How did Manchester’s Piccadilly change the UK’s radio landscape?

One morning in April 1974, Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys was faded up and with it – the birth of Manchester’s newest radio station.

Piccadilly Radio 261 went on to become a Mancunian institution and one of the most popular news, music and entertainment radio stations in the UK.

The city’s first independent radio station, which joined the airwaves four years after BBC Radio Manchester, helped launch the careers of broadcasters Andy Peebles, Chris Evans, Susie Mathis and BBC Radio Manchester’s Becky Want and Mike Sweeney.

In 1988, after 14 years of news, sport, phone-ins and competitions, Piccadilly Radio split into Key 103 – later becoming Hits and Greatest Hits Radio, both based in the city’s Castlefield area.

Several of Piccadilly’s former presenters recently reunited to unveil a commemorative plaque at the site of the original studios, recalling stories of how the station became a “bright light” during a “pretty grim time” for the city.

When Piccadilly Radio came on air, the country was in the midst of political strife, a three-day working week and energy shortages.

Factories and schools closed, families ate by candlelight and television channels went dark at 22:30 GMT.

“We’re talking about 1974, which was pretty grim frankly, it almost meant we didn’t even get on air”, Piccadilly Radio’s first employee Jim Hancock remembered.

“Piccadilly came as this bright light on the scene.”

Tony Ingham, who helped set up the station, said only “one-and-a-half” of their four studios were ready for launch day on 2 April 1974.

“There wasn’t any heating, the presenters had maybe two weeks to rehearse,” he explained.

“Everything was held together with Sellotape and string initially.”

While his future colleagues were helping build the remaining studios, across the city a young Mike Shaft was listening to Andy Peebles’ soul show.

“All I wanted to do was the soul show,” he said.

“I said to my missus ‘I’ll never work at Piccadilly whilst Andy’s there because his soul show was just excellent’.”

Shaft, who eventually took the reins of the “Taking Care of Business” soul show until 1986, remembered the day he realised a window may be open.

“I opened up the Daily Mail, it read ‘Andy Peebles Goes To Radio 1’ – I was down there within 30 minutes!”

The aspiring presenter soon received a letter, inviting him in for a chat.

“Me and my missus were both jumping around in our flat, it was great times,” he remembered.

After Piccadilly, Shaft worked at BBC Radio Manchester for 20 years, presenting his final Sunday Breakfast show in 2022.

Piccadilly Radio also reported on Manchester’s vibrant and varied sporting scene – under its “First with News; First with Sport” tagline.

When the station covered Manchester City versus Liverpool in the 1981 League Cup semi-final, Ingham was asked to think of an idea to show off Piccadilly’s sponsorship of the tie.

“Two nights before the game, we went to assess whether we could send fireworks off above the stands in the event of a City goal,” he said.

“On the way back to the studios, we were arrested by armed police who thought we’d set a bomb off.

“I spent two hours in Moss Side police station under the Prevention of Terrorism Act!”

Shaft said: “I loved Piccadilly – anytime Tony [Ingham] or Liz [Bracken] phones up – I’m there because I know what the radio station stood for.

“There’s other places I worked where I wouldn’t give them tuppence.

For Hancock, the offering of “shock jocks” and the studios’ prime Piccadilly Gardens location were vitally important.

“We were seen to be out and about,” he said. “It’s more commonplace now but in those days we had a big van that would go out with the DJs to the Manchester shows and local community events.

“Twenty-four hours a day [Piccadilly Radio] was coming from the heart of Manchester and that’s what people identified with.

“Looking back now, I didn’t realise what impact it would have on the people of Manchester.”

Shaft agreed: “Piccadilly and the other commercial stations came on air and blew the BBC locals out the water.”

Ingham highlighted the camaraderie between staff – several of whom had gained their first big break in the radio industry at Piccadilly.

“That made Piccadilly so successful and thought of so fondly even after all these years,” he explained.

“For a period of time, a group of people came together and they implicitly understood how that radio station should behave.

“It’s the best job in the world, working for a radio station, it doesn’t get any better.”

Piccadilly Radio’s plaque is available to view at City Tower, aptly enough in Piccadilly Gardens.

The station’s archived tapes have recently been digitised and are publicly available at Manchester’s Central Library.