About the Host: Mike Bates fell in love with radio and got his first on-air job as a 14-year-old high school student. He worked as a broadcaster for the next 46 years doing on-location reporting, live on-air talk shows, producing long-form historical documentaries, and serving with the Official White House Press Corps.
Mike has interviewed presidential candidates, military personnel, authors, college professors, historians, actors, musical artists, sports stars, and more.
He has covered numerous events at The White House plus visits to northwest Florida by Presidents Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump. In March 2016, he was part of the Official White House Press Corps that accompanied President Obama on his historic trip to Havana, Cuba.
Mike interviewed Will Chesney, who served with SEAL Team Six on the 2011 mission that killed Osama bin Laden. He also interviewed Lt. Colonel Dick Cole, who was 101 years-old at the time. Cole was Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot on the historic “Doolittle Raid” over Japan on April 18, 1942.
Mike researched, narrated, and produced a 20-part “History of the Blue Angels” radio series and has done both a backseat ride in one of the squadron’s F/A-18 Hornets and a cabin ride in “Fat Albert” the team’s C-130 transport aircraft.
He also produced and narrated a 10-hour radio documentary about the Vietnam War’s AFVN (American Forces Vietnam Network) that was a unique place in the field of battle. His preparation included eleven days of research in Vietnam. Interviewees included Adrian Cronauer, the inspiration for the movie “Good Morning Vietnam,” former AFVN DJ and “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak, and starlet Chris Noel, currently the subject of a grass roots effort to award her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her support of the troops during and after the conflict. (http://www.HonorChrisNoel.com)
While the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig was still ablaze in 2010, Mike flew over the site in a US Coast Guard Jayhawk helicopter so he could share first-hand information about the disaster with local listeners.
When hurricanes have threatened Florida’s Gulf Coast, Mike provided residents with storm path and preparation information via live updates from the Emergency Operations Centers. After the storms, Mike provided critical relief and recovery information.
On election nights – and during the occasional recounts for which Florida is so famous – voters knew up-to-the-minute vote tallies via Mike’s live reports from the Supervisor of Elections Office.
Throughout his career, Mike Bates has been recognized as a voice for truth, with a commitment to facts being the core foundation of his work.