The year 1979 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.
Events March 25: Prokofiev's opera Maddalena receives its world premiere as a BBC Radio 3 broadcast (from a studio recording) in the UK, with Jill Gomez in the title role. September: KDWB-FM in Minneapolis, Minnesota breaks away from their Top 40 AM sister, becoming album-oriented rock as "K101". October 8-November 3: The engineers and airstaff of WCCO-AM-FM-TV go on strike. October 22: A Pittsburgh court receives a $7 million libel lawsuit from county politician Cyril Wecht over remarks the city controller made of him during a radio interview. Undated: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, long time rocker KRST flips to country music, becoming the city's first FM country radio station. KRST continues playing country music.
Debuts February 5: Sears Radio Theater debuts on CBS in the United States. May 31: RTÉ Radio 2 signs on the air in the Republic of Ireland as a national pop music station: "Like Clockwork" by The Boomtown Rats is the first song on air, played by Larry Gogan. November 5: The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio in the United States. Undated: WIXK-FM signs on the air in Minneapolis–Saint Paul.
Endings November 4: KUAC ends AM after 12 years. It is replaced by Morning Edition (see above in Debuts).
Births May 4: Wes Butters, English broadcaster. July 23: Peter Rosenberg, American radio personality.
Deaths April 9: Staats Cotsworth, 71, American actor perhaps best known for playing the title role in Casey, Crime Photographer. September 27: Gracie Fields, 81, English wartime singer, actress and broadcaster on BBC and Radio Luxembourg. October 27: Charles Coughlin, 88, Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest who used radio to reach a mass audience during the 1930s. This radio program included praises of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
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