Simon Bates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Simon Bates (born Birmingham, 17 December 1947) is best known for being a disc jockey in the UK and New Zealand. Between 1976 and 1993 he worked at BBC Radio 1, spending the vast majority of his time at the station presenting the weekday mid-morning show. He is now a regular on Classic FM.
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[edit] Early career
Bates lived in Suffolk and Shropshire and was educated at Adams' Grammar School before working for radio stations in New Zealand and Australia during his teenage years. Bates returned to the UK in 1971 to join the BBC, initially working for BBC Radio 4 and then joining BBC Radio 2 in 1973 presenting the Late Night show, before presenting the Early Morning show in 1975. Bates left BBC Radio 2 in January 1976 and joined BBC Radio 1 in May the same year standing in for Tom Browne to host the Top 20 before presenting the Sunday morning show two months later.
During these years, Bates was also seen on various videos tapes, providing the information on the video certificates as provided by the British board of film classification, and the Video standards council.
[edit] BBC Radio 1
Initially a weekend presenter playing new pop records, Bates took over the weekday mid-morning programme in November 1977 and stayed for 16 years. The least showbiz of Radio 1's big-name presenters, with limited banter and avuncular appearance (sober clothes, large glasses), Bates nevertheless became popular, with up to 11 million listeners. His voice — essentially a sped-up, slightly Americanised version of the standard Received Pronunciation associated with BBC Radio 4 — has long been one of the most recognised in the UK, unusual in that most Radio 1 DJs of the time had a more informal "DJ" voice, and most Radio 4 presenters did not pep up their RP with anything like Bates' informal touch.
Two long-running features of his programme were particularly well known: The Golden Hour and Our Tune.
Bates inherited The Golden Hour from his predecessor, Tony Blackburn. The listener had to guess the year from records played and clues given by Bates.
However, Bates is mainly remembered for Our Tune, which, from 1980, became a daily 11am feature of his show. Over the background of Nino Rota's theme to Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, Bates would read a story sent by a listener. The story invariably had a theme of tragedy, often starting with a happy courtship but followed by a disaster such as illness or death. The story would conclude with a record chosen by the correspondent. Although many bemoaned the largely mawkish nature of the feature, it was widely listened to and earned Bates popular acclaim. A number of spin-off albums, featuring songs chosen by listeners, would be released.
A third, less well-remembered feature was The Birthday File, in which Bates would play music by stars celebrating a birthday.
Bates afforded regular airtime to Jonathan King to comment about the music scene, and was always the presenter sent by Radio 1 to interview stars at the BRIT Awards. In 1989 he did a summer series called Round The World in which his show broadcast from a new country each day — the idea being that he would go round the world without flying within 67 days, an aim in which he was ultimately unsuccessful (he had to fly over Saudi Arabia) although he did raise £300,000 for Oxfam and it did only take 78 days. This won him awards, though cynics claimed he did it to avoid being given one of the BBC Radio 1 roadshows, and Bates himself has since effectively confirmed that suggestion. Bates' daily reports ran for only half an hour — Mike Read stepped in to present The Golden Hour during this period while the rest of the morning was taken up by the roadshow.
Bates also had two runs presenting the Sunday afternoon Top 40, from 2 April 1978 to 26 August 1979 (during which time the Top 20 was extended to the Top 40 on 12 November 1978) and 8 January 1984 to 23 September 1984. He presented BBC TVs Top of the Pops regularly from 1980 to 1988, and presented the roadshow — which he came to despise — every summer for many years until 1988, on one occasion insisting on wearing long trousers when it was compulsory to wear shorts. After his round-the-world trip in 1989, he was exempted roadshow duties for his last four summers at the station.
Bates worked on the mid-morning slot until 1993, seeing breakfast-show presenters like Noel Edmonds, Dave Lee Travis, Mike Read, Mike Smith and Simon Mayo come and go. He was not the most popular member of staff at Radio 1. John Peel was fond of repeating that he formed a posse with David Jensen and Paul Burnett to attack him in the car park but admitted they never actually confronted him.
When new controller Matthew Bannister arrived at the station intending to shake-up its safe feel and modernise it, Bates was one of the presenters thought to be under threat. Bannister's comments in the book "The Nation's Favourite" indicate that he feared Bates's supposed subversive influence rather than his broadcasting style. Bates resigned before the station was able to sack him.
Bates was heard on all five national BBC stations — apart from his stint at BBC Radio 1 and his broadcasts for BBC Radio 2 and BBC Radio 4 (unusually before he joined the pop network), he also presented a Prom concert on BBC Radio 3 in 1987 and presented a digest of the daily papers on the original version of BBC Radio 5 (now BBC Radio Five Live) in 1990.
[edit] After Radio 1
After leaving Radio 1 he worked for Irish-based long wave station Atlantic 252, reviving Our Tune and then presented a TV version of the feature daily for BBC1's Good Morning with Anne and Nick in 1994-95 and later for Sky One.
During these few years he also became the face of the BBFC video classification board, often seen before films that had come out on home video, describing the classification of the movie. This was lampooned by comedians such as Harry Enfield and Ben Elton.
From September 1995 - April 1996, Bates broadcast for Talk Radio UK (now TalkSport) as the breakfast show presenter. He was then heard on London's Liberty Radio as mid-morning presenter until 1997.
In 1997, Bates joined Classic FM, presenting the weekly Classic Romance programme and was also heard on BBC Southern Counties Radio presenting a Sunday morning show until late 1998. In addition, between 1996 & 1998, Bates presented a show on the Classic Gold Network on weekday evenings. He then moved to London's LBC as breakfast host from 1999–2002.
[edit] Classic FM
Having originally joined Classic FM in 1997, presenting the weekly Classic Romance show, in mid-2002, just before leaving LBC, he was offered his first daily show on the station, presenting the drivetime show.
Since June 2003, Bates has presented Classic FM's breakfast show weekdays from 7 to 11am and he continues to present the two-hour "Classic FM at the Movies" programme, discussing films and film music on Saturday evenings. Since September 2006, his show has been broadcast from 8am-noon.
[edit] A Revival
In addition to Classic FM shows, Bates presents a revival of his classic feature from Radio 1 Our Tune. Our Tune at Noon can be heard every Monday–Friday at 12.00 Midday, syndicated on commercial stations across the UK.
| Preceded by Tom Browne (broadcaster and actor) |
BBC Radio One chart show presenter 1978 - 1979 |
Succeeded by Tony Blackburn |
| Preceded by Tommy Vance |
BBC Radio One chart show presenter 1984 |
Succeeded by Richard Skinner |
