Alastair Yates

Alastair Kenneth Yates (3 September 1952 – 26 July 2018) was an English news anchor, for over 20 years with the BBC, on BBC World News and BBC News.

Alastair Yates
Born
Alastair Kenneth Yates

(1952-09-03)3 September 1952[1]
Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England
Died26 July 2018(2018-07-26) (aged 65)
England
EducationBurton Grammar School
Occupation(s)Journalist
Communications
Years active1973–2018
Notable credit(s)BBC News
BBC World News
"Sky News"

Born 3 September 1952 and brought up in Burton upon Trent, Yates was educated at Manor House School, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and the former Burton Grammar School. Before deciding on journalism as a career Yates was a circuit DJ and was MD of his own entertainments company which managed clubs and pop groups.[2][3]

In 1992 he helped to launch BBC World Service Television and stayed in his post for the re-launch to BBC World in 1995. In 1997 he was part of the launch team for BBC News 24 (now the BBC News Channel). He took a couple of years out from BBC News in 1998 to become an anchor on Deutsche Welle in Germany. He returned to the BBC in 2001, again to appear on both BBC World News and the BBC News Channel.

Yates joined Sky Television from its launch in 1989, becoming the first male presenter on Sky News.

Prior to Sky News, he was with ITV: in 1986 he was presenting Anglia Television's evening news show About Anglia. In 1980 he was at Grampian Television in Aberdeen, Scotland as presenter and reporter for North Tonight. He made his debut TV appearance at Pebble Mill in Birmingham in 1978 presenting news bulletins for BBC Midlands's regional news programme Midlands Today. Whilst at BBC Midlands, Yates was also a regional continuity announcer. He also appeared in some "Play for Today" dramas as himself; and hosted an inventions programme called Eureka.

He began his journalism career in radio: he was a current affairs & news host at BBC Local Radio stations in Derby, Leicester, and Birmingham.

He was to return to radio in 2013 when he joined Global Radio to produce and present news for Classic FM and Smooth Radio.

Yates, under the pseudonym Al Kay, got his broadcasting break when he began a weekly Saturday morning pop show on Radio Derby in 1973. That same station offered him the chance to move away from music-based shows to speech programming.

Yates died on 26 July 2018 at the age of 66.[4][5]

References
  1. "In Celebration of the Life of Alastair Yates". Poetic Endings. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  2. Yates, Elspeth. "Alastair Yates obituary". pebblemill.org. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  3. Jackson, Paul R. (September 2018). "Yates, Alistair". Showreel. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  4. "Alastair Yates". Programmes. BBC. 1 November 2005. Archived from the original on 19 February 2006. Retrieved 1 April 2009.
  5. "Former BBC, Sky News presenter Alastair Yates dies at the age of 66". TV Newsroom. 27 July 2018.
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