QUAY.radioQUAY.radio

Julian Allitt ran Piccadilly Radio and Key103 before this, and then watched what came next: local stations folded into regional brands, and regional brands into playlists assembled in London. Quay.Radio was registered in 2019 as a company limited by guarantee and built as the correction — a permanent home for the city's records rather than a token local hour. Marilyn Comrie, a former BBC journalist and series producer, and the football broadcaster Damian Johnson sit on the board alongside him.

The catalogue runs from sixties beat-group pop through post-punk and synth-pop, the Madchester years and Britpop, to the jangling indie, big-room guitar bands and polished pop the city has turned out since, every one of them a Manchester record, played back to back. Nobody introduces any of it. There are no presenters, and the running order is the whole argument.