1998 in British radio

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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.^[1]
• March - Andy Parfitt replaces Matthew Bannister as controller of Radio 1.^[2]
• 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)^[3]
• Unknown - South Coast Radio (1991)

References

1. "Surprise call for PM". BBC News. BBC. 21 January 1998. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
2. Bannister's time as controller of Radio 1 is documented in Simon Garfield's book The Nation's Favourite
3. "XTRA-am waves goodbye after 9 years" (Subscription required). Birmingham Evening Mail. Trinity Mirror. 30 May 1998. Retrieved 17 April 2012.