He presented The Late Night James Stannage Talk Show on Manchester's Key 103 until being dismissed in June 2005 after numerous warnings and a history of run-ins with regulator OFCOM.

In the early days of his second stint at Piccadilly, his style was mellower than it had been before, but as time wore on became increasingly aggressive again and insulting comments to callers were stoked up as well.

Infrequently, each would 'slag' the other off on their respective shows, and upon Stannage's sacking, Price posted on his forum a topic entitled "James Stannage Sacked"[2] On 24 November 2005, Emap Radio Group, owners of Key 103 received a fine of £125,000 (then a record for UK radio) after reading out comments and jokes submitted by a listener about the death of Ken Bigley (just two days after his death was confirmed) in October and November 2004.

One outburst cost £15,000 and in 2001, Stannage came under fire for describing First World War soldiers as "thick and ignorant" and he was questioned by police in the same year over allegations that he made a racist remark on his show.

[3] Following his sacking James Stannage worked as a bar tender at the Ark Royal Pub on Tavistock Square in Harpurhey North Manchester before moving on to be one of the first presenters on the online radio station ManchesterRadioOnline.com.