The year 1986 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.
Events
January 8 – Long Beach's KNAC switches formats from an alternative/new wave format to a "Pure Rock" format. KNAC continued under that format until 1995.
January 18 – The syndicated "American Country Countdown" expands from three to four hours. Much like "American Top 40" had more than seven years earlier, several new features are added, including a weekly recap of three No. 1 hits from the 1970s and playbacks of an artist's older hits.
June 6 – Canada's premier Top 40 station, CHUM-AMToronto, drops its hit format after almost 30 years and changes to "Favourites of Yesterday and Today." CHUM's corporate owner, CHUM Ltd., also switches several of its other major Top 40 stations, including CKGM in Montreal, CFRA in Ottawa, and CFUN in Vancouver, to AC formats during the year.
August 11 – KFRC 610 AM in San Francisco drops its top 40 radio format after twenty years at 6 AM, and changes to a 1940s Big Band format, redubbing itself as "Magic 61".
After 40 years of playing the latest hits, including rock and roll since the mid 1950s, KSTT-Davenport, Iowa has its contemporary hit radio format retired in favor of a solid-gold oldies format.
The ownership of KROS and KSAY-FM in Clinton, Iowa is split, with the FM station's studios moving to Davenport, Iowa. Call letters change to KLIO, with on-air identifier K-Lite, and the format switches from religious to adult contemporary. KROS, meanwhile, continues on with its community and middle-of-the-road format.
September 15 – Virginia Gregg, 70, American broadcast actress.
October 22 – Jane Dornacker, 39, American rock musician, actress, comedian and WNBC traffic reporter.
References
^ abCox, 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.
^DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN978-0-7864-2834-2. P. 129.
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