Should the tower be talking to me?

Yes you're right but FS is just a rough representation of real ATC, it's just not that detailed.

Third party ATC may give you more realistic ATC. Vatsim is even better, you talk to real people.
➡ http://www.jdtllc.com/
➡ http://www.vatsim.net/

If I read your problem correctly, initially you say you go into flight planner, and then you end up ON the runway. In flight planner, when you choose your airport, down in the bottom section you can also choose where you start, Like at the fuel farm, or at a gate, or parking ramp. If you do that, you can contact ATC and request taxi instructions and they WILL talk to you. Also, if you are going I|F||R, they will talk to you throughout the flight. It all depends on how you set it up in flight planner.

Maybe this is trivial, but you need to open the ATC communication window (you can have the flight start with it open by default) to tune to ground/ATC and ask for clearance, whether you're on the runway or at a gate.

Then you'll get all the talk you want.

mdaskalos

pushing the 'scroll lock' key brings up the window as well.

thanks guys... Will work on this...
I love this stuff...