The year 1990 in radio involved some significant events. __TOC__

Events

* KJJO 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 ...

transitions from

active rock Active rock is a radio format used by many commercial radio stations across the United States and Canada. Active rock stations play a balance of new hard rock songs with valued classic rock favorites, normally with an emphasis on the harder edge o ...

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

. * KBLN in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

becomes KXEB. *

Daytimer A clear-channel station is a North American AM radio station that has the highest level of protection from interference from other stations, particularly from nighttime skywave signals. This classification exists to ensure the viability of cross ...

KKDA in

begins nighttime broadcasting. *

Emmis Communications Emmis Corporation is an American media conglomerate based in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Emmis, based on the Hebrew word for "Truth" (''Emet'') was founded by Jeff Smulyan in 1980. Emmis has owned many radio stations, including KPWR ...

sells several of their most noteworthy stations to offset losses from the purchase of the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. The Mariners compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West Division. The team joined the American ...

, including

KXXX KXXX (790 AM broadcasting, AM) is a radio station broadcasting a farm and classic country radio format. Licensed to Colby, Kansas, United States, the station serves the tri-state region of Northwest Kansas, Northeast Colorado and Southwest Nebra ...

in San Francisco, WAVA-FM in Washington, DC and WLOL in

. * WHTE-FM signs in as Adult Contemporary format in the Charlottesville, Virginia Area. *March 13 – WLVK/Charlotte flips to "high octane country" as "Thunder 96.9"; this direction last only a few months, with the station shifting back to a more traditional country format. *June – KNRJ/Houston flips from Rhythmic CHR to

Alternative Rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

. The Alternative format will last only 5 weeks, and is promoted as temporary while the station's owners, Nationwide Communications, begin researching the market for a new format. *July 13 –

Nationwide Communications Nationwide Communications Inc., originally known as Peoples Broadcasting Corporation, was a media subsidiary of the Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, Nationwide Insurance Company, which operated from 1946 until 1997. Based in Columbus, Ohio, ...

sells off WGAR 1220-AM in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

, which was a direct simulcast of country WGAR 99.5-FM, to Douglas Broadcasting. WGAR-AM signs off at midnight on July 13 after airing a brief retrospective on the station, highlighted with tributes from station alumni

Jack Paar Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American talk show host, writer, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host of ''The Tonight Show'' from 1957 to 1962. ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine's ob ...

and

Don Imus John Donald Imus Jr. ( ; July 23, 1940 – December 27, 2019), also known as Imus, was an American radio personality, television show host, recording artist, and author. His radio show '' Imus in the Morning'' was aired on various stations and di ...

. The station relaunches as

WKNR WKNR (850 AM) – branded as ''850 ESPN Cleveland'' – is a commercial sports radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, serving Greater Cleveland. Owned by Good Karma Brands, WKNR is the Cleveland affiliate for ESPN Radio and the AM flag ...

a few minutes later, carrying a satellite-delivered oldies format, but will gradually assume an all-sports lineup in less than a year. *July 20 – Nationwide's KNRJ flips to

Hot AC Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul, ...

as KHMX, "Mix 96.5." *August 22 – Echo of Moscow (), a 24/7 independent commercial station, begins broadcasting from Moscow. *October 2 – Radio Berlin International ceased its operation. The following day,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

reunified.

Debuts

* '' Chippie'', a radio program on computer topics, debuts on

Hessischer Rundfunk (; "Hesse Broadcasting"), shortened to HR (; stylized as hr), is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, A ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Deaths

*July 7 –

Bill Cullen William Lawrence Cullen (February 18, 1920 – July 7, 1990) was an American radio and television personality whose career spanned five decades. Known for appearing on game shows and later as a prolific game show host, he hosted 23 shows, ear ...

, American radio personality, game show host (born 1920) *July 8 – Evelyn Kaye, American violinist, "Evelyn and Her Magic Violin" on '' The Hour of Charm'' *July 30 – Karl Weber, American actor in

old-time radio The Golden Age of Radio, also known as the old-time radio (OTR) era, was an era of radio in the United States where it was the dominant electronic home entertainment medium. It began with the birth of commercial radio broadcasting in the earl ...

(born 1916) *October 26 –

William S. Paley William Samuel Paley (September 28, 1901 – October 26, 1990) was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into o ...

, American chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small

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, mass-media entertainment, and the two-way radio (Duplex (teleco ...

into one of the foremost

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

operations in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

(born 1901)Cox, Jim (2008). ''This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History''. McFarland & Company, Inc. .

References

Radio by year {{radio-stub

Events

Debuts

Deaths

See also

References