The Smooth Brand just gets Smoother

After celebrating their 1st birthdays in March this year, GMG Radio's Smooth Radio stations* have all increased in audience and all but one has increased in hours during the last quarter, according to the latest audience research by RAJAR.

In the East Midlands the station has recorded a record reach of 292,000 adult listeners, with each tuning in for a record average of 10.8 hours per week. In the West Midlands 105.7 Smooth Radio recorded its second highest reach to date of 446,000 listeners, all tuning in to hear the wide variety of popular music from the last five decades. In addition the station has also increased its average hours to 13.1, and market share to 8%.

New London listeners have also found the Smooth brand and the station has seen its audience grow to 518,000 listeners each week, up 43,000 on the quarter.

Together the five Smooth Radio stations in London, Glasgow, the Northwest, East and West Midlands (excluding the newly launched Smooth in the Northeast) have added a total of 167,000 new listeners this quarter, with nearly 2.1 million listeners tuning in each week. Hours have also increased by over 2 million to 19.7 million a week.

Including digital listening, the figures for the Total Smooth Radio network rise to 2.4 million listeners a week and 21.7 million total hours.

Other success stories in the GMG Radio stable of Smooth, Real, Century and Rock Radio stations include Century Northwest – which now commands 715,000 listeners to the station each week, with total hours rising from 5.4 million to 5.5 million QonQ. Smooth Radio Northwest was also triumphant, adding 175,000 listeners to its stable, making it the Northwest's No.1 commercial station with 718,000 listeners each week. The two stations together have now created a record reach of over 1.2 million listeners tuning in each week giving GMG Radio a 10.4 percent share of the northwest radio market.

Overall GMG Radio's share of the UK listening market has remained steady at 4.6% but it has seen a healthy increase in reach to nearly 4.8 million listeners a week. The group now reports 47.6 million hours of listening to its stations each week.

GMG Radio Group Programme Director John Simons said: "This is a great result for the Smooth Radio Network. Next week will see the launch of GMG Radio's biggest ever marketing campaign, with a heavyweight TV and outdoor campaign for Smooth Radio so we're looking forward to seeing further growth across the year."

Source:
RAJAR / Ipsos-MORI / RSMB, period ending 23rd March 2008, all stations and groups results are reported on their specified reporting period and TSA
* The sixth station under the Smooth Radio brand launched in the Northeast of England on 8th January 2008 and total audience figures do NOT include this station.

Published on 01/05/2008

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