Jim Reilly

I was brought up in Portsmouth but over the years I have also lived in London and Hereford retuning to Portsmouth in 1989. My moves were made primarily for work purposes and my jobs have been rather varied with my working as a shipwright apprentice and a shipwright in Portsmouth Dockyard, an engineering draughtsman, a salesman, a publicity manager, a quality control manager, an engineering buyer for a group of companies and lastly as a printer and print room manager. I had to give up work in 1996 due to health problems. I am married and we have two grown up sons, one grandson and a step grandaughter.

I have been presenting programmes for Angel Radio since 2001 although I first appeared on Angel Radio in 2000. I started by making pre-recorded programmes on the life and times of Bing Crosby. My interest in Bing started when I was a child mainly through watching his films. I saw Bing perform in 1976 and 1977 at the London Palladium but never actually met him. I did however meet his second wife Kathryn Grant and spent a pleasant evening in her company with a handful of other Crosby friends.

For some six years I was the music reviewer for Bing’s fan club magazine ‘BING’ which is published three times a year. I was also assistant Secretary of the club for a number of years. As a result of my friendship with the late Leslie Gaylor who was arguably Bing’s biggest fan and counted Bing as a friend, I had the great fortune of being involved in the making of ten Crosby compilation CD albums for MCA Records who are part of Universal.

I have compiled books ‘The Songs Of Bing Crosby On Compact Disc’ and a Crosby discography ‘Bing Crosby’s Commercial Recordings from 78s to CDs’. I do not profess to be an expert on Bing just a fan with a love of his music. Mind you I do like many other artists including Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Dick Haymes, Nat King Cole, Gordon MacRae, Jim Reeves, Mario Lanza, Paul Robeson, Louis Armstrong, Jo Stafford, Margaret Whiting, Keely Smith, Rosemary Cooney, Peggy Lee, Carmen McRae, Jeri Southern, Dinah Shore, Judy Garland and Doris Day to name but a few. I also like the music of Stan Kenton, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Harry James, Nelson Riddle, Mantovani and Billy May. I love show music and I also enjoy listening to classical music and confess to having a love of piano music. The era’s that I like most are those of the forties, fifties and sixties.

Over The Years I have presented hundreds of programmes for Angel Radio the best known of which are

1. The Bing Crosby Hour
  These programmes included various tributes to Bing Crosby commemorating his birth
  and death. Also on Saturday 3rd May 2003 Angel Radio had a Complete Day dedicated
  to Bing. This followed a successful Bing Day held in 2002 in which much of the day was
  given over to Crosby programmes.

2. The Music Goes Round And Around
  These programmes started in 2002 and have continued until the present day albeit that I
  only do the odd programme these days when I stand in for Ted Nunn when he takes a
  break from his programme. Ted teamed up with me in 2004 and we presented a joint
  programme until 2006. Ted took over the slot in December 2006 and presented his
  show The Music Makers

3. The Mystery Year Programme
  These request programmes were presented between 2005 and 2006

4. The Martin & Jim Sunday Experience
  These programmes were presented with Martin Kirby between 2003 and 2005?

  In 2001 I presented a series of 7 Sentimental Journey programmes and in 2003 when our
  full licence started I had regular Saturday and Friday evening programmes. I have also
  presented through the night and breakfast time programmes as well as putting together a
  few Music Boxes and a number of pop classical programmes.

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