Nobody Did It Better

David Govier, Audio Preservation Engineer with Manchester Archives+ tells us more…

At 5am on the 2nd of April in 1974 a legend was born when the first epic 45-second-long Piccadilly Radio jingle hit the airwaves. All went fairly smoothly through the first news bulletin until Roger Day mis-cued the first song so that the first second of The Beach Boys’ Good Vibrations sounded positively squidgy. However the show quickly recovered and the station was on its way.

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 1,800 Piccadilly Radio master tapes, on obsolete and hard-to-maintain reel-to-reel format.

Sweeney’s Gang with Suzi Quatro soundclip

The tapes are now fifty years old and many are degrading fast with ‘sticky shed syndrome’. This can make them unplayable and means that they have to be ‘baked’ dry and treated with alcohol before being played one last time while being transferred to digital storage. You can hear the difference between a before and after baking comparison of a jingle here: https://northwestsoundheritage.org/2024/04/02/happy-50th-to-piccadilly-radio/

How to listen

The good news is that, thanks to the National Lottery Heitage Fund and the British Library,  you can listen to over 100 digitised Piccadilly Radio recordings in the Sound + Vision pods at Manchester Central Library. The shows so far digitised include:

  • Arena – a documentary programme on social and cultural issues.
  • Top Twenty – a series of short drama productions based on popular music.
  • Sweeney’s Gang – a talk show hosted by Mike Sweeney featuring musicians, sportspeople and other prominent entertainment figures.

The tapes are degrading every year so this painstaking preservation work is urgent. With the help of ex-Piccadilly Radio staff, copyright holder Bauer Radio and funding bodies, we hope to be able to continue this work to preserve the entire unique radio archive.

If you have tapes at home (master or off-air) or if you’d like to share your memories of the station please get in touch!