The year 1938 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.
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- 3 January – The BBC Empire Service, begun in 1932, transmits its first programme in a foreign language: Arabic.
- 13 March – CBS carries the first point-to-point news roundup, including Edward R. Murrow's first live report, as part of its coverage of the Anschluss in Austria. Over the next few months, the daily programme will evolve into the CBS World News Roundup, a permanent fixture on the CBS network.
- 15 March – The BBC begins its Portuguese and Spanish service for Latin America.
- 14 April – Fireside chat by the President of the United States: On Economic Conditions.
- 6 May – The Caferadio copyright case is decided by the High Court of the Netherlands in favour of the composer Franz Lehár, who complains about a cafe owner allowing his customers to listen to a radio broadcast of Der Zarewitsch.[1]
- 24 June – Fireside chat: On Party Primaries.
- 11 July – The first live drama adaptation in Orson Welles' The Mercury Theatre on the Air series on CBS Radio in the United States is broadcast: Bram Stoker's Dracula.
- 12 September – Commentator H. V. Kaltenborn begins his famous marathon of news bulletins on the CBS network in the United States covering the intensifying Czech Crisis over the Sudetenland. The first bulletin is a summation of Hitler's closing address to the Tenth (and, as it would prove, last) Party Congress of the Nazi party in Nuremberg. Kaltenborn will eat and sleep in the studio, making periodic updates, until the signing of the Munich Agreement on 29 September.
- 30 October – Orson Welles's radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds (with script by Howard Koch) is broadcast on CBS from New York as an episode of The Mercury Theatre on the Air. As this is a sustaining program and has no commercial interruptions, Welles centers the first two-thirds of the broadcast in the serious style of a series of news bulletins interrupting a live musical broadcast. This approach results in panic in various parts of the United States, although later research suggests its level has been exaggerated.[2]
- 10 November – Kate Smith sings God Bless America for the first time on her radio show, a day before Armistice Day.
- 12 November – France's Finance Minister Paul Reynaud uses a radio broadcast to try to sell his programme of reforms, stating that the country is "going blindfold into an abyss".[3]
- date unknown – Antonio Tovar becomes director of Radio Nacional de España, broadcasting from Salamanca.[4]
- 1 January
- 21 January – Wolfman Jack (died 1995), American disc jockey, television personality and actor.[11]
- 6 May – Larry Gogan (died 2020), Irish disc jockey.
- 3 August – Terry Wogan (died 2016), Irish-British broadcaster.
- 17 August – Duncan Johnson (died 2018), Canadian-born disc jockey.
- 8 September – Adrian Cronauer, American lawyer and radio disc jockey who inspires the film Good Morning, Vietnam.
- 10 September – "Diddy" David Hamilton, born David Pilditch, English broadcast personality.
- 1 November – Malcolm Laycock (died 2009), English radio presenter and producer.
- 13 December – Chris Emmett, English radio comedy actor.
- 16 December – Frank Deford (died 2017), American senior contributing writer for Sports Illustrated, author and sports commentator for NPR's Morning Edition.
- DATE UNKNOWN – Ron Della Chiesa, Boston-area radio personality.
Gosling, John (2009). Waging The War of the Worlds: A History of the 1938 Radio Broadcast and Resulting Panic. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4105-1. Overy, Richard & Wheatcroft, Andrew The Road To War, London: Macmillan, 2009 p.178
Cox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3848-8. Dunning, John. (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3. Terrace, Vincent (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4.