The Nightshift

30 July 2010, 16:45

Meet Jim Symon, the official grumpy old man on the Nightshift Team @ STV.

My broadcasting career received a bumper boost back in the early eighties when I secured a regular radio slot on the airwaves of 261 Radio Clyde as it was known and admired in those halcyon days.

It wasn’t too long before I was invited to audition for an announcers position at STV’s original studio complex located in the heart of Cowcaddens in Glasgow where I was offered the job on one condition – I had to agree to shave off my one time appalling moustache.

That however, was a very long time ago. These days I continue to broadcast all across Scotland nightly from 10pm on the new-look AM/Digital Radio Network providing late-night entertainment for lovers of popular music from the last five decades.

Away from the broadcasting business, I enjoy a night at the movies, (my favourite film incidentally is Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America starring a certain Mr. De Niro from 1984.)

My favourite things include drum-kits, guitars, singing with friends, The Beatles, Crosby Stills and Nash, long walks and fresh air, good food (particularly fish and prawns) and whenever possible a long relaxing night in the pub with friends whenever I gets the chance...! (Not enough unfortunately).

So what’s the most exciting thing I’ve done in my life (so far)? Well some years ago I completed a tandem parachute jump from a height of nine thousand feet, including a freefall sequence of three and a half thousand feet through the clouds above Scarborough – awesome. It’s an old cliché I know but I still haven’t come down to earth.

Hope you now know a little bit more about the man behind the Microphone.

I completed the first ever Glasgow marathon back in 1982 just prior to joining the station announcer team here at STV.

I once removed/stole/borrowed a very high quality paper hand towel from the toilets inside Buckingham Palace back in ’82 (it was quite a year come to think of it).

I’ve been hugged by Phil Collins, probably the most genuine superstar I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

I once shared a bacon sandwich with the mighty Meatloaf. Understandably, he had the bigger of the two halves.

I spent a couple of days with Status Quo in their rehearsal studios prior to their original farewell tour back in 1984.

I was famously rejected by none other than Joan Collins when I approached her for an autograph backstage at a charity fundraiser at Glasgow’s Hilton Hotel.

I was removed physically from a Top of The Pops studio in London by legendary TV director Mike Hurll (apparently he thought I looked uncannily like former BBC disc jockey Mike Smith (remember him from Noel Edmunds Saturday Roadshow)?

Back in the eighties, I openly flirted with the legendary soul singer Randy Crawford live onscreen here at STV on the set of our lunchtime magazine series called Live at One Thirty. The lady very sensibly ignored my advances!

My career highlight as an enthusiastic singer was when I got the opportunity to perform one song live on the stage of the Grand Old Opry in Nashville Tennessee (wonder why they never asked me for a second song)!

My three favourite movies of all time are Sergio Leone’s big screen masterpiece Once Upon a Time in America starring Robert De Niro alongside the wonderful James Woods - a truly haunting music score by Ennio Morricone.  Next is Rob Roy starring Liam Neeson, John Hurt and the wonderful Tim Roth and in third place is Clint Eastwood’s performance alongside Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County, a beautiful film in my opinion.

Cheers, Jim x

Last updated: 18 May 2011, 14:50