1961 in radio

Overview of the events of 1961 in radio

+...

The year 1961 in radio involved some significant events.

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.

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.

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

April 21 – Wallace Greenslade, English radio announcer (born 1912)
October 22 – L. Stanton Jefferies, English musician and radio producer (born 1896)

^ Broadcasting Yearbook 1963 p. B-20.
^ Belenitskaya, Olga (April 16, 2015). "Moscow is speaking: The voice that brought hope to a nation". Russia Behind the Headlines. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
^ 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.)