15 February - After five years of Alternative Rock, WDRE flips to Urban as Philly 103.9
18 February - Evergreen Media announce they will merge with Chancellor Broadcasting as part of a US$1.075 billion deal. At the same time, the combined company announces they will acquire Viacom's 10 station group.
24 February - 98.5 Kiss (Kiss Again 103.3)/Houston debuts after stunting with a loop of "
Kiss" by
Prince.
June - Florida-based Paxson Communications sells its entire 169 station group to
Clear Channel Communications for $693 million. The deal closes in December.
11 July –
KZQZ/San Francisco debuts its
Top 40 format, branded as "Z95.7."
1 August -
WDBZ/New York changes call letters to WNSR with plans to flip back to a Gold-based AC on 18 August. However, Chancellor Media begins an
LMA with 105.1 three days prior and the format flip is called off. The station still quietly evolves to more of a Hot AC format by October, calling themselves "FM 105.1", with plans for a new format of some sort to come in 1998.
5 September – WFLN/Philadelphia ends 40 years of Classical music. At 6 PM this day, the station flips to
Modern AC as "Max 95.7"
18 September - Kansas City's heritage rock station KYYS "KY 102" drops its 23-year-old AOR format to become modern AC "102.1 The Zone." The staff, several of whom have been with the station its entire run, is informed of the decision to change its format and their termination just 90 minutes in advance. The venerable KYYS call letters would be replaced by "KOZN" about a month later.
19 September - American Radio Systems announces they will merge with
Westinghouse Broadcasting (which would be renamed CBS, Inc.), getting 98 stations and $2.6 billion as part of the deal.[1]
October - Kansas City's WHB 710 and KCMO 810 swap frequencies.
20 October –
KMJM-FM/
St. Louis moves from 107.7 to 104.9 at midnight. After 12 hours of stunting, 107.7 relaunches as
KSLZ "Z107.7." Also on this day, longtime easy listening station KLTH/Kansas City picks up the discarded AOR format of KYYS and much of the ex-KY 102 staff and becomes "99.7 KY."
19 November –
KIBB in
Los Angeles flips from
Rhythmic AC to
Urban Oldies, branded as "Mega 100". The station is a pioneer, becoming one of the first stations to adopt the format, and resulting in the launches of similar stations around the country over the next 3 years.
21 November – After 37 years of
classical music, WQRS/Detroit flips to
Modern Rock, branded as "105.1 The Edge."
26 November -
WVTY/
Pittsburgh shifts from
adult top 40 to
Modern AC as "96.1 The River." The move comes due to a sale from Hearst to SFX Broadcasting, which brings about a major restructuring move at both WVTY (who would later change call letters to WDRV) and sister
WTAE (AM), resulting in a mass amount of layoffs, as well as a format change on WTAE from news/talk to sports.
30 September –
Al "Jazzbo" Collins, 78, American disc jockey, radio personality and recording artist, briefly host of NBC television's Tonight show in 1957.
^Cox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc.
ISBN978-0-7864-3848-8.