Simon Bates - BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 1

Initially a weekend presenter playing new pop records, Bates took over the weekday mid-morning programme in November 1977 and remained the presenter for 16 years. The least flashy and garrulous of Radio 1's principal broadcasters, with an avuncular appearance (sober clothes, large glasses), Bates nevertheless became popular, attracting up to 11 million listeners. His voice — essentially a sped-up, slightly Americanised version of the standard Received Pronunciation associated with BBC Radio 4 — was unusual in that most Radio 1 DJs of the time had a more informal 'DJ' voice.

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, the "Our Tune" feature, which ran from 1980, became a daily 11am fixture of his Radio 1 show, and is the element for which it is best remembered. 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 some bemoaned the feature's mawkish nature, a number of spin-off albums, featuring songs chosen by listeners, were 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 during 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, playing Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me) by Reunion as his last record on his last show on the station in summer 1993.

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.