24 January - Long-time St. Louis Top 40WKBQ flips to Modern AC as "Alice 104.1."
15 February - After five years of Alternative Rock, WDRE flips to Urban as Philly 103.9
18 February - Evergreen Media announce they will merge with Chancellor Broadcasting as part of a US$1.075 billion deal. At the same time, the combined company announces they will acquire Viacom's 10 station group.
24 February - 98.5 Kiss /Houston debuts after stunting with a loop of "Kiss" by Prince.
23 May - KBKS/Seattle flips from gold-based Rhythmic AC to Modern AC-leaning Top 40, rebranding as "Kiss 106.1."
22 June – V-103/Baltimore flips from its long-time urban contemporary format to Top 40, branded as "102.7 XYV."
11 July – KZQZ/San Francisco debuts its Top 40 format, branded as "Z95.7."
1 August - WDBZ/New York changes call letters to WNSR with plans to flip back to a Gold-based AC on 18 August. However, Chancellor Media begins an LMA with 105.1 three days prior and the format flip is called off. The station still quietly evolves to more of a Hot AC format by October, calling themselves "FM 105.1", with plans for a new format of some sort to come in 1998.
4 August - Hot AC-formatted WMTX/Tampa flips to Modern AC as "Star 95.7" WSSR.
2 September - KOAZ/Phoenix flips from smooth jazz to country as "Wild Country 103.5."
5 September – WFLN/Philadelphia ends 40 years of Classical music. At 6 PM this day, the station flips to Modern AC as "Max 95.7"
18 September - Kansas City's heritage rock station KYYS "KY 102" drops its 23-year-old AOR format to become modern AC "102.1 The Zone." The staff, several of whom have been with the station its entire run, is informed of the decision to change its format and their termination just 90 minutes in advance. The venerable KYYS call letters would be replaced by "KOZN" about a month later.
20 October – KMJM-FM/St. Louis moves from 107.7 to 104.9 at midnight. After 12 hours of stunting, 107.7 relaunches as KSLZ "Z107.7." Also on this day, longtime easy listening station KLTH/Kansas City picks up the discarded AOR format of KYYS and much of the ex-KY 102 staff and becomes "99.7 KY."
19 November – KIBB in Los Angeles flips from Rhythmic AC to Urban Oldies, branded as "Mega 100". The station is a pioneer, becoming one of the first stations to adopt the format, and resulting in the launches of similar stations around the country over the next 3 years.
26 November - WVTY/Pittsburgh shifts from adult top 40 to Modern AC as "96.1 The River." The move comes due to a sale from Hearst to SFX Broadcasting, which brings about a major restructuring move at both WVTY and sister WTAE, resulting in a mass amount of layoffs, as well as a format change on WTAE from news/talk to sports.
30 September - Al "Jazzbo" Collins, 78, American disc jockey, radio personality and recording artist, briefly host of NBC television's Tonight show in 1957.
