1981 in radio

	… 1971; 1972; 1973; 1974; 1975; 1976; 1977; ; 1978; 1979; 1980; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1984; ; 1985; 1986; 1987; 1988; 1989; 1990; 1991 …;
	In music 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 In television 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 In home video
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science +...;

The year 1981 in radio involved some significant events.

Debuts[]

March – KWNT (1580 AM) of Davenport, Iowa, switches from its longtime country music format – which it had held since the 1950s, including under its previous call sign KFMA – to a golden oldies format, emphasizing music of the 1930s through early 1950s. It is the first in a series of format switches at the frequency over the next 19 years – formats ranged from oldies to soul to black gospel – all of them unsuccessful.
March 1 - DJ Larry Monroe signs on at Austin's NPR station KUT and stays for 29 years.^[1]
March 30 – Radio stations across America interrupt regular programming following an assassination attempt against President Ronald Reagan outside the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
April 12 – WJOI/Pittsburgh flipped from beautiful music to Top 40, branded as "B94", and adopted the new call letters "WBZZ." That fall, WWJ-FM, a beautiful music station in Detroit, picks up the WJOI calls.
June 1 – CJCB-FM Sydney, Nova Scotia flips from Easy Listening to Country. Along with the format change, the station changes its call letters to CKPE-FM.
September 22 – WCAU-FM in Philadelphia debuts a new Hot Hits format called "98 Now!" which sweeps the local ratings and inspires parent company CBS to look at converting its other FM stations to similar formats.
October – "The Weekly Country Music Countdown," a three-hour weekly countdown program featuring the top 30 country hits of the week as reported by Radio & Records magazine. Hosted by radio personality Chris Charles, the show is the first successful rival to "American Country Countdown."

Births[]

July 1 – Clemency Burton-Hill, English classical music presenter

Deaths[]

February 10 – Leonard Plugge, English commercial radio promoter and politician (b. 1889)
March 10 – Bob Elson, American "pioneer in broadcast journalism" best known for his broadcasting of baseball games of the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox (b. 1904)^[2]

References[]

^ Corcoran, Michael (March 1, 2014). "In Memoriam: Larry Monroe King of the "segway"". Lone Star Music. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
^ Condon, David (March 11, 1981). "Ex-Sox, Cubs Broadcaster Elson dies at 76". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 14, 2015.

This article related to radio is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

This article related to a particular year is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by .

[1] Corcoran, Michael (March 1, 2014). "In Memoriam: Larry Monroe King of the "segway"". Lone Star Music. Retrieved April 10, 2020.

[trib034481-2] Condon, David (March 11, 1981). "Ex-Sox, Cubs Broadcaster Elson dies at 76". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 14, 2015.

[1]

[2]