The LBC services swap wavebands. The rolling news service News Direct 97.3 moves to AM and is renamed LBC News 1152 and LBC News 1152 transfers to FM and is renamed LBC 97.3. The change takes place following the purchase of the two stations by Chrysalis Radio.
Just over a year after EMAP decided to simulcast London station Magic 105.4 on its eight medium wave Magic stations in northern England, and following a sharp decline in listening, the station ends the networking of Magic 105.4. It replaces the simulcast with a regional northern network.
17 February – A breakfast presenter who was dismissed from Century 106 after playing a spoof song about the Taleban in the wake of the September 11 attacks has settled his case for unfair dismissal, it is reported.[4]
March
1 March – Dee 106.3 launches in the local Chester area – the first dedicated station for the city.
17 March – Death in London of Alan Keith, aged 94. Earlier in the month he recorded an announcement that he intended to retire from the BBC programme Your Hundred Best Tunes, which he devised, after 44 years, but fell ill almost immediately afterwards; his final programme is broadcast 12 days after his death, making him the longest serving and oldest presenter on British radio.[5]
29 May – Journalist Andrew Gilligan broadcasts a report on the BBC Radio 4Today programme stating that the government claimed in its 2002 dossier that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within forty-five minutes knowing the claim to be dubious; a political storm ensues.[8]
19 October – More than three decades after it first began broadcasting as a pirate station, and 18 years since its last broadcast, Radio Jackie goes on air as a legal station.[12] It broadcasts to south west London, replacing Thames Radio which haS fallen into financial difficulty.
November
28 November – Some of the BBC's radio and television services, including BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Five Live and BBC News 24, are blacked out by a power cut and a fire alert.