1961 in radio

The year 1961 in radio involved some significant events.

List of years in radio (table)
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Events

• March 7 – Los Angeles station KLAC begins FM broadcasting as KLAC-FM.^[1]
• April 1 – The Zenith Radio FM Stereo standard is authorized for US FM stations by the FCC.
• April 12: 07:00 UTC – Soviet announcer Yuri Levitan broadcasts news of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 mission, the first human spaceflight, on Radio Moscow while it is still in progress.^[2]
• October 8 – The BBC Home Service in the United Kingdom first broadcasts In Touch; the world's first national radio programme for people who are blind;^[3] it will still be running in 2021.

Debuts

• February 11 – KSHE debuts as a female-oriented rock station in St. Louis, Missouri.
• April 12 – WLKW/990-Providence, Rhode Island signs on as Rhode Island's only 50 kW A.M. station.
• June 25 – WPLM-FM/99.1-Plymouth, Massachusetts signs on.
• KHAK-AM and KHAK-FM, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, sign on at 1360 AM and 98.1 FM, respectively. Although formatting country music, neither station is exclusively country until some point later in 1960s.
• WIBC-FM in Indianapolis, Indiana signs on the air.
• WNOR, an Active Rock station in the Hampton Roads area of the United States, has its debut.
• WKFD/1370-Wickford, Rhode Island begins broadcasting.
• Lohman and Barkley, a radio talk show featuring Al Lohman and Roger Barkley, begins on KLAC in Los Angeles and runs on several stations until 1986.
• October 23 – WAMU is established as an FM station and part of the Educational Radio Network, in Washington, D.C.
• December 23 - WURV signs on as WFMV in Richmond, Virginia.

Births

• February 25 – Todd Blackledge, American sports radio host, previously NFL player
• March 4 – Tom Churchill, Iowa-based radio and television weatherman, inventor of the Digital Weatherman, a computer automation system
• March 14 – Gary Dell'Abate, American radio producer (The Howard Stern Show)
• April 26 – Anthony Cumia, American radio personality (The Anthony Cumia Show, previously of The Opie and Anthony Show)
• September 29 – Stephanie Miller, American comedian and radio talk show host (The Stephanie Miller Show)
• October 25 – Pat Sharp, English radio DJ and children's television host
• December 30 – Sean Hannity, American talk radio host and conservative commentator

Deaths

• January 30 – Dorothy Thompson, American journalist and radio commentator (born 1893)
• April 21 – Wallace Greenslade, English radio announcer (born 1912)
• October 22 – L. Stanton Jefferies, English musician and radio producer (born 1896)

References

1. Broadcasting Yearbook 1963 p. B-20.
2. Belenitskaya, Olga (April 16, 2015). "Moscow is speaking: The voice that brought hope to a nation". Russia Behind the Headlines. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
3. Donovan, Paul (2004). "Quigley, Janet Muriel Alexander (1902–1987)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)