4 February – After broadcasting off and on since 1969, Radio Jackie's time as a pirate station ends. It returns 18 years later as a legal station, broadcasting to the same area of south west London that it had served as a pirate.
13 February – Financial difficulties force South Wales station Gwent Broadcasting to close down after less than two years on air.[3]
March[]
31 March – Ranking Miss P becomes BBC Radio 1's first regular black female DJ when she begins presenting the station's first reggae programme. This is not her first appearance on the station, however, as she has been sitting in for other presenters for the past year.
April[]
April – Following the closure of Gwent Broadcasting, CBC expands its broadcast area to cover the Newport area of South Wales.
May[]
No events.
June[]
29 June – Study on 4 is renamed Options and from this date all of BBC Radio's adult educational programming is now broadcast on weekend afternoons.[4] The programmes continue to be broadcast only on VHF/FM. This means that Radio 4's output on weeknights between 11 pm and 11.30 pm - ie all of The World Tonight and - are now also broadcast on VHF/FM.
July[]
13 July – BBC Radio 1 broadcasts full, live coverage of the Live Aid pop concerts in stereo.
August[]
During the 1985 school summer holidays, BBC Radio 4 broadcasts an all-morning children's programme called Pirate Radio 4 on Thursday mornings. Three editions of the programme are aired. It is broadcast on VHF/FM only with the usual Radio 4 schedule continuing on long wave.[5]
September[]
3 September – The first changes to VHF/FM frequencies for ILR and BBC local radio take place with Pennine Radio in Huddersfield moving from 103.4 to 102.5 VHF. It is part of a European re-organisation of band 2 of the VHF band which comes into affect in July 1987 to allow the full broadcasting spectrum to be available for broadcasting.[6]
9 September – Following Wiltshire Radio's purchase of Radio West, Radio West closes at just after midnight.
28 September – A Little Night Music is broadcast on BBC Radio 2 for the first time. Airing daily between 3 am and 4 am, it replaces repeats of programmes previous broadcast on Radio 2. Instead of having a regular or named host, the programme is presented by that night's newsreader.
October[]
1 October –
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal launches, replacing the Gaelic service BBC Radio nan Eilean which covered north west Scotland and the Gaelic programming on BBC Radio Highland.[7]
Following its purchase of Radio West, new owners Wiltshire Radio merge Radio West and Wiltshire Radio and launch a new 24-hour station, GWR FM with split programming for the two areas at breakfast and mid-morning.
14 October – CBC is relaunched as Red Dragon Radio. The station also covers the Newport area, offering a replacement service to Gwent Broadcasting and provides separate breakfast shows for Cardiff and Newport until the early 1990s.[8]
October – Plymouth Sound launches an opt-out service for Tavistock. The service operates on weekday breakfast and drive time and weekend mid-mornings.
October – Kiss makes its first broadcasts as a pirate station.
November[]
15 November – Radio Mercury's transmission area expands when it switches on a transmitter covering the Horsham area.[9]
Due to general difficulties within the commercial radio industry, Hereward Radio withdraws from Northamptonshire and the Independent Broadcasting Authority assigns the Independent Local Radio franchise to a new company, Northants Radio Ltd, owned by Chiltern Radio Group.