On Saturday 21 May smoothfm celebrates its fourth birthday with the launch of www.smooth.com.au, maximising on the station’s strength as a lifestyle brand.
smoothfm launched in the Sydney and Melbourne radio landscape in 2012 with a unique music position and a more music, less talk offering.
Pictured left to right: Richard Wilkins, Mel Doyle, Bogart Torelli, CEO Cathy O’Connor, David Campbell.
The station has now become one of Australia’s greatest radio success stories. Over the past four years, the combined audience for both stations has grown by 141 per cent* with a current audience of 1,474,000 listeners and has increased by an average of three share points in 10+, with a current result of 7.8 per cent (#3FM) in Melbourne and 6.9 per cent (#3FM)** in Sydney.
Paul Jackson, NOVA Entertainment Group program director said, “When we launched smoothfm four years ago we knew there was a gap in the market for an easy listening format.
“The growth of the stations in Sydney and Melbourne proves that listeners are loving the music and we couldn’t be more proud of the team behind smoothfm’s success.”
smoothfm’s playlist is unique in the radio landscape as it is not confined to a particular genre or era. Playing both heritage and contemporary easy listening songs from iconic artists, Bee Gees, Abba and George Michael, to current artists including Michael Bublè, Bruno Mars, Keith Urban and Adele, smoothfm’s playlist is designed to provide an escape and to create an easy place to relax.
smoothfm is also now a multi-platform entertainment brand having expanded its national footprint on DAB+, along with the introduction of a strategic partnership with Foxtel to create smooth, the first Australian radio station developed into a TV channel, and the release of 10 compilation albums with Sony Music.
smoothfm has also extended into the experiential space with the creation of the smoothfm Festival of Chocolate, returning for a third year in 2016, and the launch of the smooth relaxation station. www.smooth.com.au will now be the next phase in the station’s cross platform offering evolving beyond radio and extending the brand across the Australian lifestyle category.
smoothfm features a strong line up of announcers, from Bogart Torelli and news journalist Glenn Daniel in Sydney breakfast and Mike Perso and Jennifer Hansen in Melbourne, a daytime line-up of Ty Frost, Simon Diaz and Byron Webb leading into Cameron Daddo’s Mellow Music to allow listeners to relax into their evenings. Weekends have become the relaxation destination with Mel Doyle, Richard Wilkins, David Campbell and special guest hosts, ranging from Elton John, Neil Diamond, Nigella Lawson, James Blunt, Michael Bublé, Keith Urban and The Beach Boy’s Mike Love.
* Source: GfK Media Research Radio Survey 2, 2016 cmp to Nielsen Media Reserach Radio Survey 4, 2012
** Source: Gfk Media Research Radio Survey 2, 2016