Method for processing communication requests

A communication unit that is registered in a trunked communication system can continue to receive a communication from a first communication unit after initiating a push-to-talk request while the first communication unit is transmitting voice data in the following manner. Having allocated a communication resource to a group of communication units and while processing a request to communicate for the first communication unit, a communication resource allocator receives a request to communicate from a second communication unit to produce a new request to communicate. The communication resource allocator stores the new request to communicate and transmits a response to the second communication unit such that the second communication unit can continue to receive the remainder of the communication from the first communication unit. Once the first communication unit has stopped transmitting its communication, the communication resource allocator retrieves the stored communication request based upon a predetermined retrieval pattern.