"These are the names of the places you will pronounce wrong": What it was like to DJ on Manchester's lost Piccadilly Radio

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

As a self-confessed "southern jessie", Peter Baker never imagined he would spend years as the voice of Greater Manchester's mornings.

But as breakfast show presenter for Piccadilly Radio and Key 103, in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, Peter, now 67, became the person thousands of Mancunians woke up to.

Piccadilly Radio 261 first aired nearly 50 years ago and was the first commercial radio station to broadcast in the city. Sponsored by the BBC, Peter studied at the University of Bath to become a sound engineer but soon became disinterested and wondered if he could make it as a radio presenter. Read More: Manchester looks like a 'beautiful distant dream' in unearthed photos found following man's death Read More: Manchester's real-life Peaky Blinders only feared one thing Borrowing the studio key, he recorded a demo tape and sent it off to Piccadilly Radio in 1975, which was then just a year old.

Impressed, the station invited the then 20-year old student - who spent his youth listening to pirate radio and 'playing DJ' - for an audition.