Here at NCB Radio, we start each weekend in style. There’s no rude awakening, but rather a gentle patter, slowly growing in tone, until you’re out of bed and there’s a hot drink in your hand.  

Unless, you’re Aaron James, in which case you roll out of bed about 30 minutes before your show. 

At the weekends, we have some terrific output you won’t hear at any other part of the week. After all, that’s what weekends are for, right?  

Here are the three shows that start your weekend on NCB Radio.  

Saturdays 7am until 11am 

Imagine waking up in the morning to Gary Jon. Well, it’s not a pleasure exclusive to his wife as you can do the same every Saturday! Not only do you get to wake up to Gary, but you also get to have breakfast with him too, and like in any good budget hotel chain, breakfast is available for four hours.  

Within those four hours, you won’t get the same old – for every song is so diverse it doesn’t need a committee to decide how to make it so and it is so varied that you’ll discover things you’d forgotten you ever listened to.  

He still plays Cliff Richard. He also plays music as diverse as Roxy Music, Half Man Half Biscuit, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Woody Guthrie, Miles Davis, OMD, and The Fall.  

There is usually at least one song in French and sometimes South Korean and Welsh music (NB the certificate he has to write in Welsh does not demonstrate an ability to speak Welsh). Plus a fair bit of New Music often from Australia. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also the weather for Cornwall and tide times for Port Isaac. 

Saturdays 11am until 1pm 

Despite doing this time slot for two years, Aaron still hasn’t thought of a suitable name for his radio show. It doesn’t really have one.  

Aaron spends his Saturday exploring his music collection to share with you not only some of his favourites, but yours too. Anything from A Tribe Called Quest to OMD, Manic Street Preachers to Chvrches goes with an awful lot in between.  

Each week has regular features too – at present, Aaron is working his way through the OMD discography, playing three songs from a particular album each week; he’s just finished doing Architecture and Morality in its entirety (because why not), and this week there will be three songs from the album that almost destroyed the band; the very experimental ‘Dazzle Ships’.  

Regular listener (and number one fan, Northern correspondent and pasty enthusiast) Jason also chips in with two features: the featured Number One and Jason’s Magic Three. The featured number one goes back to a month and year mirroring this, so for example, in April this year all the number ones were from April in either 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993 or 2003.  

Jason’s Magic Three features three songs with one connection – can you get the connection. Sometimes, it’s a direct connection, for example last week’s were about the clocks going back, or sometimes Jason likes to snare you with a one plus two equals three; where two songs come together to make the third. For example, you could have Marc Almond and The Days of Pearly Spence, followed by Gene Pitney and Town without Pity. The third song is then Something’s Gotten Hold of my Heart by Marc Almond and Gene Pitney.  

Sometimes, a feature will spring up without warning, too. Although, this is a warning.  

Sundays 10am until 12pm.  

Nigel Day is NCB’s very own Hoochie Coochie Man and also the laziest NCB Radio presenter, managing to get out of bed for only 2 hours a month to bring you Blues Brunch, magical music powerful enough to blow your socks off and set you up nicely for a trip to the pub after. 

Every other week at the same time, we play a show from his vast archive from a time when he got out of bed weekly.