The year 1958 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting history.

Events

• 24 February In Cuba, Radio Rebelde, the radio station of Fidel Castro's rebels, begins broadcasting from Sierra Maestra.
• 1 April The BBC Radiophonic Workshop is established.
• April 15: In New York, Les Keiter, sports director of WINS (AM), begins coverage of San Francisco Giants games, just months after the team has moved out of New York City to the West Coast. His "live-action" commentaries are so vivid that many listeners never realize that Les is merely staging a re-creation of the games from Western Union telegraph reports received in WINS' New York studios (a throwback to 1930s radio coverage of baseball games) and never sets foot in Seals Stadium. WINS will carry Giants games in the same manner next year.
• 2 July The first radio ballad, The Ballad of John Axon, is broadcast on the BBC Home Service.
• July 14: John F. Box Jr., president of the Balaban group, buys KGKO and changes the station's call letters to KBOX, adopting a Top 40 format to compete with Gordon McLendon's top-rated 1190 KLIF.

Debuts

• January Pete Myers, with his frenetic, rapid-fire "Mad Daddy" persona, delivered entirely in rhyme, debuts on WJW (AM) in Cleveland (today WKNR). His evening show has a brief (he leaves WJW in May. After a 90-day non-compete clause is enforced, Myers joins cross-town WHK), coining phrases that are still uttered to this day, such as "wavy gravy" and "mellow jello".
• March 4: WDCR/1340-Hanover, New Hampshire (Dartmouth College Radio) begins broadcasting @ 21:00 Eastern Standard Time.
• November 23: "Have Gun, Will Travel", one of the last radio dramas featuring continuing characters, debuts on the CBS Radio Network.

Births

• May 23 - Mitch Albom, American author and radio personality
• June 29 - Jeff Coopwood, American actor, broadcaster and singer
• September 6 - Jeff Foxworthy, American comedian, actor, author, and radio and television personality
• October 23 - Michael Dyson, African-American writer, professor, and radio talk show host.

de:Rundfunkjahr 1958 pt:1958 na r dio sv:Radio ret 1958