1998 in British radio

This is a list of events in British radio during 1998.

List of years in British radio (table)
In British television
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
In British music
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
In British film
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001

Events

January

February

  • No events.

March

April

  • 1 April – By way of an April Fool's stunt, Kix 96 breakfast show presenter Nic Tuff calls the then South African president Nelson Mandela pretending to be British prime minister Tony Blair.
  • 4 April – BBC Radio 3's weekday breakfast programme On Air begins broadcasting at the weekend.[3]
  • 6 April – Extensive schedule changes are made to BBC Radio 4. These include an earlier start to the day – 5:30 am instead of 6 am – and an earlier, 6 am, start to Today. Many long standing programmes are axed as part of the shake-up.[4]
  • 12 April – A Sunday episode of The Archers is introduced.
  • 13 April – After nearly 30 years on air, Dance Band Days is broadcast on BBC Radio 2 for the final time.
  • April – After just seven months on air, East Midlands station Radio 106 is rebranded as Century 106 and relaunched with a new team of presenters.[5]

May

  • No events.

June

July

  • 9 July – The BBC unveils a new range of digital car stereos that will go on sale in August.[6]

August

  • August – Virgin Radio launches a new Saturday afternoon football show called Rock 'n' Roll Football.[7]

September

  • September – Kevin Greening leaves the Radio 1 breakfast show, leaving Zoë Ball as sole presenter. She continued to host the show until March 2000.

October

  • 2 October – John Dunn presents his final drivetime show on Radio 2 after 22 years.[8]
  • 4 October – On Radio 2, David Jacobs presents Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century, a 13-part documentary about the life and career of Frank Sinatra.[9] The series concludes on 27 December.[10]
  • 5 October –
    • A major overhaul of the Radio 2 schedule sees many new faces joining the network, including the singer Katrina Leskanich and former Radio 1 presenter Lynn Parsons, who present overnight shows on weekdays and weekends respectively. Johnnie Walker also joins Radio 2 as a regular presenter hosting the afternoon drivetime show (Monday to Thursday). Sally Boazman becomes the station's first official traffic presenter.
    • One hour of Virgin Radio's breakfast show starts simulcasting on Sky One. When a track was played on the radio, viewers saw the song's video.[11]
  • 9 October – Des Lynam joins Radio 2 to present a weekly drivetime programme on Fridays.[12]
  • 12 October – Chris Moyles is promoted from the Early Breakfast show to present the Radio 1 Early Drive show, between 4 pm and 5:45 pm on weekdays (later being extended to 3  5:45 pm). He replaced Dave Pearce, and was replaced on Early Breakfast by Scott Mills.

November

  • 12 November – TalkCo Holdings, whose chairman and chief executive was former Sun Editor Kelvin MacKenzie, purchases Talk Radio.[13]
  • 19 November – Mellow 1557 closes and relaunches on FM as Dream 100.[14]

December

  • December – Melody Radio is renamed Magic 105.4 FM following the purchase of Melody Radio by Emap.

Unknown

Station debuts

Closing this year

Programme debuts

Continuing radio programmes

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

Ending this year

  • April –
  • 27 December – Frank Sinatra: The Voice of the Century (1998)
  • Unknown – Week Ending (1970–1998)

Deaths

gollark: Mine too.
gollark: Oh joy, my server mysteriously failed.
gollark: I WILL return.
gollark: Sorry, network.
gollark: Memetics.

See also

References

  1. "Surprise call for PM". BBC News. BBC. 21 January 1998. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
  2. Bannister's time as controller of Radio 1 is documented in Simon Garfield's book The Nation's Favourite
  3. BBC Genome Project – Radio 3 listings 4 April 1998
  4. New image for BBC Radio 4
  5. "Radio Authority Century 106 file". Retrieved 2010-05-17.
  6. "BBC unveils digital radio". BBC News. BBC. 9 July 1998. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  7. Evans 2010.
  8. "John Dunn – BBC Radio 2 – 2 October 1998 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  9. "Frank Sinatra: the Voice of the Century – BBC Radio 2 – 4 October 1998 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  10. "Frank Sinatra: theVoice of the Century – BBC Radio 2 – 27 December 1998 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  11. Lacey, Hester (4 October 1998). "A bumper breakfast, with ulcers". The Independent. London. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  12. "Des Lynam – BBC Radio 2 – 9 October 1998 – BBC Genome". Genome.ch.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-01-14.
  13. "About". talkSPORT. Archived from the original on 20 August 2010. Retrieved 18 January 2007.
  14. "Launch dates and frequencies" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-16. Retrieved 2010-01-18.
  15. "XTRA-am waves goodbye after 9 years" (Subscription required). Birmingham Evening Mail. Trinity Mirror. 30 May 1998. Retrieved 17 April 2012.
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