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Smooth radio.......Whats this?

T

TheJermster

Before I begin I would like to say Hello to everyone out there in radioland I am new to the boards :)

I live in Washington DC. I got quite a shock last night when I logged onto www.smoothfm.com I was expecting to see the two smooth fm stations 100.4 in the Norhwest and 102.2 in London and what do I see. Another rebranding of london radio. :eek:

No longer is it smooth fm with two stations but its smooth radio with four of five stations scattered around the UK and one more coming soon. Upon futher examination it appears that there are some new or different discjockeys on London's 102.2 I didn't see David Preaver or Russel Pocket anywhere, have they left the station? if so it is a shame two GREAT people. I had the privilige of meeting Russel Pocket during a visit to London this past winter, Russel not only does a great job on the air but is a sincierly nice guy.

I don't want to rush to judgement as I have only listened to the new smoothfm for about a day (I found a way to listen but I don't want to reveal the source as it may get shut down because of online listening restrictions) at first listen I am not impressed it seems they have dumped many of the jazz and soul artists now it seems like a mish mash of easy listening, oldies and jazz and what on earth is this program called "smooth country" I havent heard it but country music thrown into the format I just don't get it.

I am not here to bash anyone but it seems that every station in the UK is part of a network I E Heart FM, Kiss FM Capital and so on. It seems like another great radio station has gone to waste. I personaly think it does a station no good to network itself because you lose the local feel OK sure if you're in London you get 102.2 and if your in the Northwest you get smooth on 100.4 but why are so many stations giving up their individuality? :( I will give the new smooth radio a try but it just dosent sound the same anymore, what a shame. :-\

Any Thoughts?
 
Smooth Radio is a combination of the oldies station Saga Radio and Smooth FM, merged into one network.

It took over all the licences of both stations.

UK radio is driven by the same commercial forces as radio anywhere else - stations will tend to be branded nationally by big owners because it saves on marketing costs, and allows brands to be extended into other areas (music TV, magazines, concerts etc). Smooth and Saga were not previously available in the same area anywhere in the UK, at least on FM.

Unfortunately because there are very few licences available in the UK (as a result of conservative and disorganised frequency planning over the years - the capital has just 14 FM stations available citywide, including BBC) there are few stations left which are not part of a major network. There's also no commercial justification in most markets for providing anything too far from safe 'middle-of-the-road' formats when there are only 2 or 3 licences available to commercial operators in total.
 
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