30 January – Adolf Hitler makes his last public speech to be delivered personally, on broadcast radio, expressing the belief that Germany will triumph in World War II.
12 April – The death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt interrupts programming on radio networks in the United States. On CBS, John Charles Daly interrupts his narration of Wilderness Road to read the wire message.
15 April – BBC correspondent Richard Dimbleby accompanies the British 11th Armoured Division to the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, making one of the first reports from there.[1] His description of what he sees ("the world of a nightmare") is so graphic, the BBC declines to broadcast his dispatch for 4 days, relenting only when he threatens to resign.
6 May – Mildred Gillars ("Axis Sally") delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (the first was on 11 December 1941).
7 May – The last German communication to be decoded at Bletchley Park is from a military radio station at Cuxhaven closing down.[5]Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, Leading Minister in the rump Flensburg Government, makes a broadcast announcing the German surrender. This evening the BBC in the United Kingdom announces that the following day will be a holiday, Victory in Europe Day.
28 May – U.S.-born Irish-raised William Joyce ("Lord Haw-Haw") is captured by British forces on the German border two days after recording his final (rambling and audibly drunk) propaganda broadcast. He is later charged with high treason in London for his English-language wartime broadcasts on German radio, convicted, and then hanged in January 1946.
15 August – Hirohito surrender broadcast: Emperor Hirohito's recorded announcement of the unconditional surrender of Japan is broadcast on Radio Tokyo a little after noon (Japan Standard Time).[8] This is probably the first time an Emperor of Japan has been heard by the common people. Delivered in formal classical Japanese, without directly referring to surrender and following official censorship of the country's weak position, the speech is not immediately easily understood by ordinary people.
2 January – Baxter Black, American cowboy, poet, philosopher, large-animal veterinarian and radio commentator (died 2022).
9 January – Bill Heine, American-born British radio presenter and cinema owner (died 2019).
12 February – Luiz Carlos Alborghetti, Italian-Brazilian radio commenter, showman and political figure (died 2009).
8 March – Micky Dolenz, American actor, musician, television and theatre director and radio personality, best known as drummer/vocalist in the 1960s made-for-television band, The Monkees.
30 March – Johnnie Walker, born Peter Dingley, British DJ.
17 June – Art Bell, American broadcaster, talk show host and author, known primarily as the founder and longtime host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM (died 2018).
22 August – Pete Atkin, English singer-songwriter and radio producer.
28 October – Simon Brett, English radio producer and scriptwriter and detective fiction writer.
13 December
Herman Cain, African-American conservative newspaper columnist, businessman, political candidate, radio talk-show host and chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza (died 2020).
Kathy Garver, American actress, author and online radio hostess.
^"BBC News - In Depth - Audio slideshow: Liberation of Belsen". news.bbc.co.uk.
^Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945. Research Publications. 1990. pp. 348–349. ISBN 978-0-88736-568-3.
^Pommerin, Reiner (1996). Culture in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1945-1995. Berg. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-85973-100-0.
^""Calling all Czechs!": the Prague Uprising begins". Radio Prague International. October 8, 2022. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
^Corera, Gordon (May 8, 2020). "VE Day: Last Nazi message intercepted by Bletchley Park revealed". BBC. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
^Little, Allan (May 8, 2020). "VE Day: 'Do not despair, do not yield'". BBC. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
^Belenitskaya, Olga (April 16, 2015). "Moscow is speaking: The voice that brought hope to a nation". Russia Behind the Headlines. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
^"Text of Hirohito's Radio Rescript", The New York Times, p. 3, August 15, 1945, retrieved August 8, 2015
^ abcdeCox, Jim (2008). This Day in Network Radio: A Daily Calendar of Births, Debuts, Cancellations and Other Events in Broadcasting History. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-3848-8.
^Terrace, Vincent. (1999). Radio Programs, 1924-1984: A Catalog of More Than 1800 Shows. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-4513-4.
^"Domestic Comedy Series Heard On WHP Daily, 7 P.M." Pennsylvania, Harrisburg. Harrisburg Telegraph. August 25, 1945. p. 15. Retrieved March 26, 2016 – via Newspapers.com.