3rd October 2026
John Donoghue’s remarkable recordings helped preserve the sounds of Piccadilly Radio’s golden years.
A Bredbury man who spent his spare time recording Piccadilly Radio programmes in the 1980s has played his own small but important part in preserving Greater Manchester’s broadcasting history.
John Donoghue, a keen football fan, regularly recorded local radio programmes at home during the 1980s, when Piccadilly Radio was an essential part of life across the region. He was also a respected commentator, whose views on football were often heard when he contributed to the programmes himself.
Among the voices captured on his tapes were popular sports presenters James H. Reeve and Tommy Doherty, better known to listeners as “James and the Doc”.
At the time, John could hardly have imagined that his collection of cassette tapes would one day become archive material.
But he kept them.
Years later, John wrote about the story in the Romiley Gazette, explaining how a friend from the music world, Judy, became involved after he told her about his collection.
Judy was a neighbour and friend of Tommy Doherty and his wife, Mary. She subsequently passed John’s details to John Pickford, former sports producer at Piccadilly Radio, who was interested in the recordings.
One of John’s tapes had a particularly special significance.
It was given to Judy and eventually heard by Mary Doherty, Tommy’s widow, who was delighted to have the chance to hear Tommy’s voice again.
The recordings have now found a permanent home as part of the Piccadilly Radio Archive at Manchester Central Library.
And this is no longer simply a collection of old tapes sitting on library shelves.
The Manchester Digital Music Archive says the Central Library collection contains more than 1,800 tapes of Piccadilly Radio programmes, covering music, interviews, sport, news, features, drama and comedy.
In 2025, the collection was digitised, with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Manchester Libraries Trust. The recordings can now be searched through the Manchester Digital Music Archive, while the complete collection can be listened to at the Sound + Vision pods at Manchester Central Library.
The archive includes the work of many of the station’s much-loved broadcasters. James H. Reeve is represented by five items, and the archive also contains a photograph of him in the Piccadilly studios dating from around 1980.
For football supporters of a certain generation, those recordings offer a remarkable trip back in time.
Before smartphones, social media and instant online scores, local radio was how many supporters followed what was happening around Greater Manchester’s football grounds.
The distinctive voices, jingles, match reports and phone-ins were part of the soundtrack of Saturday afternoons.
And it was listeners such as John Donohue who unknowingly helped ensure that some of those moments survived.
John deserves the credit
It would be easy to look at the archive today and see only the work of a major library project.
But every archive has a beginning.
In this case, there was a Bredbury football fan with a cassette recorder who thought the programmes were worth keeping.
John’s recordings were never made with the intention of creating a historical collection. He was simply preserving programmes he enjoyed listening to.
That decision, made decades ago, now has real significance.
The Manchester Digital Music Archive is actively encouraging people who have their own Piccadilly Radio recordings or memories to come forward.
So while Manchester Central Library and the organisations involved deserve recognition for ensuring the material is preserved and digitised, John Donoghue deserves particular credit for keeping his tapes in the first place and ultimately allowing them to become part of that story.
For John, it must be quite something to know that the recordings he made as a Bredbury football fan in the 1980s can now be heard by people who weren’t even born when those programmes were broadcast.
What began as a personal collection has become part of Greater Manchester’s collective memory.
He pressed the record button. He kept the tapes. And, decades later, the voices of Piccadilly Radio can still be heard.
