Simon Philip Bates was born on 17 December 1946 and is an English disc jockey and radio presenter.
28 Facts About Simon Bates
1.
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Simon Bates later became a regular presenter on Classic FM.
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Simon Bates hosted the breakfast show on Smooth Radio from January 2011 until March 2014, and took on the same role at BBC Radio Devon from January 2015 until January 2017.
4.
Simon Bates was the first presenter of BBC Two's Food and Drink programme in 1982.
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Simon 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 Sunday Top 20 show before presenting the Sunday morning show two months later.
6.
Over Nino Rota's theme to Franco Zeffirelli's film Romeo and Juliet, Simon Bates read a sentimental story sent by a listener, ending with a record chosen by the correspondent.
7.
In "The Birthday File" Simon Bates played music by stars celebrating a birthday.
8.
Simon Bates' programme featured Jonathan King to comment about music and interviewed stars at the BRIT Awards.
9.
Simon Bates presented the Sunday afternoon Top 40 from 2 April 1978 to 26 August 1979 and from 8 January 1984 to 23 September 1984.
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Simon Bates presented BBC TV's Top of the Pops regularly from 1980 to 1988.
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Simon Bates presented the station's roadshow before retiring from the duties after his round-the-world trip in 1989.
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When Matthew Bannister arrived to modernise Radio 1, Simon Bates was thought to be under threat.
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Bannister says in The Nation's Favourite that he feared Simon Bates's supposed subversive influence rather than his broadcasting style.
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Simon Bates resigned in summer 1993 before the station could dismiss him, playing "Life Is a Rock " by Reunion as his last record.
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Simon Bates appeared himself in a parody of these announcements in adverts for the video game Primal Rage.
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Simon Bates was then heard on London's Liberty Radio as mid-morning presenter until 1997.
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In 1997, Simon Bates joined Classic FM, presenting the weekly Classic Romance programme and was heard on BBC Southern Counties Radio presenting a Sunday morning show until late 1998.
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Simon Bates then moved to London's LBC as breakfast host from 1999 to 2002.
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Simon Bates originally appeared on Classic FM in 1997, presenting the weekly Classic Romance show.
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In 2010 Simon Bates was moved to mid morning and shortly afterwards it was announced he left the station in January 2011 to present a show on Smooth Radio.
21.
On 17 August 2010, it was announced that from January 2011 Simon Bates would take over as host of the Breakfast Show on Smooth Radio, leaving Classic FM after 13 years of broadcasting.
22.
Simon Bates' show replaced local programming on a number of regional radio stations and began on 4 January 2011, except for Scottish stations which continued with locally produced shows.
23.
Simon Bates brought back both "The Golden Hour" and "Our Tune" to the show.
24.
In September 2012 the radio industry news website Radio Today reported that Simon Bates had started to present a separate breakfast show for Smooth Radio's sister station, Smooth 70s.
25.
Smooth Radio did not publicise the show, but confirmed Simon Bates was providing "a little content" when asked about the programme.
26.
Simon Bates featured the Golden Hour from 9am to 10am, the years ranged from 1956 to 2004.
27.
On 2 October 2017, Simon Bates participated in Radio 1 Vintage, doing an interview about his time on BBC Radio 1.
28.
In 2020, Simon Bates was hired to do the voice over for Channel 5's weekly countdown of the 30 biggest selling singles of one year in the UK.