Piccadilly Gold plays the records that never went away. The songs that were already classics while they were still going out on the AM dial — free, around the clock, from anywhere.
Live now
Piccadilly Gold
Press play. No app, no sign-up, no advert before it starts. Find it at 95.5 on the tuner.
What it plays
Classic hits with a long reach: sixties and seventies pop and soul, the singles that stayed in rotation for decades because nobody ever got tired of them, and the records that turn up at every wedding and every party.
If a song has outlived the format it was first played on, it belongs here.
Where the name comes from
When Piccadilly Radio split into two services in 1988, the AM side became Piccadilly Gold — a classic hits station carrying the Piccadilly name on medium wave while the FM side went off as Key 103.
That AM frequency, 1152, is the same signal that had been known as 261 metres before metrication changed how dials were labelled. Same transmitter, same spot, different name. Our heritage channel sits on that number at 1152 on the tuner.
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 Gold 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 — non-stop 1980s hits, at 88.8
- Piccadilly 90s — 1990s anthems and Madchester, at 91.9
- Piccadilly Gold — this channel
- 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.