City Radio

Comments

Name: Joseph Conaghan
Comment: City Radio… Also on the Hayes but around the corner next door to the Post Office. Sold hi-fi but had a large amount of racked LPs. Was the last shop to have a semblance of the listening booth where you could choose a record and listen in advance of purchase in relative privacy. Stocked a wide range of genres and mostly played cool Blue Note jazz music in store, unfortunately closed in 1980.

Name: Chris Hurst
Comment: I used to go in City Radio a fair bit as they had imports (near the old post office). I bought the first Soft Machine album in there (a US-only release).

Mike fear

27 Jul 2025 at 07:00

To add some history as far as I recall.
I worked in the shop for nearly 10 years going from Saturday boy to eventual manager. I'm sure many customers from the mid 80s to mud 90s will remember me
The shop originally opened on city Rd hence the name and sold hi-fi equipment as well as 78s. Iirc this would have been in the 1920s It moved from there to Churchill way then to the Hayes near the old post office.
It's final home was 27a Morgan arcade opposite the restaurant and now a shoe shop
At that point the hi-fi was gone and it only sold recorded music, and became a classical specialist with less of the jazz. At that time it was one of only a handful of classical specialists in the UK. LPs went with the advent of CDs in the late 80s. At this time was the second oldest record shop in Wales behind spillers.
A second small shop was opened on Charles St in Newport which also ran City radio mail order.
The Cardiff branch sadly closed in the mid 90s due to lease problems and the business moved to mail order only from Newport before closing for good a few years later.

Dave Harwood

27 Jul 2025 at 08:57

I found this in the 'Western Mail' dated 24th December 1928:
“ENJOY YOUR XMAS - Come to the CITY RADIO STORE and treat yourself to a WIRELESS SET. Cash or Deferred Payments. Wireless Components of every description in stock.—Queen Street Arcade, Cardiff.”
...and this in the 12th December 1930 edition:
“The discriminating buyer will find his wants filled at the City Radio in Queen Street Arcade. The best at the price with real expert advice sounds like a slogan, but it is the business policy that has made City Radio the favourite store of thousands of listeners.”