Piccadilly's founding managing director was Philip Birch, who previously ran the highly influential pirate station Radio London until it closed down ahead of the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act 1967 in August 1967.
Many of Britain's best-known broadcasters started their careers at Piccadilly, including Chris Evans, Mike Sweeney, Steve Penk, James H. Reeve, Andy Peebles, Gary Davies, Tim Grundy, Timmy Mallett, Pete Mitchell, Geoff Lloyd, Mark Radcliffe, James Stannage, Stu Allan, Nick Robinson and Karl Pilkington.
Journalist Paul Lockitt joined Piccadilly in 1979 and became the station's longest serving on-air employee, working as a producer, presenter and newscaster until his departure in 2017.
In 1994, a rival station, Fortune 1458 (later renamed 1458 Lite AM, today broadcasting as 1458 Capital Gold) commenced on BBC GMR's former AM frequency.
The idea of a corporate "Magic" brand of stations was seen to be beneficial when selling air time to national advertisers.
All programming was now networked with the other Bauer AM stations in the North although local news, weather and travel continue to be broadcast as opt-outs during the day.
[5] In February 2021, Bauer announced it would close GHR's medium-wave service on 1152 kHz, marking the end of 47 years of broadcasting on the former AM frequency for Piccadilly Radio.