1989 in radio

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The year 1989 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.

Events

• KMEZ breaks away from its FM sister station to adopt a business-oriented news/talk format as KDBN.
• ABC Radio has acquired Satellite Music Network. This division is now known as "ABC Music Radio".
• The NBC Radio Network ceased to operate as a separate programming service; owner Westwood One merges it with the Mutual Broadcasting System, moving the networks' news and engineering departments from New York to Mutual's facilities in Arlington. The lone non-news program that remained on NBC Radio, the Sunday-morning religious program The Eternal Light, was also canceled.
• January – KSTT (1170 AM) of Davenport, Iowa switches from a solid gold oldies format (which had been in place since 1986) to simulcasting WXLP (96.9 FM), in addition to increasing its sports broadcasts.
• May 1 – At the grand opening of the Disney's Hollywood Studios, the most attended studio-park in the world, it chooses Pittsburgh's KDKA-AM as its inaugural guest broadcaster in its interactive radio studios.
• May 1 – KIIK-FM of Davenport, Iowa switches from a contemporary hit radio format (which had been in place since 1972) to oldies, and its call letters to KUUL-FM. The station's signature "KUUL Red Radio" is unveiled shortly thereafter and appears at the station's live remote broadcasts.
• May 24 – The last NBC Radio owned-and-operated station, KNBR 680-AM in San Francisco, was sold off to Susquehanna Broadcasting (which merged with Cumulus in 2005). KNBR changed from an adult contemporary format to all-sports the following year, a format it still holds.
• August - KCPW Kansas City drops its top-40 format as "Power 95" and becomes KCMO-FM "Oldies 95."
• October 9 – KSJN (AM) in Minneapolis, Minnesota becomes KNOW.
• November – WQXI flips callsigns to WSTR, becoming Star 94 in Atlanta.
• November 13 – London Greek Radio, one of the United Kingdom's first all-ethnic radio stations, begins broadcasting.
• December – Kayla Satellite Network purchases Chuck Harder's Sun Radio Network (forerunner to I.E. America Radio Network. Harder's show was soon dropped from the network and he later started a new radio network, the Peoples Radio Network.
• December 11 - Dallas/Ft. Worth's heritage rocker KZEW 97.9 "The Zoo" flips to Christmas music.
• December 26 - 570 AM and 97.9 FM in Dallas/Ft. Worth flip to soft AC as "Warm 97.9." The change would not bring a complete simulcast, however, as some college sports programming on the now-former KLDD 570 "K-Oldie" would remain on 570. Call letter changes to KKWM and KKWM-FM would follow.

Debuts

• March – Mark Belling joins WISN in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• KDWN in Las Vegas, Nevada offers Art Bell a five-hour radio talk show time slot in the middle of the night, which later evolved into Coast to Coast AM.

Deaths

• January 29: Mandel Kramer, American radio actor (born 1916)
• Herbert Morrison, American radio reporter (born 1905)

See also

• Radio broadcasting