December 18 In Radio History

In 1890...Edwin Howard Armstrong was born in New York City. He was an early radio pioneer and also the inventor of FM, Frequency Modulation. A motorcycle visit to the Armstrong Tower in Alpine, NJ, the world's first FM radio tower.

In 1956...Phil Rizzuto contracted to be a New York Yankee radio-TV announcer. He held the position for 40-years.

In 1958...U.S. launches SCORE (Signal Communication by Orbiting Relay Equipment) to transmit radio message from President Eisenhower, effectively becoming the first communications satellite


In 1967...Radio Peronsality Scott Muni started at WNEW 102.7 FM

In 1971...the CBS Radio network cancelled Saturday morning band concerts.

In 1993...WNCN changes to rock WAXQ in NYC


In 2010...NYC Radio/TV Personality Clay Cole died from a heart attack at age 72

In 2012…Two global audience-measurement giants announced plans to join forces as Nielsen, the dominant source of TV ratings, agreed to buy Arbitron for about $1.26 billion to expand into radio measurement.