Nova Entertainment celebrated Smooth FM’s 10th year in 2022 by moving beyond Sydney and Melbourne and gently, dare I say smoothly, launching their digital stations into Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth.
The multimillion dollar move included local breakfast programs and a multi-phase brand awareness campaign. The latest GfK Radio 360 survey shows the investment has works with Smooth at or near the top of the digital pack, particularly in Perth.
Radioinfo caught up with Smooth FM Head of Programming, Peter Clay to find out whether the success was surprising and where to for Smooth from here:
Are there further expansion plans?
“Smooth FM is currently available in all states and territories via the Smooth FM Player so you can listen to Australia’s ‘feel good’ station wherever you are located by downloading the Smooth Player app.
The Smooth FM brand expanded across Australia with new Smooth DAB+ stations in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth from September 2022. These new stations have their own live Breakfast shows, a significant investment in live and local content, and was made in response to the success of Smooth FM in Sydney and Melbourne and organic growth of the brand across Australia. Listeners can enjoy Smooth FM era and mood based formats, designed to appeal to the changing ways listeners are interacting with the Smooth FM brand, Smooth Relax, Smooth Vintage and Smooth 80s.”
What feedback are the stations getting from listeners?
“Smooth FM listeners are very loyal and protective of the brand and are quick to provide feedback on the brands.
The results for Radio360 Radio Survey #3 showed the strength of Smooth FM as a national brand. The most powerful feedback listeners can provide is by listening and engaging with the brand and the fact that Smooth FM 95.3 and Smooth FM 91.5 are again the #2 FM stations in each market in Sydney and Melbourne which is proof that listeners love the feel good format. In addition both brands local More Music Breakfast Shows continue to perform strongly, as #3 FM, in the highly competitive breakfast timeslot and the station performing strongly across all day parts.
By the same token, the results of SmoothFM DAB stations are proof that our decision to invest in live Breakfast shows for those stations is providing a local connection and content for listeners. SmoothFM is the most listened to DAB+ station in Adelaide and Perth, an outstanding result such a short time after launch, while Smooth Brisbane is one of the top performing stations in that market.
The response to Smooth Relax has also been outstanding. Along with Smooth 80s and Smooth Vintage, we have era and mood-based Smooth stations that appeal to listener’s individual tastes.”
Has the ratings success surprised you?
“No, we’re not surprised with the latest ratings results. We have seen significant and loyal growth for Smooth FM since the station launched in Melbourne and Sydney on 21 May 2012, with the stations consistently #2 FM each survey and strong results across all day parts.
With the growth of smart speakers and mobile devices, and the success of Smooth FM’s “feel good’ format in Sydney and Melbourne, the decision was made to give Smooth FM a national platform with launch, launching on DAB+ in Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane 5 September last year on DAB +n whilst ensuring a level of localness that our audiences expect and the results have been very pleasing with more listeners continuing to discover Smooth FM.
In the current Radio360 Radio Ratings the Smooth Network inclusive of Smooth Relax, Smooth Vintage and Smooth 80s reached over 2,753,000 listeners nationally across FM and DAB+ which demonstrates the appeal of the format.”
With the news of the upcoming, and dare we say polar opposite, Disrupt Radio launch, plus a similar significant awareness campaign, they’ll be very happy with the same sort of numbers of Australians tuning into their very different digital alternative.
