Pete Price

Peter Lloyd Price (born 25 January 1946)[2][3] is a British media personality and radio presenter based in Liverpool, England. He is best known for the Sunday night talk radio show Pete Price: Unzipped, which was broadcast across sister stations Radio City and Radio City Talk. The show aired live from 10 pm to 2 am and followed an open forum format.[4] Price also had a weeknight phone in, Late Night City which aired live between 22.00h and 02.00h, from Monday to Thursday and was simulcast on Radio City Talk and Radio City 2. In 2017 Price announced that he was cutting back his show from 5 nights a week to just Sunday night. From 2017-2020 he hosted Pete Price’s Sunday Best at 10pm - 1am every Sunday,[5] where his weekly phone in guest for the last 13 years had been Dr. Angie McCartney, step-mother to Sir Paul, who lives in Los Angeles and provided the show's Hollywood Gossip live from LA. Pete now broadcasts on Liverpool Live Radio every Sunday night at 10pm till 1am.

This article is about the radio presenter. For other uses, see Pete Price (disambiguation).

Pete Price
Pete Price compering the Superhero Skyfall charity event in May 2018.
Born
Peter Lloyd Price

25 January 1946 (1946-01-25) (age 75)[1]
Wrexham, Wales
NationalityBritish
OccupationBroadcaster
Years active1967–present
Websitehttps://peteprice.com

As a comedian he was a winner on the ITV talent show, New Faces.[6] He is also an author, patron and artist for Claire House Children's Hospice and columnist for the Liverpool Echo. He is openly gay, which is often the subject of prank calls to his radio show.[7] He is dyslexic and can have trouble reading texts or emails on air. To complement his radio show Price also gives out a personal phone number for listeners to talk to him in confidence.[8]

Early life

Price was born in Wrexham, Wales, and adopted at approximately three months old in April 1946 by Hilda Sandra Price and David William Lloyd. He was raised in West Kirby, Cheshire, England. He was notably closer to his mother than his father, who repeatedly was violent towards Hilda Price.[9] When he was twelve and a half he came to terms with his homosexuality, but when consulting his doctor he was told he'd "grow out of it". Two years later Price went back to the same doctor, only to be prescribed some Valium. A combination of his homosexuality, problems with school and problems socially put him into a state of despair. At the age of fourteen he attempted to overdose on child-strength aspirin, only to wake up the next morning.[9]

At fifteen Price was working as a hairdresser at the weekend whilst studying cookery at Birkenhead Technical College (now Wirral Metropolitan College). He began working for the wealthy Ward family, catering for their dinner parties, as well as being a close family friend. He soon got a professional catering job, a summer at the Cavendish Hotel in Eastbourne and went on to manage a Fullers Tea Shop in Worthing.[9]

Price was sent to an institution in Chester to receive aversion therapy when he came out to his mother at age eighteen. He left after one day after being exposed to people being "treated" using electrodes. A few days later he recognised one of the psychiatrists from the institution in a gay bar. In 1993, after stories had emerged of others being treated this way in hospitals, he decided to go public with his story, to encourage more people to come forward.[9][10]

Radio career
Pete Price's Superlambanana

After several years as the cook on a cruise ship, he became a disc jockey for BBC Radio Merseyside at the age of twenty-one. Shortly after, Price made his first appearance on the comedy scene at Liverpool's 'The Shakespeare', working at various venues which include The Palladium and the QE2.[11] In the 1980s, he became a presenter on his former station's rival, 194 Radio City, and has remained so in its various incarnations since. He continues to star in pantomimes in Liverpool and Merseyside, as well as working for national newspapers including The Independent and The Times.[11] As a broadcaster he has worked with national BBC Radio 1 and Radio City for over 20 years, and continued to host his late night talk show on Radio City Talk until March 2020. The programme was also carried by sister station Greatest Hits Radio Liverpool.

In April 2009, Price was made an 'Honorary Scouser' by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.[12]

Current shows

Price's recent shows were originally broadcast on Magic Radio, until it garnered mass attention following controversies with callers on air. The show was broadcast over Radio City 96.7 and City Talk 105.9 on Sun-Thurs nights. This was until July 2014 when City started to join up with the rest of the Bauer Media stations late night show with Kate Lawler.

Price presented a live phone-in programme which was broadcast on Radio City Talk . Guests have included Dennis the Chemist, and Pheobe, an alleged psychic and Angel Card reader. The programme was one of the most popular night-time talk shows in the UK, with one show recently attracting 19,000 attempted calls.

In May 2020, following the announcement of Radio City Talk's planned closure, it was also confirmed that Price would lose his weekly phone-in programme. Price reacted by saying he was "devastated" by the news.[13]

Notable incidents

Pete was praised for abandoning his midweek show on one occasion in February 2004 to go to the aid of a 13-year-old caller who was threatening to kill himself.[14]

In January 2006, Pete's show on sister station Magic 1548 hit the headlines in Liverpool when a regular caller known as "Terry" stopped responding live on air during a debate. After Merseyside Police refused to check on the man's safety, Pete again abandoned the show (music was played after he left the St. John's Beacon studios) to travel to the man's home. Unfortunately, as he arrived, Pete saw an ambulance outside the house. Concerned listeners had already gained entry into the man's home and found that he had died from a suspected heart attack.[15] Soon after this, the Monday-Thursday show left Magic 1548 and was moved to Radio City 96.7's late night phone-in.

Also in September 2007, an extract from his autobiography was published in the Liverpool Echo, which revealed that Price had abused cocaine, although he "handed himself in" to the police shortly after through shame.[16]

In October 2007, it was reported by the Liverpool Echo that Price had received a "homophobic" death threat via text live on air. The sender was arrested shortly afterwards when police were contacted immediately after the receipt of the threatening text. They also reported that "on another occasion, a man tried to break into Radio City's headquarters, because he had become convinced Price had tried to kill John Lennon"[17]

In January 2008 Pete tried to find his natural father by using the networking skills of an imprisoned Sicilian Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano in the hope that "The Don" can help him trace his dad. His biological mother, upon restoring contact with him, gave him a photograph of his biological father: a Sicilian prisoner of war held near Warrington. Pete himself said that the Mafia "must have the best information network in the world".[18]

In December 2016 Pete and Radio City 2 were contacted by numerous scuba divers and environmentally savvy members of the public begging them to cancel a mass balloon release at midnight on 22 December. The balloon release went ahead. Two leading diving journalists contacted Radio City 2's owner - Bauer Media Group - appealing for this practice to be stopped. Bauer Media confirmed that no company within the Group would conduct a balloon release in the future.[19]

Writer

In September 2007, Price released an autobiography (co-written by Adrian Butler), Pete Price: Namedropper topped Liverpool best seller charts within its first few days of sale,[16] and was serialised in the Liverpool Echo.

He often jokes about releasing a second autobiography entitled The Bitch is Back. This autobiography, to be published on the day of his death, he says, would contain a list of all the men he has slept with.[20]

References
  1. "Official Deed Poll Registration Form for Pete Price" (PDF). 9 December 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  2. Liverpool Echo (10 February 2011). "Birthday full of surprises". Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  3. Liverpool Echo (27 January 2011). "Pete Price: My state pension has arrived". Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  4. "The Pete Price Phone In". City Talk 105.9. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  5. "Pete Price". Radio City Talk.
  6. Tony Bell, The Independent. I'm gay, and I don't need a psychiatrist, 24 Oct 1995. Accessed 14 April 2015.
  7. Brown, Mick (2 February 2004). "Go ahead, caller, I'm listening..." The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  8. Pete Price (9 April 2008). "Horses and Dogs!". Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  9. Price, Pete & Butler, Adrian (2007), Pete Price: Namedropper, Trinity Mirror, pp. 23–24, 33, 41–43, 45–50, 85–86, ISBN 978-1-905266-41-8
  10. "Gay Aversion Therapy". BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live. 7 January 2005. Retrieved 27 August 2008.
  11. Official Biography, retrieved 29 August 2008
  12. "Liverpool's footballing legends among first round of Honorary Scousers". Liverpool Echo. 3 April 2009. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  13. https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/showbiz-news/pete-price-devastated-radio-show-18217263
  14. "Radio DJ 'saves boy's life'", BBC News, 6 February 2004, retrieved 29 August 2008
  15. "Radio talkshow caller dies on air", BBC News, 6 January 2006, retrieved 29 August 2008
  16. "Pete Price: My cocaine shame", Liverpool Daily Post, 24 September 2007, retrieved 29 August 2008
  17. Butler, Adrian (20 October 2007), "Man charged over Pete Price death threat", Liverpool Daily Post, retrieved 29 August 2008
  18. Anderson, Vicky (3 January 2008), "Pete Price enlists Mafia to help trace his father", Liverpool Daily Post, retrieved 29 August 2008
  19. Rosemary E Lunn (9 January 2017), "Bauer Media To Stop 'Balloon Releases' Within The Group", X-Ray Mag
  20. Pete Price, retrieved 29 August 2008
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