'There was nothing up here': Radio 6 stars praise GM's turn into media hub

Yahoo

29-03-2025

Two northern-born stars of BBC Radio 6 have praised Salford's transformation into a media hub.
Veteran DJ Mark Radcliffe, from Bolton, said that when he started his show with Marc Riley was the only national radio show outside of London.
Mark said: "To see what's happened and what's grown on the banks of the ship canal is amazing to us, because in our lifetimes the media map has changed completely."
Speaking at the Victoria Warehouse near Media City, he was joined by Stuart Maconie, the BBC veteran from Wigan.
Stuart said: "When I was a teenager, you would not have come round here.
"It was a wasteland."
The pair co-host BBC Radio 6's Weekend Breakfast Show.
Manchester and Salford are currently playing host to the station's annual festival which has seen performances from the likes of Ezra Collective and Mogwai.
Stuart said the highlight of his festival was the set by fellow Radio 6 DJ Jamz Supernova, who performed before Fat Dog and Ezra Collective on Thursday night.
Stuart said: 'It was brilliant at seven o'clock last night.
'You wouldn't have thought people would be up for it, but they really were.
'She got people really going. It was a brilliant mix of, like, Brazilian music, African music, techno music.
'It was just really, really great.'
The BBC Radio 6 Festival started off rotating between different UK cities, but since 2023 has found a permanent home in Salford.
6 Music is the UK's biggest digital-only radio station with a reach of 2.7 million listeners.
Mark said: "I think Radio 6 is almost like a throwback to old stations, not in the programmes it does or the music it plays, but in the audience's connection to it."
Stuart said: "I think they're very loyal in the fact that they'll listen all day, people will say to me, I put it on in the morning and listen to it all day."
Mark said: "I put it on all day and all night, I haven't slept in three years!"
The duo were in agreement that the station's success was down to its offering of something different from the mainstream.
Mark said: "I think the key to its success is that it's an alternative to pop stations.
"Back in the old days, Radio One was the station people would listen to when they were going out, Radio Two feels a bit middle of the road to me.
"The idea is that as you get older, you would still be open to all different kinds of new music.
"They used to call it celebrating the alternative.
"I think there's still something of that, but there is still stuff that's by big, big bands.
"It's not a kind of niche or minority thing, but just music that's not quite of the mainstream."
In January, Nick Grimshaw joined the station, taking over the breakfast show from Lauren Laverne.
Mark said: "Another big reason for its success is because all the people on the network are real music enthusiasts, and knowledgeable about music.
"But we're also aware that we're an entertainment station, it's not po-faced.
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"You know, we have fun, we come on and have fun and we have our new boy Nick Grimshaw in the mornings.
"That's a fun listen. So you can hear great music there, but also entertainment.
"I think it's you take the music you play very seriously, but not yourselves too seriously."