatments a few decades before it became more common.
posted by ovvl at 3:39 PM on July 28, 2021


And then there are the dreamlike and ephemeral exhortations of a radio preacher weaving in and out of the KLF's Chill Out.
posted by vverse23 at 4:46 PM on July 28, 2021


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l-V6KygkFU by Primal Scream

Aah, I screwed up the link. It's Kowalski by Primal Scream.
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 6:32 PM on July 28, 2021


On the Pink Floyd album Wish You Were Here, the selfsame titled song features snippets of radio broadcasts (recorded off David Gilmore’s car radio) as part of the intro.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:45 PM on July 28, 2021


R.E.M.'s cover of "Superman" starts with...something.
posted by kirkaracha at 7:19 PM on July 28, 2021


The opening theme of WKRP in Cincinnati has switching through radio channels. "...but the senator, while insisting he was not intoxicated, could not explain his nudity."
posted by kirkaracha at 7:23 PM on July 28, 2021


The Tubes, "Talk to Ya Later": "As I mentioned near the close of the last record, this record you are now playing is another example of the Completion Backward principle. If you can possibly manage the time, please play both sides at one meeting."
posted by kirkaracha at 7:27 PM on July 28, 2021


Gimme the Prize by Queen has a radio clip about 25 seconds in. The radio clip is part of a longer audio clip from the Highlander movie, which the song was on the soundtrack for.
posted by automatronic at 8:25 PM on July 28, 2021


Wilco's "Phonetic Alphabet NATO" might be pushing the limit, though.

the "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" clip was also used in Wilco's "Poor Places"
posted by dismas at 8:51 AM on July 30, 2021


La Carcacha by Selena!
You can hear the radio playing the end of "Baila Esta Cumbia" (I think) and then the DJ introducing the new song, as if you were riding in your car(cacha).
posted by exceptinsects at 2:12 PM on August 4, 2021


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