1998 in radio

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The year 1998 in radio involved some significant events.

Events

• January 2 — A gunman shoots Antario Teodoro Filho, Brazilian politician and radio presenter, during a broadcast.
• January 21 - Big 105 debuts playing its AC format (WBIX, now WWPR-FM)
• March 9 — Washington, D.C. stations WTEM 570-AM and WWRC 980-AM swap dial positions. Two weeks prior, WWRC, a former NBC Radio owned-and-operated station, switched to a business news format, and the 980-AM facility was upgraded to a 50,000 watt day/5,000 watt night signal.
• March 28 — "American Top 40" returns to the airwaves, once again with Casey Kasem as the host. The show is actually the re-named "Casey's Top 40," which Kasem had hosted since its premiere in 1989. Kasem will remain with the program until December 2003.
• May 31 — Nick Digilio broadcast his first program as part of The Nick D. & Garry Lee Show on WGN Radio. Nick had been reviewing movies with WGN Radio legend Roy Leonard since 1985.
• August 13 — Jacor Communications completes a $620 million merger with the 17-station Nationwide Communications chain, all of which are spun off from the insurance company of the same name. The TV stations are sold to Young Broadcasting.
• September 4 - KMXP Eagle 96.9 stopped playing Classic rock and played a ticking clock sound for telling viewers would listen at 3PM that day later, Mix 96.9 debuts playing AC hits from the 70s to the 90s.
• October 8 — Clear Channel Communications announces a $2.8 billion merger with Jacor Communications; the deal is approved the following May.
• October 12 - Groove 103.1 KBCD and KACD signs off and becomes a simulcast of KIIS-FM in Los Angeles.
• October — WMMS in Cleveland engages in "The Death of the Buzzard," a month-long event celebrating the station's legendary past, with a plethora of vintage airchecks, interviews and sounders. Rumors had the station retiring the WMMS call letters, rock format and Buzzard mascot in favor of the KISS FM Top 40 format. This turns out in the end to be merely a stunt, only the airstaff is replaced, but the call letters, format and mascot remained.

No dates

• A judge rules that nude images of Dr. Laura Schlessinger could continue to be posted on a website. Radio personality Bill Ballance had sold them to a company and claimed that they were the product of a 1970s affair between himself and Schlessinger, while Schlessinger was married. Schlessinger admitted the affair but claimed she was legally separated and had filed for divorce from her first husband at the time of their affair.

Debuts

• January 10 — "Retro Country USA," a two-hour weekly program featuring country music hits of the past. The core group of songs comes from the 1980s, with 1970s and early 1990s songs also included. The show is hosted by radio personality Ken Cooper.
• February 17 — WMIB-Marco Island, Florida begins broadcasting on the expanded band frequency of 1660 kHz.

Closings

• August 31 — Westwood One's news facility in Arlington closed, which housed staffers for NBC Radio and Mutual. CBS Radio staff were now directly responsible for the production of "Mutual" and "NBC"-branded newscasts from CBS' New York facilities.

Deaths

• Richard Beebe, 68, comedian, member of The Credibility Gap
• February 18 - Harry Caray, 84, American television and radio baseball broadcaster
• Jerry Clower, 71, country comedian best known for his stories of the rural South, appeared on WSM in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Al "Jazzbo" Collins, 78, disc jockey, radio personality and recording artist, briefly the host of NBC television's Tonight show in 1957.
• John Gilliland, 62, broadcaster, creator of The Pop Chronicles and member of Lew Irwin and The Credibility Gap.