Photograph album of broadcasters and performers at the 2ZY Radio Station

Album fastened with treasury tags, with eleven original black and white photographic prints showing some of the performers who contributed to broadcasts from the Trafford Park temporary radio station. Performers featured include the Catherine Louise, Countess of Westmoreland, Alice Holman, Jessie Cormack, Sidney Wright, Leonard Hirsch, Isobelle Baillie (also known as Bella Bailey), Sydney Nightingale, Isolde Menges, Hamilton Harris, Marjorie Clare and Seth Lancaster.

The photographs are captioned and many have photographic negative numbers recorded on the back.

2ZY was the name of Manchester’s first radio station. It was created by Metropolitan Vickers, a key Manchester engineering company and member of the early BBC consortium. Metropolitan Vickers converted a few rooms in their research department at Trafford Park to be their studio and equipment room. They installed funnels in the walls of the studio to help direct voices into the microphones, which struggled to pick up speech and singing. Performers from around the region were invited to adapt their acts to the new world of wireless.

Staff from the research department took to the airwaves as some of the earliest radio presenters. Sydney Nightingale and Jessie Cormack often appeared on air under their personas ‘The Sandman’ and ‘The Cloud Lady,’ telling stories and singing songs for young listeners on the first dedicated programmes for children.

After only a year of broadcasting from Trafford Park, 2ZY moved its operation to Dickinson Street in Manchester city centre. This was to make travelling to the station easier for performers and presenters and to have more suitable broadcasting conditions than a converted office room.