1980 in British radio

Events

January

• 2 January – BBC Radio 3 launches a new, extended teatime programme Mainly for Pleasure. The two-hour long programme replaces the much shorter Homeward Bound.
• 13 January – Forces request programme Family Favourites is broadcast on BBC Radio 2 for the final time.

February

• BBC Radio Wales launches the first of two permanent community opt-out stations, Radio Deeside, after successful community radio experiments in 1978. The reopening is in response to the closure of the Shotton steelworks.

March

• 19–20 March –, the ship from which the pirate radio station Radio Caroline is broadcast, runs aground and sinks off the Thames Estuary.
• 31 March – BBC Radio 1's broadcast hours are cut back. The station starts broadcasting on weekdays an hour later and Saturday evening programming ends. The station simulcasts BBC Radio 2 during this additional downtime although by the end of the year Radio 1 has stopped broadcasting Radio 2 through the night.

April

• 11 April – CBC in Cardiff becomes the first of the second tranche of Independent Local Radio stations to start broadcasting. It is the first new ILR station since 1976.

May

• 30 May – The final edition of soap opera Waggoners' Walk is broadcast on BBC Radio 2.

June

• No events.

July

• No events.

August

• No events.

September

• September – Due to the continued expansion of BBC Local Radio, the regional news bulletins, broadcast in England four times a day Monday to Saturday on BBC Radio 4, end, apart from in the south west which is the sole part of England which still does not have any BBC local service.

October

• 18 October – Radio Tay begins broadcasting to the Dundee area from the Angus transmitter.

November

• 14 November – Radio Tay begins broadcasting to the Perth area.
• 15 November – The very last episode of BBC Radio 4 sketch comedy show The Burkiss Way, "Wave Goodbye to CBEs the Burkiss Way", lampoons what the writers considered to be the BBC's obsequious approach to the Queen Mother's 80th birthday celebrations, and its first repeat transmission is cut by 6 minutes on the instructions of the station controller.

December

• 1 December – BBC Scotland carries out a one-week experiment in breakfast television. It is a simulcast of BBC Radio Scotland's breakfast show Good Morning Scotland.
• 6 December – Andy Peebles records an in-depth interview with John Lennon in New York City for BBC Radio 1, two days before Lennon's murder.

Undated

• Autumn – Land-based pirate radio station Dread Broadcasting Corporation begins to air from West London as Britain's first black music "pirate" station.

Station debuts

• February – BBC Radio Deeside
• 11 April – CBC (Cardiff Broadcasting Company)
• 23 May – Mercia Sound
• 10 July – Hereward Radio
• 11 September – BBC Radio Norfolk
• 15 September – 2CR (Two Counties Radio)
• Autumn – Dread Broadcasting Corporation
• 17 October – Radio Tay
• 23 October – Severn Sound
• 7 November – DevonAir Radio
• 11 November – BBC Radio Lincolnshire

Programme debuts

• 8 April – Radio Active on BBC Radio 4
• 25 November – Hordes of the Things on BBC Radio 4

Continuing radio programmes

1940s

• ''A Book at Bedtime''

1950s

• ''Your Hundred Best Tunes''

1960s

• ''The Organist Entertains''

1970s

• ''Science in Action''

Ending this year

• 13 January – Family Favourites
• 30 May – Waggoners' Walk
• 15 November – ''The Burkiss Way''

Births

• 6 February – Tom Ravenscroft, radio DJ
• 28 February – Katy Wix, Welsh comedy actress
• 7 May – Kate Lawler, reality TV personality, DJ and model
• 3 June – Rickie Haywood-Williams, radio DJ and TV presenter
• 4 June
• *Nii Odartei Evans, radio announcer and voice actor
• *Danielle Perry, radio presenter and musician
• 30 July – Melvin Odoom, radio DJ and TV presenter/comedian
• 5 August – Sophie Winkleman, Lady Frederick Windsor, actress
• 3 November – Elis James, Welsh comedian
• Unknown
• *Sara Mohr-Pietsch, classical music presenter
• *Helen Zaltzman, podcaster, broadcaster and scriptwriter

Deaths

• 9 February – Renée Houston, actress
• 26 April – Dame Cicely Courtneidge, actress
• 4 May – Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson, Scottish pianist, composer and broadcaster
• 23 June – John Laurie, actor
• 24 July – Peter Sellers, actor, comedian and radio personality
• 22 August – Norman Shelley, actor
• 6 October – Hattie Jacques, actress
• 19 October – D. G. Bridson, radio producer and author
• 20 October – Isobel Barnett, broadcasting personality
• 8 December – Charles Parker, documentary producer