Smooth North West

Smooth North West is a Independent Local Radio station based in Salford, Greater Manchester. It is part of the Smooth radio network of stations from 1 March 2004, and changed its name from "Smooth FM" in March 2007. Along with other stations in the network, it was subsumed into a national Smooth Radio service from 4 October 2010. The station was based at studios in Laser House, Salford, until 2010.

The signal was relayed from the Winter Hill transmitter, near Bolton, and was designed to cover Manchester, Merseyside and North Wales and to reach as far north as Carnforth although it can be heard across much of south Cumbria and the Furness Peninsula. The station was also available on DAB and online. It was also available on the Sky platform from 14 February 2005 on channel 0128, but was replaced by Smooth London in mid-2007.

History

GMG Radio ownership

It was launched by Radio Investments Ltd on 1 September 1994 as Jazz FM, but was also known as JFM in an attempt to appeal to listeners who could be put off by the use of the word "jazz". Jazz FM originally played a wide variety of jazz, pandering to more smooth jazz during the daytime in order to attract the 25- to 45-year-old target market which was required to make the station a success. However, the focus of the music later changed, and by the early 2000s, it was focusing more on soul and softer R&B alongside jazz.

102.2 Smooth FM

102.2 Smooth FM was an Independent Local Radio station for Greater London. It replaced 102.2 Jazz FM on 7 June 2005 at 10 am, with the help of R&B singer Lemar and the then breakfast show host Jon Scragg. The first track played, keeping with the name of the newly launched radio station was Sade Adu's "Smooth Operator", and was owned by the radio division of the Guardian Media Group, GMG Radio. Following disappointing audience figures, the station was closed on 23 March 2007 and relaunched as 102.2 Smooth Radio the following Monday, following a successful format change request to Ofcom to play music oriented at listeners aged 50 and above.

102.2 Smooth FM was available on DAB across London, Central Scotland, the North East of England, South Wales and the Severn Estuary, Yorkshire and the West Midlands, as well as on Freeview channel 718.

Origins

In 2005, the Guardian Media Group made the decision to drop the jazz name from the Jazz FM brand and relaunch the station as Smooth FM. The London version of Jazz FM closed on 27 May 2005 to prepare for the launch of Smooth FM on 7 June.

Smooth Radio

Smooth Radio is a network of adult contemporary local radio stations broadcasting on FM and AM stations in the United Kingdom. Launched in March 2014, they replaced the national Smooth Radio that had launched in 2010 on FM, and most outlets of Gold on AM. Each FM station broadcasts localised breakfast and drivetime programming on weekdays, with networked shows simulcast from London at all other times. Three of the six FM stations, and all eighteen AM frequencies, are owned and operated by Global Radio, with the remaining three FM licences owned by Communicorp and run as a franchise.

Background

Having previously operated under a number of regional licences, Smooth Radio's owners, GMG Radio merged its five English stations into one quasi-national station, launching the brand on the Digital One national DAB network on 4 October 2010. Most of the output was broadcast from Salford Quays in Manchester, with other programming coming from Castlereagh Street in London.