The station began broadcasting at 5am on Tuesday 2 April 1974 as Piccadilly Radio on 261 m AM/MW and on 97.0 MHz FM. The station was named after Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, and Piccadilly Plaza was home to the station's first studios until 1996, when Piccadilly 1152 and Hits Radio were relocated to the Castlefield area of Manchester. Piccadilly's founding managing director was Philip Birch, who previously ran the highly influential pirate station Radio London until it closed down ahead of the Marine Offences Act in August 1967. The first presenter on air was Roger Day – himself an ex-pirate radio presenter – and the first song played on air was Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys. Many of Britain's best-known broadcasters started their careers at Piccadilly, including Chris Evans, Mike Sweeney, Steve Penk, James H Reeve, Andy Peebles, Gary Davies, Tim Grundy, Timmy Mallett, Pete Mitchell, Geoff Lloyd, Mark Radcliffe, James Stannage, Stu Allan, Nick Robinson and Karl Pilkington. Journalist Paul Lockitt joined Piccadilly in 1979 and became the station's longest serving on-air employee, working as a producer, presenter and newscaster until his departure in 2017.
FM/MW split
Piccadilly Radio split into two services in 1988, with Key 103 broadcast on FM with a contemporary music format, while Piccadilly continued on AM, initially under its full service format, gradually adopting a 'golden oldies' music playlist as Piccadilly Gold. In the mid-1990s, Piccadilly Gold became Piccadilly 1152 as the playlist moved away from "golden oldies" to a mix of classic and current easy-listening music. The late-night phone-in with James Stannage became the most popular radio talk show outside London, whilst the Dave Ward and Umberto breakfast show helped the station to become one of the biggest AM stations. In 1994, a rival station, Fortune 1458 commenced on BBC GMR's former AM frequency. Despite heavy marketing, and many ex-Piccadilly presenters on the new station, Piccadilly 1152 remained Manchester's most popular station, other than sister station Key 103, until the late 1990s when smaller, localised FM stations in Oldham, Warrington and Bury began to erode away Piccadilly's audience base.
In 1994, Piccadilly were part of the Transworld Radio Group, which was bought by present owners Bauer Radio. In 1999/2000, parent company EMAP re-branded the station as Magic 1152, to fall in-line with the other nine Magic stations they owned across London and the north of England. The idea of a "Magic brand" of stations was seen to be beneficial when selling air time to national advertisers. This change in name also coincided with the 25th birthday of Piccadilly Radio. The station was branded as "Piccadilly 1152 – the magic of Manchester" during the transition. Except for a short spell in 2000 – when Key 103 was briefly renamed Piccadilly Key 103 – the Piccadilly brand was finally retired. In December 2001, EMAP decided that it was more economical for the Magic network to share off-peak programmes. Magic 1152, in line with the other seven Magic AM stations in northern England, began networking 10am2pm, and 7pm6am by carrying programming from Magic 105.4 in London. During these hours, it was simply known as Magic, although there were local commercial breaks, and local news on the hour. In January 2003, after a sharp decline in listening, the station ceased networking with the London station, and a regional northern network was created with the Manchester station providing networked output at weekends while sister station Magic 1152 in Newcastle provided weekday programming. From July 2006, more networking was introduced across the Northern Magic AM network, with local output reduced to a daily four-hour breakfast show, local news and advertising. In April 2012, Magic 1152, inline with the majority of other Magic North stations, dropped local weekend breakfast shows. Between March 2013 and December 2014, weekday breakfast was syndicated with Magic 1548 in Liverpool and Magic 999 in Preston.
Key 2/Key Radio
On 5 January 2015, Magic 1152 was rebranded as Key 2, as Magic FM in London went national on DAB. The station formed part of the Bauer City 2 network. All programming was now networked with the other Bauer AM stations in the North although local news, weather and travel continue to be broadcast as opt-outs during the day. In June 2018, following the relaunch and rebrand of Key 103 as Hits Radio, the station was rebranded again as Key Radio, retaining the former local identity in a secondary capacity.
On 7 January 2019, Key Radio rebranded as Greatest Hits Manchester. As with sister station Hits Radio, the station acts as the main production centre for network programming across Northern England and the West Midlands.
Programming
Greatest Hits Manchester produces networked programming from Bauer's Castlefield studios, including afternoon, overnight and Saturday evening shows. The rest of the station's output originates from Bauer’s Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow studios, and from Bauer's Golden Square headquarters in Soho. Greatest Hits Radio UK opt-outs from Manchester’s local service for national news bulletins, traffic updates, relevant information and advertising on its national DAB and TV platforms.
News
Bauer’s Manchester newsroom broadcasts local news bulletins hourly from 06:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and from 07:00 to 13:00 at weekends. Headlines are broadcast on the half-hour during weekday breakfast and drivetime shows, alongside traffic bulletins. National bulletins from Sky News Radio are carried at other times.
