1955 in radio

The year 1955 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.

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Events

• 2 May – Opening at Wrotham, Kent, of the United Kingdom's first VHF/FM transmitters.
• September (Labor Day weekend) – First Sig Alert broadcast in California.[1]
• 22 September – The character Grace Archer dies in the BBC radio serial The Archers; a spoiler for the launch of ITV in the UK on the same day.[2]
• 20 October – Disc jockey Bill Randle of WERE (Cleveland) is the key presenter of a concert at Brooklyn High School (Ohio), featuring Pat Boone and Bill Haley & His Comets and opening with Elvis Presley, not only Elvis's first performance north of the Mason–Dixon line, but also his first filmed performance, for a documentary on Randle titled The Pied Piper of Cleveland.
• 17 November – Creation of the Communauté des radios publiques de langue française (CRPLF) - an association of the French-language public broadcasters of France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada, later to become, in 2002, the Radios francophones publiques (RFP).
• 26 November – In Sweden, the national public broadcaster Radiotjänst (modern-day Sveriges Radio) begins transmission, via FM, of its second radio channel in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, and Örebro.

Debuts

• June 12 – Monitor debuts[3] on NBC Radio.
• August 8 – WPLM/1390 signs on.

Closings

• March 10 – The Silver Eagle broadcasts its last episode.
• March 23 – The Big Story ends its run on NBC.[4]
• March 27 – Hallmark Hall of Fame ends its run on network radio (CBS).[4]
• May 22 – The Jack Benny Program airs its last radio episode and moves solely to television.
• June 7 – Lux Radio Theater ends its run on CBS.
• June 9 – Sergeant Preston of the Yukon ends its run on network radio (Mutual).[4]
• June 30 – Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator ends its run on network radio (NBC).[4]
• July 1 – Joyce Jordan, M.D. ends its run on network radio (NBC).[4]
• July 15 – Break the Bank ends its run on network radio (NBC).[4]
• October 13 – Dr. Sixgun ends its run on network radio (NBC).[4]

Births

• January – Dirk Maggs, English radio producer.
• February 10 – Jim Cramer, American television personality, hedge fund manager and bestselling author.
• February 23 – Tom Bodett, American author, voice actor, radio host and spokesman for hotel chain Motel 6.
• April 5 – Janice Long, born Janice Chegwin, English disc jockey.
• May 22 – Dale Winton, English broadcast presenter (died 2018).
• July 9 – Fred Norris, American radio personality.
• July 19 – Karen Cheryl, French singer, actress and broadcast presenter.
• October 4 – Dale Connelly, American co-host (with Tom Keith, a.k.a. Jim Ed Poole) of The Morning Show on Minnesota Public Radio.
• Approximate date – Christopher Douglas, English comedy actor-writer.

References

1. Purdum, Todd S. (1997-05-18). "How Los Angeles Traffic Snarls Spawned a Word". The New York Times. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
2. BBC: The Archers, timeline.
3. Cox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3848-8.
4. Dunning, John. (1998). On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-507678-3.