105.2 Smooth Radio
| Slogan | Love Life. Love Music. |
|---|---|
| Frequency | 105.2 MHz |
| First air date | 26 March 2007 |
| Format | 35 - 55 |
| Audience share | 5.9% (June 2010, [1]) |
| Transmitter coordinates | 55°51′42″N 3°52′21″W / 55.8618°N 3.8725°WCoordinates: 55°51′42″N 3°52′21″W / 55.8618°N 3.8725°W |
| Owner | Guardian Media Group |
105.2 Smooth Radio is a Scottish Independent Local Radio station broadcasting to Glasgow and the surrounding area, owned & operated by GMG Radio and broadcasting from studios at Baillieston in the East End of Glasgow. The station replaced Saga 105.2 FM at 6am on Monday 26 March 2007 and competes with BBC Radio 2, aiming its music at listeners aged 35 and over. Smooth Radio Scotland is part of the national Smooth Radio network, which encompasses London, the North West of England, the East Midlands, the West Midlands & the North East of England.
As well as being carried on FM in the Glasgow area, the station is also broadcast on DAB digital radio to the East of Scotland and online via a streaming service. It is also carried on FM in Wester Ross during non-local broadcast hours of Two Lochs Radio for which it forms a sustaining service.
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[edit] Origins
The station came into being following GMG Radio's purchase of the Saga Radio Group in December 2006, and the granting of permission from the regulator Ofcom to change the format of its Smooth FM stations in London and the North West of England. The decision was made to change both the Smooth FM and Saga stations to Smooth Radio and Saga 105.2 FM was closed at 6pm on Friday 23 March 2007. This was then followed by a preview weekend for the new Smooth Radio giving listeners the opportunity to hear the presenters and music which would be featured on the new station.
[edit] Station Format
105.2 Smooth Radio plays adult contemporary music, aimed at listeners aged 35 and over. It bears very few similarities to its predecessor. Though some of the presenters who worked on Saga 105.2 FM initially hosted shows on 105.2 Smooth Radio, very few of the specialist shows from the Saga days have survived, and Smooth's initial slogan "Your life, Your music.", which was used on Saga stations, has now been modified to "Love Life, Love Music"
The station operated a 24-hour schedule of local programming until August 2008 when networked output from London and Manchester was introduced, leading to the sackings of six station presenters.[1]
Following the publication of John Myers' recommendations of a regulatory overhaul in commercial radio, and the passing of the 2010 Digital Economy Act, which allowed stations to co-locate or drop all local shows and broadcast on national DAB, Smooth Radio merged its five England-based stations into one quasi-national station, with local news feeds produced from GMG Radio's headquarters in Salford Quays.[2] GMG made the announcement on 29 June 2010, that it wanted to rival BBC Radio 2 by broadcasting on the Digital 1 multiplex on DAB Digital Radio to the whole of England and Wales, as well as Sky, Freesat, Freeview, Virgin Media and online. A regional flavour would be kept with split news, travel and weather bulletins broadcasting in the FM and DAB regional stations in the North East, North West, West Midlands and East Midlands. London listeners and those tuning nationally would hear national information.
In Scotland, 105.2 Smooth Radio continued to retain some of its local output, but networked evening and overnight shows, as well as some daytime programming. Currently, the weekday breakfast and drivetime shows together with some weekend morning shows are produced locally from Glasgow, while news and traffic bulletins are also produced locally.
[edit] Presenters
- John McCauley - Smooth Breakfast with John and Sharon (Mon-Fri)
- Mark Goodier - The Mark Goodier Show (Mid Mornings Mon-Fri)
- Gerry Burke - Smooth Afternoon with Gerry Burke (Weekday Afternoons Mon-Fri)
- Carlos - Drivetime with Dave Marshall (Mon-Fri)
- Andy Peebles - "Smooth Evenings" (Sat-Thur)
- Derek Webster - Smooth Nights (Mon-Thur) and Saturday Afternoon with Derek Webster
- Pete Waterman - Pete Waterman's Friday Night Fever
- Pat Sharp - Smooth Weekend Breakfast
- Jenny Farish - Smooth Saturday morning
- Dave Brown - The Motown Show (Saturday Late Afternoon) and Sunday Evenings with Dave Brown
- John Darroch - Smooth Sunday morning
- David Jensen - Double Top 20 (Sun)
- Dave Lincoln - Dave Lincoln on Smooth Radio (Sun)
- Dave Marshall - Dave Marshall on Smooth Radio
[edit] News
Smooth Radio in Glasgow also airs local news bulletins every hour on weekdays with additional bulletins on the half hour during breakfast and drivetime. Heather Kane is the station's head of news, assisted by Corrie Martin.
On 23 January GMG Radio announced it was conducting a "full review" of its news staff. At the time the broadcaster employed 39 journalists, nine of whom were based in Scotland.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Churchill, Carolyn (9 August 2008). "Criticism for radio station that axed Scots DJs". Glasgow Herald (Newsquest Media Ltd). http://www.heraldscotland.com/criticism-for-radio-station-that-axed-scots-djs-1.886671. Retrieved 29 May 2010.
- ^ Plunkett, John (29 June 2010). "Smooth Radio to merge regional stations, with loss of up to 60 jobs". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jun/29/smooth-radio-merge-regional-stations. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ^ "Real Radio owners to lay off newsroom staff | Glasgow and West | STV News". News.stv.tv. 23 January 2012. http://news.stv.tv/scotland/west-central/294700-real-radio-owners-to-make-news-staff-redundancies/. Retrieved 24 January 2012.
[edit] External links
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