1998 in British radio

Updated on Dec 11, 2023

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This is a list of events in British radio during 1998.

Events

21 January - Capital FM mid morning presenter Steve Penk attracts national attention after making a prank call to 10 Downing Street in which he pretended to be William Hague and spoke to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

March - Andy Parfitt replaces Matthew Bannister as controller of Radio 1.

1 April - By way of an April Fool's stunt, Kix 96 breakfast show presenter Nic Tuff calls the then South African president Nelson Mandela pretending to be British prime minister Tony Blair.

September - Kevin Greening leaves the Radio 1 breakfast show, leaving Zoë Ball as sole presenter. She continued to host the show until March 2000.

2 October - John Dunn presents his final drivetime show on Radio 2 after 22 years.

5 October - A major overhaul of the Radio 2 schedule sees many new faces joining the network, including the singer Katrina Leskanich and former Radio 1 presenter Lynn Parsons, who present overnight shows on weekdays and weekends respectively. Johnnie Walker also joins Radio 2 as a regular presenter hosting the afternoon drivetime show (Monday to Thursday). Sally Boazman becomes the station's first official traffic presenter.

9 October - Des Lynam joins Radio 2 to present a weekly drivetime programme on Fridays.

12 October - Chris Moyles is promoted from the Early Breakfast show to present the Radio 1 Early Drive show, between 4pm and 5:45 on weekdays (later being extended to 3pm-5:45). He replaced Dave Pearce, and was replaced on Early Breakfast by Scott Mills.

Station debuts

17 January - TLR 107.2 (now KMFM Thanet)

6 June - Centre FM

14 June Wave 105

15 August - Quay West Radio (1998–2010)

Closing this year

31 May - Xtra AM (1989)

Unknown - South Coast Radio (1991)

References

1998 in British radio Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

Contents

Events

Station debuts

Closing this year

References