2003 in radio
The year 2003 in radio involved some significant events.
Events
October 10 – Facing an investigation surrounding allegations of illegal drug use, American right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh publicly admits that he is addicted to prescription pain killers, and will seek treatment.
Debuts
March 3 – Skratch 'N Sniff debuts on San Diego area alternative rock station XETRA-FM (91.1 FM, "91X").
March 31 – "NBC News Radio," an hourly service of one-minute news updates anchored by NBC News and MSNBC personnel (but written by Westwood One staffers) is launched. Westwood One still maintains production of the unrelated five-minute long "NBC Radio News"-branded newscasts in morning drive (which had been produced and anchored by CBS Radio personnel since 1998) for one more year; they were one of a few remaining connections to the original NBC Radio Network.
April – KJOC in Davenport, Iowa dumps its all-sports format and switches to talk, hoping to compete with the market's WOC. Some sports programming – mainly, the Chicago Cubs and Iowa State University athletics – are held over, and (except for a few brief interim periods with ISU sports) remain to this day.
