The impact of final-state radiation (FSR) on the radiative return method for the extraction of the e⁺e^- hadronic cross section is discussed in detail. Possible experimental tests of the model dependence of FSR are proposed for the \pi ⁺\pi ^- hadronic final state. The importance of the \pi ⁺\pi ^-\gamma final state contribution to the muon anomalous magnetic moment is investigated, and a method based on the radiative return is proposed to extract these contributions from data.

PACS numbers: 13.40.Em, 13.40.Ks, 13.66.Bc