Events

24 February – In Cuba, Radio Rebelde, the radio station of Fidel Castro's rebels, begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.
1 April – The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is established.
15 April – In New York City, Les Keiter, sports director of WINS (AM), begins coverage of San Francisco Giants games, just months after the team has moved out of New York City to the West Coast. His "live-action" commentaries are so vivid that many listeners never realize that Les is merely staging a re-creation of the games from Western Union telegraph reports received in WINS' New York studios (a throwback to 1930s radio coverage of baseball games) and never sets foot in Seals Stadium. WINS will carry Giants games in the same manner next year.
2 July – The first radio ballad, The Ballad of John Axon, is broadcast on the BBC Home Service.
8 July – Gordon McLendon of Dallas buys WGRC Louisville, converts it to Top 40 legend WAKY.
14 July – John F. Box Jr., president of the Balaban group, buys KGKO and changes the station's call letters to KBOX, adopting a Top 40 format to compete with Gordon McLendon's top-rated 1190 KLIF.

Debuts

January – Pete Myers, with his frenetic, rapid-fire "Mad Daddy" persona, delivered entirely in rhyme, debuts on WJW (AM) in Cleveland (today WKNR). His evening show has a brief run (he leaves WJW in May). After a 90-day non-compete clause is enforced, Myers joins cross-town WHK, coining phrases that are still uttered to this day, such as "wavy gravy" and "mellow jello".
4 March – WDCR/1340-Hanover, New Hampshire (Dartmouth College Radio) begins broadcasting at 21:00 Eastern Standard Time.
23 November – "Have Gun, Will Travel", one of the last radio dramas featuring continuing characters, debuts on the CBS Radio Network.

3 January – Wendy Warren and the News ends its run on network radio (CBS).^[1]
9 January – X Minus One ends its run on network radio (NBC).^[1]
25 January – The National Farm and Home Hour ends its run on network radio (NBC).^[1]

29 January – Linda Smith, English comedian (died 2006)
3 May – Sandi Toksvig, Danish-born British comic performer
14 May – Jan Ravens, English actress and impressionist
23 May – Mitch Albom, American author and radio personality
29 June – Jeff Coopwood, American actor, broadcaster and singer
27 July – Vincenzo Nicoli, English actor
27 August – Normand Brathwaite, Québécois television and radio presenter
29 August – Michael Jackson, American singer and songwriter
6 September – Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian, actor, author, and radio and television personality
21 September – Simon Mayo, British radio presenter
26 September – Dan Foster, American radio personality (died 2020)^[2]
23 October – Michael Dyson, African American writer, professor and radio talk show host

18 May – Elmer Davis, 68, American news reporter, author, and a Peabody Award recipient^[1]