Terry Bate

Terry Bate was born in the United Kingdom and educated at Christ’s Hospital, Horsham, Sussex. After five years of flying with the Royal Air Force, he resigned his commission and moved to Canada, There he worked for many years in television and radio, both for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and commercial stations, initially as a writer and broadcaster, then through marketing and sales into management.

He returned to the UK in the mid-60’s, taking management control of Radio Caroline for it’s last two years, turning its losses into profit. He then acted as a consultant for Radio Luxembourg and in 1971, with legal commercial radio about to become a reality in the United Kingdom, he founded a radio management company in partnership with Beaverbrook Newspapers. This company formed consortia to apply for radio licences, in the process founding Radio Clyde in Glasgow, the central component of what is now Scottish Radio Holdings plc. During the 1970’s he acquired a stake in, and joined the Board of Data Communications Corporation Inc. of Memphis, Tennessee, which subsequently became the largest supplier of automated data systems for television and radio in the United States. As a result of his investment in D.C.C., he then launched Broadcast Data Services Ltd., the first company in Britain to offer automated systems to television and radio stations. The first clients of BDS were London Weekend Television and Anglia Television.With the launch of commercial radio in 1973, Terry Bate started Broadcast Marketing Services Ltd., a company specialising in national sales, marketing and management for commercial radio stations. BMS became the dominant force in National Radio sales and marketing and with its own production studios, B.M.S. also launched the Radio Creative awards. He remained active in the industry and then in 1993, launched Radio Calypso, a Mediterranean commercial radio station, with studios in Gozo and transmitters in Malta.

In 1996, in partnership with his wife Janet, he acquired a 26% controlling interest in The Television Corporation plc., a company quoted on the London Stock Exchange. He became initially Chief Executive and after a year, Executive Chairman. The Company is now one of the largest independent television production companies in the UK and also owns Visions, the largest and most profitable outside broadcast Facilities Company in the UK.

In 2004, Terry Bate founded a pioneering DTTV operation, based in Malta. Multiplus was awarded eight analogue TV frequencies and by digitizing these frequencies, broadcast 64 channels of digital terrestial television, competing with the Maltese cable company. Profitable within a year, Multiplus DTTV was sold in January, 2007 to a Dubai-controlled telephone company. He and his wife Janet, are also major shareholders and directors of Charanga Ltd., a leading company in music tuition software, plus major shareholders in Dyaptive Ltd., a private Canadian company specialising in dynamic software for cellular telephone networks. Terry is a Governor of Christ’s Hospital School in England, a member of the Reform Club, the Royal Television Society, the Christ’s Hospital Club the Old Blues Benevolent Society and a Knight of the Order of St. John. His interests include, skiing, squash, scuba diving, boating, and photography.