1971 in radio

Events

• 2 January: A ban on radio and television cigarette advertisements goes into effect in the United States.
• 3 January: Open University begins broadcasts on the BBC in the United Kingdom.
• 5 January: FIP (France Inter Paris) begins broadcasting from Paris on 514 m (585 kHz).
• 19 January: Moscow Radio broadcasts criticism of the Sultan of Oman in Arabic. One of the accusations against him is that he allowed the setting up of a radio station called "Voice of the Free South" in opposition to the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.
• 14 February: All of ABC Radio's FM stations change call letters, all on the same day:
  • WABC-FM in New York becomes WPLJ, for White Port & Lemon Juice.
  • KABC-FM in Los Angeles becomes KLOS, for Los Angeles.
  • KGO-FM in San Francisco becomes KSFX, for San Francisco (now KOSF).
  • KQV-FM in Pittsburgh becomes WDVE, for a D o V E, the symbol of peace.
  • WXYZ-FM in Detroit becomes WRIF, for a guitar "R I F F" (legend goes that the calls were meant for WLS-FM to symbolize the cities' jazz scene).
  • WLS-FM in Chicago becomes WDAI (supposedly meant for WXYZ-FM to celebrate the Detroit Auto Industry; it had no meaning in Chicago).
  • KXYZ-FM in Houston becomes KAUM (today KHMX), meaning "Aumm", in Meditation terms; corresponding to Hippie meditative actions.
• 20 February: The U.S. Emergency Broadcast System sends an erroneous warning; many radio stations just ignore it, while WOWO in Fort Wayne takes it seriously and interrupts programming for 20 minutes.
• 2 March: 8HA is launched in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
• 18 March: Prambors FM is launched in Jakarta, Indonesia.
• 26 March: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declares Bangladesh's independence in a radio message.
• 1 April: Bayern 3, a public radio station owned and operated by Bayerischer Rundfunk, is launched in West Germany.
• 10 May: Members of the Front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire (FHAR) interrupt a live radio broadcast on France's RTL, in which controversial presenter Menie Grégoire is introducing a phone-in on the subject of homosexuality.
• 24 May: U.S. Senator Clifford Case introduces Senate Bill 18, to remove funding for Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty from the CIA's budget.
• 15 July: DXDB Radyo Bandilyo, an AM radio station owned by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Malaybalay, is launched in the Philippines.
• 19 September: MBC FM4U, South Korea's second FM station, is launched.
• 2 November: Radio Waikato begins broadcasting in Hamilton, New Zealand, on 954 kHz AM.
• 19 November: Triple M Central Coast begins broadcasting from Gosford, New South Wales, Australia, under the name 2GO.
• December: WNBC in New York lures Don Imus and his Imus in the Morning program away from WGAR (AM) in Cleveland (now WHKW); WGAR replaces him with fellow shock jock John Lanigan.
• date unknown
  • Radio Malaysia becomes the first radio station in Malaysia to broadcast 24 hours a day, nationwide.
  • The FM- and TV-mast Helsinki-Espoo, the third highest structure in Finland, begins transmission.
  • WLOL-FM and KSJN, both in Minneapolis, Minnesota, participate in "quadcast" (quadraphonic) experiments.
  • Sergiu Celibidache becomes conductor of the Stuttgart Radio Orchestra.
  • David McCallum Sr. ends his tenure as leader of Mantovani's orchestra.