Day 261, Piccadilly, Radio 261

Piccadilly Radio started broadcasting in Manchester in 1974 on 261 medium wave and "stereo 97" on FM.  It was not something that occurred to me at the time that the radio station was relatively new, we'd moved across the Pennines not long after that.  It must have been a pretty big deal, a commercial radio station with a very large reach.

Everyone at school listened to it.

At Christmas each year there would be a selection of DJs that would turn up to our school Christmas fair.  One year it was Gary Davies and Andy Peebles, even then in the 1970s Gary Davies affected a mid-atlantic accent and sported an eery orange glow.

Mike Shaft took over from Peebles presenting the soul music programme.  On one occasion Shaft told his listeners of a visit to a commercial radio station in Sheffield called "Sheffield Harlam".  Shaft must have been taking the piss, perhaps he found it too hard to resist while mimicking US DJs accents.  It was Hallam he was referring to.

For some reason Punk rarely featured on Piccadilly, they were sensitive to anything that would cause controversy.  Due to their dependency on advertising revenue they were generally very conservative in their output, but even so they were massively popular and were recognised as one of the best independents of the time.  Independent radio stations always struggle and there's the danger of pissing off advertisers who would be concerned about their products being associated with anything too far out.

We weren't concerned by the lack of punk on the wireless, we got our induction into the snotty new world from Tony Wilson on his Granada TV show, So It Goes.

An example of the sensitive nature of the time comes from a programme featuring one of their less two dimensional presenters.  James H. Reeve was always a little more lively, possibly even unruly (relatively speaking), and his Saturday night show was a must-listen.

Reeve had been in bother a few times but was an anarchic talent, a little like Kenny Everett except not quite at the same end of the political spectrum.  On June 13 1981 a 16 year old named Marcus Sarjeant fired six shots from a starting pistol quite close to the queen during the trooping of the colour.  Obviously this was a bad thing, but the Queen didn't bat an eyelid and got on with it.

Reeve on his show that night said something along the lines of "As I've been in trouble a few times I've been warned not to say anything, so here's Queen with Killer Queen".  It was hilarious.  That was his last show for Piccadilly Radio as he was immediately suspended then sacked.  They were touchy back then.

Reeve did various jobs after his dismissal and briefly in the 1990s became a presenter on Hallam FM, he may well have been sacked from there too.  Many of the other DJs of the day later went from Piccadilly to the BBC, taking their hilarious accents with them.  

The station broadcast from Piccadilly Plaza, that's the tallest of the buildings seen here in the middle.

It probably broadcasts from a former corner shop in Chorlton now.

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