This is a list of events from British radio in 1961.
Events
5 June – Hans Keller broadcasts a performance of the spoof avant-garde composition Mobile for Tape and Percussion by the fictitious composer Piotr Zak on the BBC Third Programme. September – Alan Freeman replaces David Jacobs as the main presenter of Pick of the Pops. David Davis is appointed head of children's sound broadcasting at the BBC. Chorus singer Irene Thomas enters and wins the Brain of Britain contest, heralding a forty-year period as a mainstay of radio panel game quiz programmes.
Programme debuts
8 October – In Touch on the BBC Home Service (1961–Present) October – Once Over Lightly on the BBC Light Programme (1961–1962)
Programme endings
29 January – Ray's a Laugh (1949–1961)
Continuing radio programmes
1940s
Music While You Work (1940–1967) Sunday Half Hour (1940–2018) Desert Island Discs (1942–Present) Family Favourites (1945–1980) Down Your Way (1946–1992) Have A Go (1946–1967) Housewives' Choice (1946–1967) Letter from America (1946–2004) Woman's Hour (1946–Present) Twenty Questions (1947–1976) Any Questions? (1948–Present) Mrs Dale's Diary (1948–1969) Billy Cotton Band Show (1949–1968) A Book at Bedtime (1949–Present)
1950s
The Archers (1950–Present) Listen with Mother (1950–1982) From Our Own Correspondent (1955–Present) Pick of the Pops (1955–Present) The Clitheroe Kid (1957–1972) My Word! (1957–1988) Test Match Special (1957–Present) The Today Programme (1957–Present) The Navy Lark (1959–1977) Sing Something Simple (1959–2001) Your Hundred Best Tunes (1959–2007)
1960s
Farming Today (1960–Present) Easy Beat (1960–1967)
Births
1 January – Fiona Phillips, radio and television presenter
3 January – Justin Webb, journalist and presenter on Today
3 March – Paul Baskerville, disc jockey
10 April – Nicky Campbell, Scottish-born broadcast presenter
14 May – David Quantick, comedy writer, music journalist and radio broadcaster
28 June – Mark Goodier, disc jockey
17 July – Jeremy Hardy, comedian (died 2019) 22 July – Carolyn Quinn, journalist and presenter on PM 27 June – Lynn Parsons, disc jockey 25 October – Pat Sharp, radio and television presenter Unknown Robin Brooks, radio dramatist Corrie Corfield, newsreader
Deaths
21 April – Wallace Greenslade, announcer (born 1912) 22 October – L. Stanton Jefferies, musician and radio producer (born 1896)