Bit of a re-post from elsewhere...
I started as a kid listening to Radio 1's top 40, and taped it each week, then as my tastes developed, I listened to Stu Allan on Key 103. He provided 3 shows each week, Bus Diss (hip hop) Souled Out (err, soul) and The House Hour (err, house and acid) all on a Sunday night which were all superb, and every now and then I'd check out a show he did with Chris Buckley on a Saturday night, which would often go all night... this would be 1986-1992, I'd left school in 1989, and got more into hip hop and at the time Jeff Young had a show on Radio 1, Friday nights, and always show-cased an album, playing 3 or 4 tracks off it, which was something different at the time for that genre, as most DJ's would only play 1 track, or forthcoming single from the album.
1989, was probably the best year for Radio, as far as I'm concerned anyway, as in 1987 Rob Brown and Sean Booth [Autechre] met, and shared their love of music, with the basics, a Roland TR-606 and Casio Sampler, started making tracks, and in 1988 with a few other folks, started up IBC Radio this was a breath of fresh air, as for the first time, you could hear the best house/electro tracks around on the radio, not just in an hour slot late at night, they broadcast from tea time onwards, and it made the perfect pre-club listening, getting you ready of a Friday night, also playing the Top 10's of different styles from Eastern Bloc and Spin Inn, 2 of Manchester's (at the time) best record shops.
Again 1989, I keep going back to this year, and if I could, I'd go back in time right now, as also in this year, something very special was building...
Mike Shaft, A radio DJ and TV presenter famous for his shows on Piccadilly Radio in the late 70s/early 80s founded Sunset Radio (which later became Kiss 102, and is now Galaxy 102 *weeps* ) the first station to play soul and dance music aimed at ethnic minorities in Manchester.
Sunset provided a lot of styles for everyone, from specialist Chinese shows, through to Hip Hop with Leaky Fresh (real name John Leacock) & Owen D, giving humour and for the first time, live mixing DMC style, something which had never been done, as DJ's such as Stu Allan, Jeff Young didn't have the skills for that. It also broadcast the classic 808 State Show, tuesday nights 9-12pm - Darren would say "Tuesday night is the dead night of the week, you're not doing owt, so stick the radio on, even if you don't like dance moosic, you can have a laugh with us"
Between 1989 and 1992, I'd been going to a lot of the clubs and had DJ'd a fair bit in and around Manchester, and landed a spot at The Limit, firstly warming up with the resident Recca, and doing a few Friday nights and a New Year all-nighter, then along with V/Vm's 'Haggis' we did Monday night's at the Limit, until in late 1993, it was shut down. During this time, Sunset had a late night show called Limit FM, which went out Friday nights 2am-6am, and I landed a spot on there, which was bizarre as I'd seen the studio setup on a program called Madchester - The Sound Of The North, shown earlier that year, and to be stood where 808's Andy and Darren would normally be, freaked me out a bit at first!
I kept thinking at the time how small the studio was, as they'd often have other folks in there with them, MC Tunes and other cronies. One thing that annoyed me was the way radio worked in a studio, as whenever the mics were 'live' the sound was automatically cut from the studio monitors, to avoid feedback, but this meant if you were using the monitors as a guide to mix the next track in (as I didn't use headphones a lot back then) you were fucked until they shut up!
In October 1993, radio changed for the worse, Sunset ceased broadcasting:
Quote:Manchester dance station Sunset Radio went into liquidation in October 1993. In May of the same year, the Radio Authority made a decision to prematurely terminate Sunset's licence, apparently accusing the station of providing inaccurate information about its financial and management affairs. In August 1993 the station reportedly had its transmission facilities withdrawn by NTL for non-payment. Following a brief return to the air the liquidator was called in and Sunset's frequency finally fell silent. The liquidator was later to re-apply on behalf of Sunset Radio for its re-advertised licence. Faze FM won the re-advertised licence for Manchester. Like Sunset, Faze FM broadcast dance music, licencing the brand name Kiss from London station Kiss 100FM. The station launched as Kiss 102, but has since been bought by Chrysalis Radio. The station is now part of the successful Galaxy network.
Also by this time Stu Allan had had his shows cut back, and Key 103 had gone more mainstream, and Radio 1's loss of Jeff Young - who was replaced by Pete Tong, meant his Friday night show became the 'Essential Selection' In the same year Chris Evans did his last Big Breakfast, what the fuck was going on? Radio had become shit.
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So errr anyway, Radio days....
days though.
i loved alot of the electronic sound going round in the early 81 - 82 , The likes of Thomas Dolby, Kraftwerk, Visage and eurythmics and The Talking Heads spring to mind. This to me is where my roots were laid to the music i love today. 
