Nocturnal Emissions

James H Reeve was offically born in 1952 - although this often quoted official year is probably not correct as sources have quoted other years from 1948 to 1951.

 

His first appeared on local radio at some point in the 1970s, with a slot on Manchester's Piccadilly Radio. It is unclear exactly when he started in Manchester, but Piccadilly Radio was awarded the Manchester IBA licence in April 1974, so it was sometime mid to late 1970s. He was suspended or sacked from Piccadilly in Summer 1981 after he played a Queen record called "Killer Queen" shortly after there had been a dramatic event at the 1981 Trooping The Colour - a 17 year old student had raced up to the Queen firing blanks, and James's choice of record at that time was not appreciated by the station bosses.

Following his departure from Piccadilly, James spent some time in the early 1980s in Saudi Arabia doing various media-related work, including some time as a newsreader - James did mention about his time in the Middle East a number of times on air.

His venture into late night radio began around the end of January/early February 1986, taking over the Phil Wood 10pm to 1am Monday to Thursday night slot, with Phil doing a later slot following James's programme. 

 

Listener Steve Merlot comments, "I do remember JHR's handovers to Phil Wood being hilarious, Wood goading him into such regulars as "a word from James H Reeve" whereupon our hero would utter a three or four syllable word in his best mancunian effort at RP. "Vestibule" was a particular fave."

The reason for Piccadilly's decision to re-introduce a late night phone-in was in part down to its rival up the road - Red Rose Radio that broadcasted on 97.3FM (later moving to 97.4FM).

At the time, the Preston-based station, that easily was listenable all over Manchester, was having great success with their controversial late-night phone-in hosted by Allan Beswick (who for the last few years has been on BBC GMR / Radio Manchester).  This show was poaching large numbers of listeners from the Greater Manchester area.  Piccadilly bosses realised something had to be done to stop this and they decided that what was needed was a similar phone-in with an equally strong host.  The man given the task of saving their bacon was, of course, James H.

As part of his preparation for the launch of this new programme, James H is said to have invited Beswick out for a meal, with the aim of getting useful tips on how to make the show a success.  James H might well be unwilling to admit this dinner ever took place, and we may never know the truth, but it is certainly an interesting thought. 

The frequencies changed around this time - Red Rose from 97.3 to 97.4FM - I can't remember what the Piccadilly Radio frequency was before it moved to 103FM but it was near to Red Rose Radio on 97 point something.  The jingles played at the time clearly said "Piccadilly 97 FM" although it was definitely point something.  James was confused about this in October 2005 when on one of his Key 103 phone-ins he was remembering the old days and mentioned Piccadilly's old frequency - but said it was 97.3FM - which was wrong.  I think I am right with all this, but if you can clarify anything, or remember the old Piccadilly FM frequency, then let me know. 

So where did the name Noctural Emissions come from? It seemed to develop from James using it presumably as an amusing description given the double entendre implications that go with the name. When the programme arrived on the all-new Key 103 around 1988, it seemed to have adopted the title as the official name of the programme.

The programme has had two types of format. The early days saw predominantly a phone-in style of programme, with the calls interrupted by music and listeners' letters. I remember there being two types of news bulletin - the 10pm one was 5 mins long, but the 11pm one was 10 mins long and James used to refer to it as the Daddy News (or something) as opposed to the Baby News - if you can clarify this then let me know. On the new Key 103, the format was very much James H's monologues and listeners' letters with a playlist in line with the bizarre "muuuusic not music" theme of Key 103 at the time.

There was a break between the two major spells mentioned above - and I think at the start of the new Key 103, James had a Sunday afternoon programme between I think 11am and 1pm. I remember the news bulletins on Key 103 then were on the half hour and on the hour there used to be a jingle that was just some blips with a "bong" at the end - one of the unofficial recordings features this. I think James also had a midweek afternoon slot for a few weeks or months around this time (early 1988?) before he was put back onto the late night programme and his show then ran until 2am.  The programme came to an end in September 1989 - the exact date of the final edition is not confirmed but I believe it was either 7th or 14th September 1989.

James also used to present Piccadilly's Saturday Sport programme, being an ardent Manchester City fan. He often used to complain that he would rather be at the games than being in the studio.

So who used to cover James's programme when he was on holiday? I remember Tony Schaeffer, Mike Briscoe and David Dunne... but there were more that I will add details of when I remember them.

After the end of the Nocturnal Emissions programme in late 1989, James joined Dave Ward to present the breakfast programme, while James Stannage took over the late night slot. James H appeared in Sheffield on Hallam FM with a revival of the Nocturnal Emissions from mid 1994 until April 1995 when he then joined BBC GMR. There he presented the afternoon programme and then the breakfast programme. He worked for GMR until he walked out in September 1998. More detail about James's programmes while at BBC GMR as well as the incident regarding his departure are covered on the "The BBC GMR Story" page which also links to James's own Web site that discusses it at length. 

While still working at GMR, he also presented "Jim and the Doc" with Tommy Doherty, a football programme on Radio 5 between 1996 and 1997 on Sunday early evenings.

He also presented a sports programme on the relatively short-lived Fortune 1458, a station on medium wave that launched on the old BBC GMR frequency in June 1994. I'm not sure when James worked on it, or for how long. There is conflicting information as the station launch had Fred Eyre presenting Saturday Sport, "2-6pm Fortune Football with Fred Eyre" and there was no mention of James in the schedules. However a Manchester Evening News article linked here has a big feature about "Jim and the Doc" on Saturdays 1.30-5.30 featuring a lively football phone-in.  It appears to be a station-launch type of article, so not sure when he actually did appear on it.

A contributer (also called James) has provided some info about James H's regular spot on the Radio 4 programme called Loose Ends. The exact dates are currently unknown but it was during the period when it was broadcast live from 10am on Saturday mornings (these days it is recorded, and airs early on Saturday evenings). Appearing on this show (hosted by Ned Sherrin) means you have the ear of the London chattering classes.  It is also a clear indication that James's intellectual pretensions are by no means fanciful. His ability to communicate with, and entertain, both "dimwits and brainboxes" is a quality no other late-night phone-in host gets close to matching.

Contributer James also claims that James H's aspirations to break out from the basic regionality of his radio career have always been hampered by his unwillingness to move (or commute) to London.   He self-mocked this aspect of his character in a (perhaps weak) running gag that punctuated one particular edition of "Loose Ends" on Radio 4.  The theme being that he had been snatched from his home in Manchester by BBC heavies, and was phoning the show to complain live on air that he was the unwilling occupant of a car driving him down to London. He eventually arrived at the studio and did his regular spot in person.  Prior to that edition, his contributions had been fed live from a separate studio in Manchester. This worked well enough when he was delivering his regular solo piece, but could cause confusion when it came to participating in the urbane chatter with Ned Sherrin and his studio guests. I remember one interruption from James H in his remote studio which led to Ned asking, "Is this your big piece, James?", to which James replied, "You leave my big piece out of it!"

In 1999/2000 he had various programmes on Talk Radio (nowadays called Talk Sport), one of which was called "The Fact Works" where people would phone up and write in to James asking him about the origins of things and general other useless trivia - an idea later repeated on the 2005/06 Key 103 programme.  While at Talk Radio, James had the same aversion to London as before.  At first he travelled down to London to do his show. However, after he was firmly established in the 10pm to 1am weekend slot (or did it end at 2am?), he persuaded station bosses to let him broadcast from Manchester. He boasted on air about this escape from the necessity of travelling to London, and made frequent references to the fact he was broadcasting from "a secret location somewhere in England". He then urged listeners to try and guess the exact whereabouts of his secret location. Many tried and failed, until someone suggested by email that his location might not be so very far away from "the largest brick structure in Europe." 

After Talk Radio, James could be heard presenting Century 105's football phone-in programme in 2000, based in Manchester.  He had originally been offered a lunchtime phone-in slot on the station at its launch in 1998 but chose to stay at GMR.  

He was then heard on the short-lived Team Talk 252 long wave radio station in 2002 presenting the afternoon programme. Just before the station disappeared at the end of July 2002, his programme was sponsored by Ladbrokes.  For this he used to commute to Leeds and several times mentioned the hazardous journey to the dark side of the Pennines.

He has also appeared on Granada TV presenting and guesting on various "local" programmes.  In 2001 James worked at Maine Road for Manchester City FC hosting hospitality events on match days, and has also been working in a similar role more recently at the new stadium in Eastlands.

He re-appeared on Key 103 covering while James Stannage was on holiday in mid-2003, for three days between 13th and 16th September 2004, again in February 2005 and April 2005 before taking his rightful place in July 2005 after James Stannage's abrupt exit.

Since his departure in July 2006, no news has surfaced about the prospect of James H Reeve being back on the radio.



Last Updated: Sat 9 December 2006