This year, the iconic MOBO AWARDS are to be held in Manchester for the very first time. As part of our ongoing commitment, in association with North West Sound Heritage, to preserve the culture and history of Manchester’s music of black origin, we explored a collection of MiniDiscs donated to the Greater Manchester Hip Hop Archive by both Sefton ‘Madface’ Mottley and Greens, founder of Unity Radio.
From its humble beginnings in the early 2000s and beyond, Manchester’s pirate radio station 106FM has been a vital force in shaping Manchester’s underground music scene. The station’s lineup featured a roster of dedicated DJs and MCs, and the raw and unfiltered nature of pirate radio, coupled with 106FM’s unyielding commitment to the local music scene, fostered an aura of rebellion and authenticity that resonated deeply with Manchester’s youth.
Despite facing persistent legal challenges, 106FM’s spirit endured, making it a symbol of resilience and dedication to the underground music culture. Even as technology and broadcasting methods evolved, the legacy of 106FM lives on, following a successful application to Ofcom and evolving into Unity Radio 92.8FM, the first independent youth culture music radio station, now based at MediaCityUK.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the MiniDisc offered a durable, portable, and re-recordable digital audio format, making it an ideal choice for storing mixes and radio shows. On inspection, the MiniDiscs in our collection contain a treasure trove of recordings from both 106fm and the beginnings of Unity Radio, including mixes from Sam Pepper, DJ Case and live recordings from the 2005 D:Percussion Festival where DJs and MCs from the Manchester music scene, including Chunky, Metrodome, Virus Syndicate and others performed and campaigned for Unity to gain its FM licence.
Using 2006 Sony MZ-RH1/MZ-M200 MiniDisc Players (the last portable MiniDisc recorders produced), USB 2.0 (Mini-B) connection and SonicStage software, we completed the process of playing, transferring and preserving the audio files.
It must be noted that although the MiniDisc functions quite simply and similarly to an external disc drive when connected to a computer, is chemically stable when stored correctly and has minimal handling issues, the preservation risk is still considered high. This is due to issues such as ‘replay’ equipment no longer being produced, and SonicStage, used to decode its data format, is no longer supported without a workaround. There are also two different systems within this audio format: NetMD and Hi-MD, which need to be considered when transferring.
All saved audio files were originally produced between the years of 2002 and 2005, and capture the sound of the early 2000s, including conscious UK Hip Hop of the time, ‘jiggy’ US Hip Hop imports and the emergence of Grime, demonstrating both 106 and Unity Radio’s position in supporting and pioneering Manchester’s music of black origin for the last two decades.
