Piccadilly 80s plays the decade Piccadilly Radio owned. Chart pop, new wave, soul and the stadium records that filled the airwaves out of Piccadilly Plaza — free, around the clock, from anywhere.
Live now
Piccadilly 80s
Press play. No app, no sign-up, no advert before it starts. Find it at 88.8 on the tuner.
What it plays
Chart pop and new wave, the soul and disco records that carried over from the late seventies, and the big singles that defined the middle of the decade. Manchester's own contribution runs right through it — this was the city that gave the eighties the Haçienda, Factory Records, and a sound the rest of the country spent years catching up with.
No commercial breaks, no talking over the intros, no algorithm deciding what comes next.
Why the eighties matter here
The 1980s were Piccadilly Radio at its strongest. The station had grown from its 1974 launch into the dominant commercial voice in the North West, and its schedule carried presenters who went on to national careers — among them a young Chris Evans, who started at Piccadilly before anyone outside Manchester had heard of him.
The decade ended with a split. In 1988 the station divided in two: an FM service that became Key 103, and an AM service that became Piccadilly Gold. The full account is on our history pages.
Shows on this channel
Alongside the continuous stream we are building a set of recorded shows for this channel — properly put together, with a running order and continuity, rather than a playlist on shuffle. They will appear here as they are finished.
If you presented on Piccadilly, or you simply know this music better than most, we would like to hear from you.
What this is not
We should be clear, because it matters. This is not a recording of Piccadilly Radio, and we are not the original station. Piccadilly Radio 261 is an independent, non-profit heritage project with no connection to Bauer Media or any current rights-holder of the Piccadilly name.
The original station's archive is held by Manchester Central Library, and the Manchester Digital Music Archive has done a great deal to preserve it. If you want the genuine article, that is where it lives. What we can offer is the sound.
The rest of the network
Piccadilly 80s is one of six live channels, all free and all running around the clock:
- Piccadilly Radio 261 — the flagship stream, at 261 on the dial
- Piccadilly 261 Heritage — the 1974 sound, at 1152
- Piccadilly 80s — this channel
- Piccadilly 90s — 1990s anthems and Madchester, at 91.9
- Piccadilly Gold — timeless classics, at 95.5
- Piccadilly 103 — the FM years, at 103.0
Each one sits at its own position on the tuner on our Stations page. Slide the needle and it will find them.
Read the story behind it
We have written the history up properly rather than leaving it to a single page: what happened to Piccadilly Radio, what Key 103 is called now, and the presenters and DJs who passed through, from Chris Evans to Karl Pilkington.
And if you listened at the time, tell us what we should be playing. These channels get better the more people tell us what they remember.