Piccadilly Radio Part 3

Well the news finally broke that I was going to be the presenter of the new dance music programme to be broadcast live from Manchester every Saturday night. This was great news for me but not such good news for Colin Walters and Piccadilly Radio. I loved Piccadilly and had really enjoyed going in there and doing regular demos, but Radio 1 was national and I was not about to pass up on that chance.

With a BBC contract in my hands it was truly all good.

In the week of the run-up to the show I was working at the Post Office in Wythenshawe.

On the Thursday before the first show on Saturday the phone rang and it was for me. It was producer Tony Hale and he said to me, “are you sitting down”? I said, “It’s not going to happen is it”? The answer was no. I asked him if it was anything to do with me and he again said no.

He explained that there was a problem with the Trade Unions at the BBC who were not happy with the arrangements for splitting the frequencies and they were not going to allow it to happen. I was devastated as was Tony Hale but there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. The show was not going to happen and that was that.

He told me that the BBC would pay up my contract and he hoped that when things were resolved that I would be available to do the show.

Now I must explain that at this time BBC Radios 1 and 2 shared the same programming in the evenings and this was a major move to give both stations their own programming. Radio 2 was going to keep the programming as it was and Radio 1 would add new programmes to their schedule. The included Andy Peebles’ new programme and the new dance music programme coming live from Manchester.

After the phone call from Tony Hale I went back to work and I have to admit I was in a bit of a haze.

Within about 20 minutes the phone rings again and I was told it was for me. This time it was Colin Walters from Piccadilly Radio who had, by now, heard about the BBC Radio 1 show and about the fact that it was not going ahead. We had only spoken for a few minutes when he said he wanted to see me at Piccadilly the day after. I agreed to meet him after work.

I arrived at Piccadilly at about 5:00pm on that Friday evening and Colin collected me at reception. He asked me if I wanted a drink and I asked for a hot chocolate from the machine. This was my favourite drink during those long nights making demos at Piccadilly Radio.

The next bit of the story is quite incredible. As we are walking into his office, Colin said, “When do you want to start, Sunday OK?” I was astounded and mumbled yes that should be OK.

We spoke for a few minutes, he told me what I was going to get paid and gave me some quick rules about the station.

Within half an hour I was on my way back home and trying hard to decide what songs I was going to play on my first show. On Saturday I was down at Spin Inn nice and early collecting the hot new imports on 12 inch and album. The rest of Saturday was spent calling people telling them to listen and going through my collection picking out the absolute classics.

I was at the station nice and early on that Sunday for my first proper radio show.

To be honest the only song I can remember playing was Instant Replay by Dan Hartman which was a monster tune of the moment and I decided to open the show with it. I played it really safe with short links and I never took any risks on that first show.

The show lasted 3 hours and I have to tell you that the time absolutely flew by. I had recorded the show at home and listened back it it. I was very pleased with it and there weren’t many cock-ups. I have to say I was terrified going into the News bulletins but even that seemed to work OK.

On the following day I went in to see Colin who was very pleased with how it had gone and he suggested that I should continue doing the show until further notice.

I continued doing the show for a number of weeks until I got a phone call from Gail, Colin’s secretary asking me to come in and see him. I figured that that was it and he was going to let me go. How wrong I was. He suggested that he was very pleased with the show so far and wanted to give me a contract to present the show each week for 6 months. I agreed and signed on the dotted line. To put it mildly, I was over the moon.

A few days later and the phone rings and it is Tony Hale saying that the BBC had resolved their problems with the Trade Unions and the show would be starting within a couple of weeks. I had to tell him that I was not available as I had just signed a contract with Piccadilly Radio.

That was that and a couple of weeks later the programme was broadcast live from Manchester with a different presenter. People often asked me if I was disappointed that I did not get the job on Radio 1.

To be honest I wasn’t. I had always wanted a job on the radio and Radio 1 was the best thing around but in those days, Piccadilly was not that far behind. We had great presenters like Roger Day, Pete Reeves, Dave Ward, Phil Wood, Steve Merrick, Ray Terrett and Phil Sayer.

Later there would be Steve Penk, Timmy Mallett, Suzi Mathis and others.

We had great speech programmes with guys like Phil Griffin and Jim Hancock in the early days and later on it would be Tim Grundy and Brian Beech.

We truly had the best sports programmes with Matt Procter, Brian Clark and Tom Tyrrell. We even had a Classical Music programme presented by Tony Hawkins.

Every department at the station was the very best including Promotions with Tony Ingham and Bob Marshall and of course News and Sales.

There was a sensational atmosphere around the building and huge stars came through day after day to be interviewed. I had the great pleasure of meeting and interviewing Cliff Richard, The Jackson 5 including Michael Jackson, Barry White, Patti Austin, Earth Wind & Fire and scores more.

This was a wonderful time in Independent Radio and I will never forget the numerous friends I made from back then, some of whom I still see to this day.

A few weeks ago it was the 35th Anniversary get together for Piccadilly Radio and it was truly wonderful to see people like James H Reeve, Paul Locket, Gail Bloch, Tony Ingham, Mike Sweeney and the rest.

Piccadilly Radio was a fantastic station to work for and it was, at that time, the most listened to station in Greater Manchester.

Back at my time of joining Piccadilly we were all young and just getting started in broadcasting. On this anniversary most people were celebrating over 30 years on the radio.

It was truly a joy to be part of something so special.

Read lots more Piccadilly stuff HERE