1968 in radio

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The year 1968 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.

Events

  • 1 January – ABC divides its radio network into four networks.
  • 1 February – WABX Detroit drops classical music to air progressive rock/freeform full-time.
  • 1 February – WKYC-AM in Cleveland (today WTAM) alters its Top 40 format to "Power Radio," a "more music"–style presentation derivative of Drake-Chenuault.
  • 3 March – Radio Caroline's pirate radio ships MV Mi Amigo and Fredericia are seized by an offshore supply company as security for unpaid debts and towed into Amsterdam.
  • 11 March – KFWB in Los Angeles becomes the third Westinghouse Broadcasting station to launch an all-news format, patterned after KYW (AM) in Philadelphia and WINS (AM) in New York.
  • 15 March – WBCN in Boston, Massachusetts begins to drop easy listening for progressive rock/freeform.
  • 18 March – KMPX program director Tom Donahue turns in his resignation, citing conflicts with station management. Staff at both KMPX and sister station KPPC in Pasadena, angered by the move, start a strike that lasts eight weeks.
  • 15 April – KNX (AM) in Los Angeles, a CBS Radio O&O, switches to an all-news format.
  • 29 April – WMMR in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania switches to progressive rock/freeform as "The Marconi Experiment."
  • 21 May – In San Francisco, Metromedia purchases classical music KSFR, changes the call letters to KSAN, and hires former KMPX program director Tom Donahue to head the new progressive rock/freeform format.
  • June – ABC Radio hires Allen Shaw from WCFL in Chicago to develop an all-automated rock format for their FM stations, which results in the "Love" format. The stations involved were WABC-FM (now WPLJ) in New York, WLS-FM in Chicago, KGO-FM (now KOSF) in San Francisco, KQV-FM (now WDVE) in Pittsburgh, WXYZ-FM (now WRIF) in Detroit, KXYZ-FM (now KHMX) in Houston, and KABC-FM (now KLOS) in Los Angeles.
  • 5 June – New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated in the Ambassador Hotel shortly after midnight PST (10.00 GMT), following a victory in the California primary election for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. Reporter Andrew West of Mutual Broadcasting System radio affiliate KRKD in Los Angeles (now KEIB), intended to capture an exclusive interview with the senator, but instead captured on audio tape the sounds of the immediate aftermath of the shooting (but not the actual shooting itself). With a reel-to-reel tape recorder and attached microphone, West also provided an on-the-spot account of the struggle with assassin Sirhan Sirhan in the hotel's kitchen pantry, which was relayed to the entire Mutual network, and was a watershed moment in news coverage of U.S. presidential campaigns.
  • 10 June – KMET in Los Angeles starts airing four hours of progressive rock in the nighttime, programmed by KSAN's Tom and Raechel Donahue. It eventually goes to a full-time format as "The Mighty MET."
  • 18 June – KBOO-FM signs on as one of the earliest community radio stations in the United States.
  • 1 July – WIBC-FM flips from classical music to album-oriented rock as WNAP.
  • 28 September – WHK-FM in Cleveland, the last FM station in the Metromedia chain to launch a progressive rock/freeform format, changes its calls to WMMS, derivative of their owner.
Undated

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This page was last updated at 2023-12-09 13:31 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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