On April 2nd 1974, a new ILR station began broadcasting to Greater Manchester from Piccadilly Plaza. One of its original team of presenters was Londoner Andy Peebles, formerly of BBC Radio Manchester, whose weekly ‘Soul Train’ programme on a Sunday would quickly establish itself as essential listening for black music fans throughout the region. Over a quarter of a century later Stu Allan would play his final record on Piccadilly offshoot, Key 103, bringing the shutters down on an entire era, which started with Peebles, was nurtured by Mike Shaft, and saw Lee Browne take a bit part along the way. This is the story of how a Manchester radio station played a key role in shaping the city’s celebrated club culture.

On Saturday August 30th 2008, Manchester District Music Archive (www.mdmarchive.co.uk) present a very special event at Islington Mill in Salford, to celebrate Manchester’s Electro-Funk and B Boy heritage. Through a mixture of talks, Q and A’s, screenings, and, of course, dancing, this event will attempt to tell the story of the city’s early ‘80s Electro-Funk scene, explaining how it sowed the seeds for subsequent developments as the decade unfolded.

This article is being reprinted as part of our celebrations first published when mikeshaft.com achieved 1 million hits. We were delighted to pass this milestone and other articles in the series will be added in coming months.

SUNSET RADIO RESPONSE TO THE GREEN PAPER PUBLISHED BY THE HOME OFFICE SUNSET RADIO is a group set up by Mike Shaft and Linbert Spencer to press for the introduction of an ethnic radio system in the United Kingdom. At the announcement of the experiment in 1985, Sunset Radio put together a group of people to apply for the Manchester Licence, under the Chairmanship of the former Lancashire and West Indian cricket captain Clive Lloyd.

Over the past years I have had the great pleasure of interviewing a number of celebrities. These have included politicians, sports people, musicians and comedians. In this section of mikeshaft.com, I will try to remember some of these people and give you a short resume of my interview with them. Please note these are done in no particular order.

Piccadilly Radio was probably the best radio station on air in the UK through the 1970s and 80s. These were the early years of Independent Radio in this country and many of the stations on air were experiencing difficulties, financial and otherwise. Piccadilly, under the stewardship of Managing Director Philip Birch and Programme Controller Colin Walters, somehow managed to keep problems away from the station and when there were problems, they were managed in a way which always showed the station in an excellent light.

Piccadilly Radio was probably the best radio station on air in the UK through the 1970s and 80s. These were the early years of Independent Radio in this country and many of the stations on air were experiencing difficulties, financial and otherwise. Piccadilly, under the stewardship of Managing Director Philip Birch and Programme Controller Colin Walters, somehow managed to keep problems away from the station and when there were problems, they were managed in a way which always showed the station in an excellent light.

Piccadilly Radio was probably the best radio station on air in the UK through the 1970s and 80s. These were the early years of Independent Radio in this country and many of the stations on air were experiencing difficulties, financial and otherwise. Piccadilly, under the stewardship of Managing Director Philip Birch and Programme Controller Colin Walters, somehow managed to keep problems away from the station and when there were problems, they were managed in a way which always showed the station in an excellent light.

Every once in a while something really spectacular happens. One of these was my appearance on Coronation Street. When I was first contacted I thought it was someone taking the mickey. It wasn't!

Back in the day, I wrote to the BBC 1 Television programme 'Open Air' trying to get them to do a feature on the lack of black people on British television. It took some time and discussion but we eventually got it done. After the programme I was told that if anything ever came up they would be in touch. Eventually something did and they got in touch.