Every Sunday night, a voice as smooth as silk graces the airwaves across south Manchester.
Vicky Richardson’s warm tones elegantly bring in the new week, accompanied by a hand-picked playlist and in depth chats from guest musicians, writers and various local characters.
For the last 18 years, the presenter has built up a cult following thanks to her Night Moves music show on community radio station All FM, as well as an Access All Areas programme, which addresses issues around disability.
And for Vicky, who herself has a disability, she’s not just discovered her talent - she’s found her voice.
“With radio, I am judged on my talents as a broadcaster, not on how I look,” she said. “It’s hard to imagine my life without radio. I couldn’t do television, but as long as I can speak, radio is perfect for people like me.
“It’s what I love about radio. It’s classless and ageless. You can go on for years. There are radio DJs who go on into their 70s like Tony Blackburn. It gives people like me a voice and a platform.”
Vicky, 61, has a congenital disability called MS quadriplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that leaves muscle weakness down one side of my body, meaning she walks with the aid of crutches.
But listen to her on air and none of that matters.
“I’ve had people come to the station and ask me if Vicky Richardson is in, as if I am the station secretary. They have no idea that I am the person they listen to each week,” she laughed.
Born in Levenshulme, Vicky always knew she was different physically - but it wasn’t until she was 34 that she found out the full extent of her disability - and the heartbreaking reason her parents Mary and Jim kept it from her.
She discovered that an anti-sickness tablet her mum took during pregnancy, similar to thalidomide, had caused her disability in the womb, so her parents did what they could to shield her from the world.
Vicky said: “They didn’t discover about my condition until I was three years old. I was not hitting the milestones and rather than walking I was shuffling on my bum, I couldn’t walk. But I didn't find out exactly what I had until I was 34.
“When it all came out, they told me that because there was so much stigma attached to it, they didn't want to burden me with that.
"It must have been so sad for them - looking back if they were open about it, they could have claimed for help. But instead they just did it all themselves.
“I think they felt guilty even though none of it was their fault.”
Vicky struggled with school and left with few qualifications and worked in a library for 18 years after discovering a love of books.
She also learned to play the piano and enjoyed singing for the elderly on the weekends in a choir.
But it wasn’t enough for the would-be broadcaster. Still living with her parents in 1990, she applied for a music, drama and writing course at Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) and arranged a part time job share at the library.
She said: “I was happy but craved for more in life. When I found the course and enrolled I was nervous about what mum and dad were going to say - I wondered whether they thought I was up to it. It was hard explaining to them that I was giving up a secure job to do something different. No one expected me to do anything like that.”
It was from then she pursued her dream of going to university at MMU’s Crewe and Alsager campus, found out about her disability and for the first time in her life, moved out of her parents’ home.
“When I got my uni place, I didn’t tell mum and dad that I was leaving home until six weeks before the course started. I told them, I really need to do this,” she said.
“Thankfully it was close enough to come back home but far enough away to say I’d left home. I moved into halls in 1992, it meant I could live independently because there were cleaners and help when I needed it. By then I was still learning to look after myself.”
It was at uni her passion for radio began - although she admits she learnt a big lesson on one of her first shows.
“Our first broadcast was on the top floor of Umist, we would have to do interviews sitting on beer barrels which were for the student bar. I would talk and introduce songs and records.
“One day the producer didn’t turn up so I had to do the whole show alone. I thought I was doing well until I realised I’d had a fader up when it shouldn’t have been and all that was coming out of the speakers was the sound of my squeaky chair.”
Tragedy struck Vicky in 1994 when her dad died.
“I had to take time out when dad got sick,” she said. “The plan had been for me to get a place with my mum, but by then I had become independent so I had to pluck up the courage to tell her I needed a place on my own.”
She moved to Gorton after uni, where she has lived since 1995, and spent several years DJing and teaching disabled people music through technology, before her mum passed away in 1999.
“I had to properly stand on my own two feet for the first time,” said Vicky, still visibly upset at the loss of her parents.
Two years later, she answered an advert calling for volunteer radio presenters at a community station in Levenshulme which had recently launched.
Vicky’s eyes lit up at the chance to get back on air, and was delighted when she was accepted into the All FM family.
“Straight away I thought, that’s what I want to do. I said I wanted to do a programme about the disability music project I was involved with. They loved what I came up with and all of a sudden, I was given the role of presenter.
“I did my first RSL (restricted service licence) with them at a house in Barnby Street in Longsight. I did my first proper music show from there. The house was bulldozed the next day because the regeneration of the area was starting, so we had to move.”
Since her first show, Vicky has thrived and presents Night Moves on Sunday from 11pm until 1am on Monday, and Access All Areas on Thursdays from 11am until midday.
The music lover has built an impressive catalogue of programming over the years, such as her annual festival shows, where she attends music festivals and reports on the site's accessibility.
The station has changed location over the years - notably its base was Albert Road, near the train station, until it found a new home at Levenshulme Old Library 18 months ago.
The station - which is about to launch a new studio - boasts 14,000 local FM listeners per day as well as 10,000 website hits a month, and has nurtured local talent that has gone on to work professionally in the industry.
“It’s my passion. All FM lets me do what I love. You could cut me in two and All FM would flow out of me,” said Vicky.
“Yasmin Evans from BBC 1Xtra started out here. Her mum asked if I could look after her on my show. She shadowed me and then she got her own show. She got into Salford Uni and then she went on to the BBC. We taught her everything she knows,” she laughed.
All FM’s new fully accessible studio, which opens on Saturday, June 22, is funded by the Hill Dickinson Foundation, a fund administered by the Community Foundations for Lancashire and Merseyside.
It will be dedicated to the station’s late DJ Stevie Fly, whose family will be there to officially open it.
Station manager Ed Connole, explained why community stations like All FM are important to the local area, saying: “Vicky is one of our longest serving volunteers. She makes great radio and we’re delighted to work with her.
“Community radio is literally radio by and for the community - there is no difference in status between audience and presenters. It’s really important. We give our volunteers a platform to speak without telling them what they should be playing or saying.
“We are one of the biggest community stations in the UK and have 100 active volunteers, and we are very proud of what we do.”
The new station launch will see live music from Aziz Ibrahim, Marian Waldron, George Borowski and Soul Sounds Choir.
Tickets are only £5 and all the money raised goes to ALL FM building Studio 2. To buy tickets, click here .
You can listen to ALLFM on 96.9FM in Manchester and from anywhere worldwide by visiting https://allfm.org/ .
