The Background
James H. Reeve joined BBC GMR in April 1995, presenting a show each weekday afternoon. It was a mixture of serious and light content, usually looking at news issues in the earlier part immediately after the lunchtime bulletin. Matters of public interest, some of them contentious, often played a significant part. The format of the show changed from time to time, and a phone-in was introduced in 1998.
In April of that year, James received an offer to join Century 105, which was due to go on air in September. He accepted, and explained to the Managing Editor of BBC GMR and to the Head of Regional and Local Programmes that his decision had been prompted by the appalling standards of production and presentation which he had observed during his three years at the station. Research had shown that the public considered the station to be, amongst other things, amateurish, parochial, disorganised, and of interest predominantly to the elderly; this was a view which James shared.
He felt that Manchester deserved a better class of BBC station, did not wish to be associated with such poor standards, and, taking into account the people in key positions and the attitudes which prevailed, saw no prospect of improvement.
Both the Editor and the HRLP asked him to reconsider, offering him the position of Senior Presenter, a role which would give him the authority to introduce practices usually found throughout the radio industry.
On that basis, he agreed to stay at BBC GMR and turned down the offer from Century, who gave the slot to Derek Hatton.
When, three months later, James asked for confirmation of his new position with GMR, he was told that such a position did not exist at the BBC. It was only after some protests that he was eventually officially confirmed in the post of "SBJ (Presentation)" in June of that year.
As part of that role, he drew up a station policy which was approved by the management, addressed a full meeting of station staff at which he explained the new practices, drew up a style-guide for the production of programme trails and initiated a computerised systems for scheduling them; in addition, he policed presentation standards on a day-to-day basis while continuing to present his daily show and act as summariser at Manchester City matches on Saturdays. These extra duties did not carry any increase in salary.
In September 1998 he deputised for Mike Kiddey on the breakfast show, double-heading with Heather Stott, as a result of which the Managing Editor, Karen Hannah, decided that he should co-present the show on a permanent basis.
MIKE KIDDEYAt first, the plan was to leave James on the show and inform Mike Kiddey on his return from holiday that he had been replaced. It was later decided that that would be unfair and that the change would take place on October 22nd. The then Head of BBC Local Radio, Nigel Chapman, was informed of and approved the appointment. The majority of the staff, including Mike Kiddey, were not told of this plan. In fact, in order to conceal her intentions, Ms Hannah put forward a set of bogus changes, causing staff to work towards format changes which were never intended to happen.
James returned to his afternoon show and waited for the agreed changes to be implemented.
That was the situation on the morning of September 22nd, 1998.
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