Nobody Did it Better – Saving Piccadilly Radio

September 6, 2024

Manchester Libraries Trust is proud to support this crucial project (Main image: Piccadilly Radio HQ – courtesy of Pete Baker).

The Piccadilly Radio archive collection lives at Manchester Central Library on over 1,800 tapes. The collection is a crucial part of the city’s history capturing the news, music and culture in Greater Manchester from the 1970s to the 1990s.

Now these tapes will be digitised, catalogued and made available to all at the library in 2025 thanks to a £99k grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, with match funding from the Manchester Libraries Trust and Piccadilly Radio former staff.

The project will also work with partners including the Manchester District Music Archive, the Manchester Hip Hop Archive and a local community radio station to make sure that the station’s legacy is heard by new audiences online and re-used in creative ways that help to build the city’s digital skillset.

You can find out much more about the project on a dedicated Manchester Blog page, listen to some clips from the early days of the station and hear some ‘before and after’ clips following baking treatment, which is being used by our archivists.