2008 in Radio - Events

Events

• January 2: WWFT finished Christmas music stunting, rolling out the red carpet for adult contemporary music branded as "Warm".
• January 10: WOCL in Orlando re-brands as "Sunny 105.9", restoring Oldies in the market with a Classic hits format.

• January 18: Music of Your Life changes hands from Jones Radio Networks to Concierge Technologies.
• January 21: XM Sports Nation begins airing both The Dan Patrick Show and The Tony Kornheiser Show. Kornheiser's show returns to air on the same date after a seven-month hiatus.
• January 28: Tony Bruno leaves Sporting News Radio.
• February: Mike McConnell's weekday show is pulled from syndication; it will continue as a local show, and his weekend show will remain syndicated.
• February 21: Air America Radio changes hands for the second time in less than a year; Pendulum Media purchases the network from Mark J. Green.
• March 1: Citadel Broadcasting announces a large loss of revenue and jettisons several staffers. Among the notable names dismissed were John R. Gambling and Ron Kuby of WABC, Chris Core of WMAL and Peter Tilden of KABC. Melanie Morgan of KSFO, while not laid off, did not have her contract renewed. Meanwhile, Curtis Sliwa is promoted to mid-mornings at WABC, and a massive roll-out of Imus in the Morning and The True Oldies Channel commences.
• March 1: Rollye James discontinues syndication of her show and continues the show as a satellite-only program.
• March 3: CBS Radio divests itself of Westwood One; the latter company is sold to Gores Radio.
• April: Triton Media Group purchases Waitt Radio Networks and plans to consolidate its networks into its Dial Global brand.
• April 1: WRNO-FM in New Orleans, Louisiana switches format to "Rush Radio" and all-day replays of The Rush Limbaugh Show in a stunt that lasts six days. Limbaugh had previously been heard on crosstown rival WWL.
• April 3: Randi Rhodes is suspended from Air America Radio and quits the network a week later, joining Nova M Radio on April 14.
• April 11: Don Geronimo, of Don and Mike, retires from radio.
• April 14: WQNR is rebranded as 99.9 Kate FM with a variety hits format.
• April 22: Drew Lane leaves his morning radio show Drew and Mike.
• April 23: Steve Shannon leaves the nationally syndicated Steve and DC Morning Show to take a job at WERC in Birmingham. The show continues with D.C. Chymes as host, under the title of "D.C. and the Family."
• April 30: AOL and XM Satellite Radio ended their partnership.
• May 15: WYSP/Philadelphia morning host Kidd Chris and PD John Cook are fired by CBS Radio after learning that a parody song that was performed live on Chris' show, "Schwoogies" by Lady Gash, contained racial slurs and content.
• May 24: Biz Radio Network moves from KMNY to KJSA in Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.
• June 1: The eXpat Chart launches on 4 English-language radio stations across Europe.
• June 10: AOL adds the streaming links from all of CBS Radio's 150 O&O stations to its online service.
• June 11: Smooth AC returns to Denver and Honolulu full time via KKHI and KORL-FM, respectively.
• June 13: WGVC/Greenville, South Carolina drops adult hits for an FM simulcast of news/talk WORD-AM/WYRD-AM with a callsign change to WYRD-FM.
• June 16: WGPR in Detroit, Michigan changes to full urban AC, dropping smooth jazz (which they would sprinkle alongside urban AC) for several years rebranded The New 107.5 WGPR.
• June 19: WZZN in Chicago, Illinois changes its call sign to WLS-FM.
• June 20: Triton Media Group purchases Jones Radio Networks and plans to consolidate its networks into its Dial Global brand. Jones Radio Networks officially signs off September 30.
• June 26: In Vancouver, Oldies CKBD moves from 600 to FM 100.5, debuting an alternative rock format.
• July 25: The FCC approves the merger of XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio, with certain conditions. Four days later on July 29, the company is renamed Sirius XM Radio.
• July 25: CTVglobemedia announces a deal to sell 1331 Yonge Street, the longtime home of its Toronto radio stations CHUM and CHUM-FM, to a residential developer. The stations, along with the building's neon sign—which is considered a landmark piece of Toronto's cultural heritage—will move to new studios at 250 Richmond Street West in downtown Toronto, near the 299 Queen Street West home of most of CTVglobemedia's cable television channels, in early 2009.
• August 1: Rush Limbaugh celebrates 20 years in national syndication. President George W. Bush, along with former President George H. W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb Bush, call in at the top of the broadcast.
• August 1: CBS Radio announces that it will put 50 radio stations in mid-size markets up for sale.
• August 29: CHAM in Hamilton, Ontario drops its classic country format and begins stunting with Christmas music, nominally becoming the first station in North America to switch to the format in 2008, before changing to talk radio on September 2.
• September 30: Jones Radio Networks signs off as it was sold to Triton Media Group, ceasing broadcasting three services: Contemporary jazz, Standards, Adult hits. See Jones Radio Networks#Satellite formats
• October 10: WMVN, the former MOViN station in St. Louis, Missouri, drops its format and becomes the first commercial station to change to Christmas music for the entire holiday season, before planning to change to sports radio on January 1, 2009. When considering only non-stunting stations, WRIT-FM in Milwaukee became the first non-stunting commercial station in the United States to change formats, on October 31.
• October 31: KNRJ of Phoenix, Arizona says goodbye to their dance format after six years, debuting hip hop music.
• November 12: Sirius XM makes massive changes in its lineup on its Sirius and XM channels by eliminating or merging several duplicating formats.
• November 18: A.C. Nielsen announced that they will enter the radio ratings business, putting them in direct competition with Arbitron.
• December 15: CBS Radio trades five stations—KXJM and KLTH/Portland, Oregon, KBKS/Seattle, KQJK/Sacramento and WQSR/Baltimore—to Clear Channel Communications in exchange for Clear Channel's Houston outlets KHMX and KLOL.
• December 17: Border Media Partners changes names to Border Media.
• December 28: The Sean Hannity Show is scheduled to change syndicators; Premiere Radio Networks will take over syndication from ABC Radio; the show will continue to air on stations owned by ABC Radio parent company Citadel Broadcasting as part of the deal.
• December 31: Michael Reagan's syndication deal with Radio America ends; Reagan will be replaced by Roger Hedgecock in January 2009.