This is a list of events in British radio during 1980.
Events
January
2 January – BBC Radio 3 launches a new, extended teatime programme Mainly for Pleasure. The two-hour long programme replaces the much shorter Homeward Bound.[1]
BBC Radio Wales launches the first of two permanent community opt-out stations, Radio Deeside, after successful community radio experiments in 1978. The reopening is in response to the closure of the Shotton steelworks.
31 March – BBC Radio 1's broadcast hours are cut back. The station starts broadcasting on weekdays an hour later and Saturday evening programming ends. The station simulcasts BBC Radio 2 during this additional downtime although by the end of the year Radio 1 has stopped broadcasting Radio 2 through the night.
April
11 April – CBC in Cardiff becomes the first of the second tranche of Independent Local Radio stations to start broadcasting. It is the first new ILR station since 1976.
September – Due to the continued expansion of BBC Local Radio, the regional news bulletins, broadcast in England four times a day Monday to Saturday on BBC Radio 4, end, apart from in the south west which is the sole part of England which still does not have any BBC local service.