Bates was raised in Suffolk and Shropshire and educated at Adams' Grammar School[5] before working for radio stations in New Zealand and Australia.

[9] Initially a weekend presenter playing new pop records, Bates took over the weekday mid-morning programme in November 1977[10] and remained for 16 years, with up to 11 million listeners.

Over Nino Rota's theme to Franco Zeffirelli's film Romeo and Juliet (1968), Bates read a sentimental story sent by a listener, ending with a record chosen by the correspondent.

Bates resigned in summer 1993 before the station could dismiss him, playing "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)" by Reunion as his last record.

After leaving Radio 1 he worked for Irish-based long wave station Atlantic 252,[11] 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[14] and later for Sky One.

[17] From September 1995 to April 1996, Bates broadcast for Talk Radio UK (now TalkSPORT) as the breakfast show presenter.

In 2010 Bates was moved to mid morning (9 am to 1 pm) and shortly afterwards it was announced he left the station in January 2011 to present a show on Smooth Radio.

[20] As well as his daily show for Classic FM, Bates could also be heard on the Gold Radio Network every Sunday morning from 8 am to noon.

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.

Other features in the show included the Thousand Pound Minute, where listeners needed to answer ten questions correctly within 60 seconds to win £1,000.

[24] Bates, who as of 2014[update] lived on a farm in mid-Devon, started hosting the BBC Radio Devon breakfast show from 6:30 am to 10 am on weekdays from 12 January 2015.