The year 1988 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting. __TOC__

Events

*February - Longtime St. Louis rocker KWK 106.5, tired of playing second-fiddle to KSHE 94.7, flips to CHR/Top-40 as WKBQ "Q-106.5" to try its luck going after consistently top-3 rated KHTR 103.3. Although the station skews younger ("Out with the old, in with the Q!"), it shaves off enough of KHTR's younger audience to drop it to the middle-of-the-pack and forces a format change later in the year. *August 13 – Los Angeles radio personality

Shadoe Stevens Shadoe Stevens (; ) is an American radio host, voiceover actor, and television personality. He was the host of '' American Top 40'' from 1988 to 1995. He currently hosts the internationally syndicated radio show ''Top of the World,'' and co-host ...

takes over as host of "

American Top 40 ''American Top 40'' (previously abbreviated to ''AT40'') is an internationally syndicated, independent song countdown radio program created by Casey Kasem, Don Bustany, Tom Rounds, and Ron Jacobs. The program is currently hosted by Ryan Seacr ...

." He replaces

Casey Kasem Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio personality, who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably '' American Top 40''. He was the first actor to voice Nor ...

, who had hosted since the show's debut in 1970. Stevens will remain with the program until the end of its original run in January 1995. *September – KMGK in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

becomes

KQQL KQQL (107.9 MHz, KOOL 108) is a commercial FM radio station serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul radio market and is licensed to suburban Anoka. It plays classic hits and is owned by iHeartMedia, Inc. The studios and offices are on Utica Av ...

, adopting an

oldies Oldies is a term for musical genres such as pop music, rock and roll, doo-wop, surf music (broadly characterized as classic rock and pop rock) from the second half of the 20th century, specifically from around the mid-1950s to the 1980s, as we ...

format after stunting various versions of "Louie Louie". *September 22 – WYNY 97.1, a country music station and

WQHT WQHT (97.1 FM, ''Hot 97'') is a commercial radio station, licensed to New York, New York, which broadcasts an urban contemporary music format. The station is owned by Mediaco Holding and operated by Emmis Communications under a shared service ...

103.5 (Hot 103), a CHR station swapped frequencies in New York City. *October 7 –

WNBC WNBC (channel 4) is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the NBC network. It is owned and operated by the network's NBC Owned Television Stations division alongside Linden, New Jersey–licensed Telemundo station WN ...

radio in New York signs off for the final time at 5:30 pm after 66 years on the air, being replaced with an all-sports station,

WFAN WFAN (660 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to New York, New York, carrying a sports radio format known as "Sports Radio 66 AM and 101.9 FM" or "The Fan". Owned by Audacy, Inc., the station serves the New York metropolitan area while ...

. The switch was the culmination of a complicated station owner/format swap initiated by Emmis Communications, owner of WFAN and FM sister

; the latter switched dial positions with WNBC's FM sister, WYNY, which was sold off to

Westwood One Westwood One is an American radio network There are two types of radio network currently in use around the world: the one-to-many (simplex communication) broadcast network commonly used for public information and mass-media entertainment, and ...

. The original frequency for WFAN was spun off to

The Jewish Daily Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, '' ...

and became

WEVD WEVD was an American brokered programming radio station with some news-talk launched in August 1927 by the Socialist Party of America. Making use of the initials of recently deceased party leader Eugene Victor Debs in its call sign, the statio ...

. *November 1 – KHTR in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

becomes

KLOU KLOU (103.3 FM) is a radio station with a classic hits format in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in hits from the 1980s and 1990s with some 1970s hits mixed in. Its transmitter is located in Gravois, and operates from studios in St. Louis ...

, going from a

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is the current, 40 most-popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "Top 40" or " con ...

format to an oldies format.

No dates

KBEC KBEC (1390 kHz) is a commercial AM and FM radio station licensed to Waxahachie, Texas and serving Ellis County. It is owned by Jon and Alyssa Garrett and it carries a classic country and Texas country radio format with some talk and sports s ...

Waxahachie, Texas Waxahachie ( ) is the seat of government of Ellis County, Texas, United States. Its population was 41,140 in 2020. Etymology Some sources state that the name means "cow" or "buffalo" in an unspecified Native American language. One possible ...

flips from adult standards to

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

Debuts

*August 1 –

Rush Limbaugh Rush Hudson Limbaugh III ( ; January 12, 1951 – February 17, 2021) was an American conservative political commentator who was the host of '' The Rush Limbaugh Show'', which first aired in 1984 and was nationally syndicated on AM and FM r ...

makes his national debut from WABC in New York, his flagship station to this day. *October – ''

Arutz Sheva ''Arutz Sheva'' ( he, ערוץ 7, lit=''Channel 7''), also known in English as ''Israel National News'', is an Israeli media network identifying with religious Zionism. It offers online news articles in Hebrew, English, and Russian as well as l ...

'' station begins broadcasting in Israel.

Births

*January 9 –

Glyn Wise ''Big Brother 2006'', also known as ''Big Brother 7'', was the seventh series of the British reality television series '' Big Brother''. The show followed a total of twenty-two contestants, known as housemates, who were isolated from the outside ...

, Welsh television/radio personality – runner-up, Big Brother 2006

Deaths

* January 22 –

Parker Fennelly Parker W. Fennelly (October 22, 1891 – January 22, 1988) was an American character actor who appeared in ten films, numerous television episodes and hundreds of radio programs. Early life The son of gardener Nathan Fennelly and Estelle Doll ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

actor, appeared in ten films, numerous television episodes and hundreds of radio programs (born 1891)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . * April 1 –

Jim Jordan James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician currently serving in his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he is a two-ti ...

, American voice actor (''

Fibber McGee and Molly ''Fibber McGee and Molly'' (1935–1959) was a longtime highly popular husband-and-wife team radio comedy program. The situation comedy was a staple of the NBC Red Network from 1936 on, after originating on NBC Blue in 1935. One of the most p ...

'') (born 1896) * April 15 –

Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English actor of Welsh heritage. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Car ...

, English comic actor (born 1926) * April 25 –

Lanny Ross Lancelot Patrick Ross (January 19, 1906 – April 25, 1988)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. was an American singer, pianist an ...

, American singer, pianist and songwriter (born 1906) * June 22 –

Dennis Day Dennis Day (born Owen Patrick Eugene McNulty; May 21, 1916 – June 22, 1988) was an American actor, comedian, and singer. He was of Irish descent. Early life Day was born and raised in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx, New York City, the ...

, Irish-American singer and broadcast personality (born 1916) * June 25 –

Mildred Gillars Mildred Elizabeth Gillars ( Sisk; November 29, 1900 – June 25, 1988) was an American broadcaster employed by Nazi Germany to disseminate Axis propaganda during World War II. Following her capture in post-war Berlin, she became the first woman t ...

("Axis Sally"), American Nazi propaganda broadcaster (died 1988) * July 7 –

Jimmy Edwards James Keith O'Neill Edwards, DFC (23 March 19207 July 1988) was an English comedy writer and actor on radio and television, best known as Pa Glum in ''Take It from Here'' and as headmaster "Professor" James Edwards in ''Whack-O!''. Early lif ...

, English comic actor (born 1920) * October 3 – Mae Brussell, American conspiracy theorist and radio personality (born 1922) * October 28 –

Jack de Manio Giovanni Batista "Jack" de Manio MC and Bar (26 January 1914 – 28 October 1988) was a British journalist, best known as a radio presenter. Life and work He was the son of Jean and Florence de Manio. His father was an Italian aviator, who died ...

, English radio broadcaster (born 1914)

References