1989 in British radio

This is a list of events in British radio during 1989.

Events

January

• No events

February

• No events

March

• 10 March – Les Ross leaves the BRMB breakfast show to present on its new AM service Xtra AM which is launched on 4 April.

April

• 1 April – BBC Radio 1 starts broadcasting slightly earlier each morning and is now on air between 5am and 2am seven days a week.

May

• May – The BBC Night Network is launched on the BBC's six local radio stations in Yorkshire and north east England.

June

• No events

July

• No events

August

• No events

September

• 1 September – The Ireland-based long wave station Atlantic 252 is launched. Operated by RTÉ it broadcasts to both Ireland and the United Kingdom. The first presenter to be heard is Gary King who announced at 8am: "Mine is the first voice you will ever hear on Atlantic 252." The station only broadcasts during the day – between 6am and 7pm and at closedown invites listeners to tune in to Radio Luxembourg.

October

• 1 October – BBC Radio 2 begins a series of Sunday afternoon performances of works by Gilbert and Sullivan. The 12-week series, which runs until Christmas, replaces the station’s usual Sunday afternoon schedule.^[1]

November

• 13 November – London Greek Radio, one of the United Kingdom's first all-ethnic radio stations, begins broadcasting. It initially shared its broadcast frequency with WNK and the two stations alternated every four hours. WNK went into liquidation in 1993, and from that point LGR no longer had to timeshare.^[2] This is the third of the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s series of incremental radio stations to launch. More than 20 licenses were issued, which allowed new stations to start broadcasting in areas already served by independent local radio. The stations came on air in 1989 and 1990.

December

• 19 December – BBC Radio 1 starts transmitting on FM in East Anglia.^[3]

Station debuts

• 15 January – WABC
• 14 February – BBC Hereford and Worcester
• 4 March – BBC Wiltshire Sound
• 27 March – Coast AM
• 31 March –
  • MFM 97.1
  • Marcher Gold
• 4 April – Xtra AM (1989–1998)
• 8 April – Great North Radio
• 1 May – Classic Gold
• 16 July – The Breeze
• 1 September – Atlantic 252
• 15 September – Fox FM
• 2 October – London Newstalk and London Talkback
• 15 October – Horizon Radio
• 22 October – Sunset 102
• 5 November – Sunrise Radio
• 13 November – London Greek Radio
• 26 November – Orchard FM
• 2 December – CNFM
• 9 December – Sunrise Radio Yorkshire

Closing this year

• 1 May – Viking Gold

Deaths

• 31 October – Roger Scott, 46, disc jockey

See also

• 1989 in British music
• 1989 in British television
• 1989 in the United Kingdom
• List of British films of 1989

References