February 12 - Washington, D.C. area Top 40 radio station WAVA-FM changes to a religious format, which continues to this day.
February 18 - After over two decades as Baltimore's premier Top 40/CHR outlet (including a brief stint with disco and a few name and call letter changes), WBSB flips to Gold-based Hot AC as "Variety 104.3."
February 18 - The "Young Country" format debuts with KRSR 105.3 in Dallas dropping its hot AC format to become KRRM. The KRRM calls stood for "The Armadillo," but were just a placeholder for the KYNG calls, which it would acquire from a station in Coos Bay, Oregon.
February 21 - ABC-5 radio station "Kool 106" (later 106.7 Dream FM) launched.
August 1 - The FCC relaxes its longstanding rule allowing ownership of only one station per service per market. The new rules allow two stations per service per market and spur a big round of consolidation that would cash out owners like Noble Broadcast Group, Malrite Communications, Shamrock Communications and TK Communications.
October - Dallas/Ft. Worth gets its first duopoly as Alliance Broadcasting and KYNG take over KODZ "Oldies 94.9." The station is promptly flipped to a soft-leaning country format as KSNN "Sunny 95."
November 1 – KOAI/Dallas-Fort Worth drops its smooth jazz format as "106.1 The Oasis" to bring top-40 back to the market as KHKS "106.1 Kiss FM." (KEGL had left the format in the summer.) In response, KCDU "CD 107.5" switched from Classic rock to Smooth Jazz a day later, picking up the KOAI call letters and "Oasis" moniker and firing PD Gary Reynolds, who had been hired just two weeks earlier.
Late November - WHTE-FM's new branding went live and became 101.9 FM in the Charlottesville, Virginia Area.
December 25 - KQLZ/Los Angeles drops their "Pirate Radio" branding, and the album rock format, for modern rock as "100.3 FM."
Undated - An appearance by survivor Christine Buckley on The Gay Byrne Show on RTÉ Radio 1 in the Irish Republic to discuss industrial schools brings an "overwhelming response" from others who feel they were victims of physical and emotional abuse in these institutions.[1]
Debuts
January 4 — ESPN Radio debuts as a weekend service (under the name "SportsRadio ESPN"), with Keith Olbermann, Tony Bruno and Chuck Wilson among the first group of hosts for the flagship program GameNight.
April — Country Countdown USA, a countdown program spotlighting the top 30 songs of the week, as reported by Radio & Records magazine. The show is hosted by Lon Helton, country editor for R&R, and features an in-studio interview with a currently popular country music singer or act.
October 10 – Billboard reintroduces the Crossover chart publishing its last chart after nearly 22 months. This time it is renamed the Top 40/Rhythm-Crossover chart, which would later be christened as the Rhythmic Contemporary chart in 1997.
February 15 - Marcos Rodriguez, Sr., Spanish radio pioneer, founder of KESS and Cuban entrepreneur (65)
March 18 - Ed Prentiss, American actor in radio, perhaps best known for portraying the title role on the radio version of Captain Midnight (born 1909?)[3]
May 17 - Lawrence Welk, American musician, radio and television personality (born 1903)
July 9 - Eric Sevareid, American news reporter (born 1912)
October 16 - Shirley Booth, award-winning American actress and radio personality (born 1898)
^ abCox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-3848-8.
^DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-2834-2. p. 219.