Pete Price with Angie McCartney
Peter Lloyd “Peter” Price (born 25 January 1946) 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, broadcast across sister stations City Talk 105.9 and Radio City 96.7. The show is aired live from 10pm to 2am and follows an open forum format. Price’s weeknight phone in, Late Night City airs live between 10pm and 2am, from Monday to Thursday and is simulcast on City Talk 105.9 and Radio City 96.7.
As a comedian he was a winner on the ITV talent show, New Faces. 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. 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.
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. 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 be to 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.
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[clarification needed], 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.
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.[8][9]
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. 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.[10] As a broadcaster he has worked with national BBC Radio One and Radio City for over 20 years, and continues to host his late night talk show on Radio CIty 96.7 – the programme is also carried by sister station City Talk.
In April 2009, Price was made an ‘Honorary Scouser‘ by the Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
