Why subscribe to The Buzz Files?
First of all, you love music just like we do. And, if you have a bit of thing for the 80s and 90s, then I think we’re going to get along famously.
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We won’t try to sell you anything, we will just impart some weekly inspiration and share some of the music-related things which have caught our attention that week and that we think you would be interested in.
We aim to be a moment of inspiration, fun, and calm in your busy day.
A little bit About Us.
We get it. You've got enough going on in your life without us prattling on about ourselves, but you've come here by hook or by crook, and so we might as well make sure you leave with something.
We're two mates, Adam & Rik, who grew up together on the same street in North Manchester.
It was the early 80s and we shared a passion for music and local radio, which in those days pretty much meant Piccadilly Radio.
We were 10 and 11 years old when we started making radio shows on a big old Amstrad stereo system in Adam's bedroom, which was more like furniture than technology, and all we did was pass one microphone between the two of us and pretend to be our favourite local radio disc jockeys.
By 13 we were running our own mobile disco business. And, while it was our passion for music that was partly driving us on in this endeavour, it was the attention we got from girls that was the real motivating factor.
We spent most weekends for the next 7 years in every local community centre and grubby function room in the North of Manchester, honing our skills and learning what tunes can fill, or clear, a dancefloor.
Our first-ever broadcast was when we bastardised a Mr. Microphone toy and boosted the signal with an amplifier so that it reached 20 times beyond the expected 10 metres. Our only listener was our mate Bails, who was revising for his exams in his house around the corner. He would regularly ring our house landline phone with his song requests.
We both went on to study tv and radio production at Salford Uni, and this brought about our next major broadcasting event. We set up a pirate radio station broadcasting from the student dorm room of our uni mates. For a week we broadcast killer tunes to both blocks of flats, under the pseudonyms of MC Chegs and DJ Sausage Fingers, and we caused a minor riot when we urged everybody in both blocks of flats to flash their bedroom lights on demand.
We got busted while we were on air. It was the best feeling in the world.
We then went legit.
Building successful and even award-winning careers in both television and radio at some of Manchester's biggest names; Granada, Sky, Manchester United, Piccadilly Radio, Sunset Radio, Key 103, Galaxy 102, Century, Real Radio, XFM and XS Manchester.
We swapped community centres for the hedonism of Northern England in its heyday, DJing at Sankeys, The Hacienda, North, Mansion and Ikon.
So, we've been doing this for a while now. We definitely know our shit. In fact, we don't mind admitting that we are a bit geeky when it comes to radio.
It's something that runs so deep in us.
Radio doesn't exist in the way it used to - sanitised, nationalised and commercialised to within an inch of its life - and it's us, the listener, who are the real losers in this.
So before we get on our high horse and start rioting through the streets of Manchester demanding our radio stations back, we decided to build one of our own.
Now that you know who we are, perhaps you might want to know WHY we are doing what we do.
You can read our Buzz Manifesto by clicking the button below.
