key 103 is an independent local radio station that broadcasts to the city of manchester and the north west of england. it mostly plays current pop and dance music. it used to be owned by trans world communications and emap. now it is owned by bauer radio. it is part of the company's big city network of stations. the station is based in castlefield, manchester. it was first named piccadilly radio, from its set up in 1974. it was renamed in august 1988 when it was decided to re-brand piccadilly radio's fm frequency to the new name, with a younger target audience in mind. the original piccadilly radio continued to broadcast on the am frequency of 1152 khz.