The year 1941 saw a number of significant happenings in radio broadcasting history.

Events

• 27 May Fireside chat: Announcing Unlimited National Emergency (longest fireside chat)
• 11 September Fireside chat: On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas
• 7 December At 2:26 p.m. EST (19.26 GMT), the Mutual Broadcasting System interrupts its play-by-play commentary on the New York Giants/Brooklyn Dodgers NFL game to announce the attack on Pearl Harbor. At around the same time, NBC Red breaks into Sammy Kaye's musical program, NBC Blue suspends National Vespers, and CBS Radio interrupts a concert by the New York Philharmonic.
• 8 December The President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, delivers the Presidential Address to Congress of December 8, 1941, commonly referred to as the "Infamy Speech" to a Joint Session of Congress at 12:30 p.m. EST (17.30 GMT). Transmitted live over all four major American radio networks, it attracts the largest audience ever measured for an American radio broadcast, with over 81 percent of homes tuning in.^[1]
• 9 December Fireside chat: On the Declaration of War with Japan

Debuts

• 7 January: Inner Sanctum Mysteries (1941 1952) debuts on the NBC Blue Network.
• 1 March: W47NV starts operations as the first commercial FM radio station.
• 1 March: Duffy's Tavern debuts on CBS.
• 28 March: Hollywood Premiere, hosted by Louella Parsons, debuts on CBS.
• 31 August: The Great Gildersleeve debuts on the NBC Red Network.
• undated: WFMF commences operations as an FM counterpart to WJBO at 98.1 Fm. Eventually WDGL would sign on in 1968 and take over the 98.1 frequencey and forced WFMF to broadcast at 102.5FM.

Closings

Births

• 2 April Dr. Demento, radio disc jockey specializing in novelty songs and pop music parodies.
• 24 May Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter, author, musician, poet and, of late, disc jockey who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades.
• July Gary Burbank, longtime American radio personality on WLW in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Deaths

References

de:Rundfunkjahr 1941 sv:Radio ret 1941