The year 1979 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.

Events

*September: KDWB-FM in

Minneapolis, Minnesota Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

breaks away from their Top 40 AM sister, becoming

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. US rad ...

as "K101". *October 8-November 3: The engineers and airstaff of WCCO-AM-FM-TV go on strike. *October 22:

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

court receives a $7 million libel lawsuit from county politician Cyril Wecht over remarks the city controller made of him during a radio interview.

Debuts

*Undated: WIXK-FM signs on the air. * February 5: ''

Sears Radio Theater ''Sears Radio Theater'' was a radio drama anthology series which ran weeknights on CBS Radio in 1979, sponsored by the Sears chain. Often paired with ''The CBS Radio Mystery Theater'' during its first season, the program offered a different g ...

'' debuts on CBS. * November 5: The radio news program '' Morning Edition'' premieres on

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

. *Undated: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, long time rocker KRST flips to country music, becoming the city's first FM country radio station. KRST is still playing country music.

Endings

*November 4 - KUAC Ends ''AM'' after 12 years. It's replaced by Morning Edition (see Above in Debuts)

Births

* May 4 - Wes Butters, British broadcaster * July 23 - Peter Rosenberg, American radio personality

Deaths

*April 9: Staats Cotsworth, 71, actor perhaps best known for playing the title role in '' Casey, Crime Photographer''. *October 27: Charles Coughlin, 88,

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

-born

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest who used radio to reach a mass audience during the 1930s. This radio program included praises of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

and

Benito Mussolini Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister of Italy, Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 un ...

References

Radio by year {{radio-stub