Off the air with Jesse James

Decorated, experienced radio personality shares his story

It all started with a guy named Johnny Danger.

Jesse James said he had “barely made it out of high school” and had been DJing at a nightclub in his hometown of Madison, Wis. In walks Danger, a local celebrity radio personality, to do a broadcast. He and James hit it off that evening and became friends almost instantly.

It wasn’t long till James met up with Danger at his radio station. “I actually sat in the studio with him for about an hour and I said, ‘I’ve got to do this,’” James remembered. “I haven’t done anything since.”

So for the past 17 years, Jesse James has traveled from city to city, including Milwaukee, Wis., Springfield, Ill., Philadelphia, Denver and San Antonio, doing radio. For the past nearly three years, he’s resided in Fargo and has been working for the new Big 98.7 radio station, which plays hit music minus “all the rap.” 

“It was great for me cause I got to take 15 years of radio experience throughout the United States and put it into one radio station,” James said.

Certainly, the experienced big-cities-to-small-city DJ is doing something right. The community has displayed its fondness for James in a number of “big” ways. He was awarded HPR’s “Best of the Best” radio personality two years in a row. His radio program “Jesse and Amanda with Pike” won the North Dakota Broadcasters Association award for Best Morning Show and Best Community Service Team two years in a row and The Forum’s Best Of 2014 award for Best Local Radio Show.

“It’s been more than any of us could have ever wished for,” James said.

The COO of Radio FM Media, Nancy Odney, said Jesse’s professionalism has made him stand out.

“(Jesse’s) the first guy in the building every morning and knows the separation is in the preparation,” she said in an email to HPR. “He’s got a ton of energy and passion for the entertainment business – he’s the audio social media! He’s a storyteller, interesting, authentic and committed to being a great talent day in and day out.” 

Jesse said he credits much of his successes and the show’s successes to the relationship he has with his co-hosts, Amanda Lea and Pike Taylor. The three of them, he said, get along so well that it makes on-air communication easy, enjoyable and “real.”

“We’re always hearing from people -- that’s the thing that brings it together -- we actually have fun and you can tell,” James said. “Cause you can only fake so much.” 

“Obviously, (when) you go from a big city to a smaller city, it’s not the money you are looking for, it’s for the fun. You actually get excited to go to work,” James said.

Lea, James’s former intern at the CBS Morning Show in Denver, helped recruit him to work for Big 98.7. At the time she had been working at Froggy 99.9 and living in Fargo for four years. She said, knowing how well the two work together, they’d make a great on-air team for this highly anticipated new station.

“When you have good rapport with someone, it’s the easiest job in the entire world,” Lea said. “And it’s kind of fun because even though he’ll never admit it, he is like the male version of me. So it just works.”

“I think one of his strongest qualities is pushing buttons … one day you’ll look at him and want to punch him in the mouth and the next day you know he has a big heart. He’s obviously giving back to people in the community.”

Whether it’s helping small towns organize a benefit, emceeing for someone’s big event or giving gifts to children on the holidays, the radio team has helped the community out in many ways. And they enjoy doing it, James said.

“If it wasn’t for all different kinds of people, we wouldn’t have what we have,” he said.

So what kind of music does a guy who’s worked in radio for 17 years like? James spoke of Iggy Azalea and One Direction as two examples of artists he’s into.

“Everybody laughs at me but (One Direction) kind of has a edgy bit of sound to them,” James said. “But I don’t care if it’s country, rock, pop, as long as it’s a good song, I love it.”

The radio host even had a short stint as the lead vocalist for the popular local cover band Low Standards, which he helped name and started with co-host Pike Taylor.

“I’d say you are never going to leave our show and go, ‘Man, those guys are awesome,’” James laughed. “But you are going to leave going, ‘Man, I’m really drunk and I had a great time,’” 

He left Low Standards after the band signed with Fargo-based Bitzer Entertainment Industry and got a sponsorship with Anheuser-Busch. James laughed and said the group is now “legit” and no longer calls themselves “Fargo-Moorhead’s most promoted/least talented band” -- though they still go by Low Standards.

When not on the air, on the mic or online stirring up pop-culture discussions on his Facebook page, James says he enjoys spending time with his wife and two boys. He also likes to go out with his friends, which includes his co-workers at the station. He said he loves the community of Fargo, especially because it has small town charm with big city attractions, like concerts, ESPN Game Day and Rib Fest.

“You’ve got the best of all worlds here,” he said. “If you could just do something about the 5,000 degrees below,” James laughed, “then we’d be on to it.”