Piccadilly Radio was Greater Manchester’s first commercial radio station and it inspired listeners all over the North West with its mix of news, music, interviews, sports, drama and current affairs. Manchester Central Library’s climate-controlled archive vaults hold over 1,500 Piccadilly Radio master tapes, on obsolete and hard-to-maintain reel-to-reel format. This playlist includes a few short clips from the hundreds of tapes in the collection.

You can listen to these radio shows and more at the Sound + Vision pods at Manchester Central Library. You can search the catalogue for the rest of the Piccadilly Radio collection online https://gmlives.org.uk/results.html?#imu[search=piccadilly%20radio] (look for references PICC and PICC/2). 800 shows have now been digitised and are available at Manchester Central Library thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players.

Piccadilly Radio

Murder By Gaslight - radio drama by Leo Knowles, narrated by Leo McKern, on a Victorian Edinburgh love-triangle poisoning case.

PICC/753

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Murder By Gaslight

Midweek Soccer Spectacular with Tim Grundy featuring adverts, football updates from Manchester United v Everton and music.

PICC/679

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Midweek Soccer Spectacular (nil-nil!)

Roger Finnegan interviews Diana Dors about her book 'For Adults Only' and why gentlemen prefer blondes.

PICC/675

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Roger Finnegan interviews Diana Dors

Graham Gouldman of 10cc tells Mike Sweeney about starting his songwriting career and the early days of the band.

PICC/516

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Graham Gouldman of 10cc

Peter Jones remembers his early days in radio, including the BBC's advertising rules, a nervous young Shirley Bassey and his enjoyment of Just a Minute.

PICC/511

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Peter Jones remembers his early days in radio

Advert for evening receptionist

PICC/231

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Piccadilly Radio advert for evening receptionist

'Obviously it's a ladies song', adverts and Stanley Baxter on doing different accents

PICC/229

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Stanley Baxter on doing different accents

Sinatra, adverts and Stanley Baxter on his greatest hits.

PICC/229

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Stanley Baxter on his greatest hits

Piccadilly Radio jingle for Mike Shaft

Mikey Dread explains to Mike Shaft why he operates his own music label.

You can listen to the full show in Manchester Central Library's Sound+Vision pods (ref PICC/228). Copyright Bauer Media. All rights reserved.

Digitised thanks to support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Mikey Dread on why he runs his own label

TWO SIX ONE

PICC/228

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the tape at Manchester Central Library.

Piccadilly Radio jingle: TWO SIX ONE!

The music sounds best on Piccadilly Radio!

PICC/225

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the tape at Manchester Central Library.

Piccadilly Radio jingle

Lenny Henry describes how he learns accents for impressions.

PICC/224

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Lenny Henry on accents

Lenny Henry tells Mike Sweeney about getting his early acts and getting his big break when Chris Tarrant visited his show.

Lenny Henry on getting his big break

Tony Wilson talks to Mike Sweeney about his school days at De La Salle in Salford, c. 1982

PICC2/268

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Tony Wilson's schooldays

Clip from episode 13 of Mancunian sitcom Cromwell Mansions, featuring a young Caroline Aherne as Linsey, who is pregnant. Aherne was working as a receptionist at Piccadilly Radio when she got her big chance.

PICC2/78

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

Cromwell Mansions

Drama about the partnership of Gilbert & Sullivan, produced by Tony Hawkins. In this clip the protagonists are yet to meet...

PICC2/10

Copyright Bauer Media, all rights reserved. You can listen to the rest of the show at Manchester Central Library.

A Most Victorian Partnership: Gilbert & Sullivan

Animals in Church - St Peters in Ashton-under-Lyne

Kids talk about kissing

Uncle Sams Soccer Circus: Soccerbowl 78 with George Best

The Greater Manchester Sound Archive is available at Manchester Central Library. The collection includes hundreds of oral histories, radio and music recordings.

You can check the catalogue at http://gmlives.org.uk. If you can't find what you're looking for in the catalogue please email us on archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk.

Unlocking Our Sound Heritage (UOSH) is an ambitious partnership project led by the British Library and supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to address the threat facing the UK’s sound heritage. Sounds held on physical formats risk being lost as the carriers degrade over time and the equipment to play them is no longer produced. The project aims to transform access to and preserve the nation’s sound heritage, to create sustainable centres of excellence in digital audio preservation and to involve new audiences in engaging with their audio heritage in innovative ways.

Archives+ at Manchester Central Library is the hub partner for the North West region, which covers Cumbria, Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The hub will digitise around 15,000 recordings on 5,000 cassette and open reels held all over the region. The British Library will archive the digital files and provide access to a proportion of them online. The project will recruit volunteers across the region who will spend time learning how to sort, catalogue and promote the region's sound heritage.

We recognise that from time to time material published online may be in breach of copyright laws, contain sensitive personal data, or include content that may be regarded as obscene or defamatory.  If you are concerned that you have found material on our Soundcloud for which you have not given permission, contravenes privacy laws, is obscene or defamatory, or in terms of copyright law is not covered by a limitation or exception, please contact us at archiveslocalstudies@manchester.gov.uk.