Smooth North West is a regional radio station owned by Communicorp UK and operated by Global as part of the Smooth network. The station broadcasts to the North West of England from studios at Spinningfields in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

History

GMG Radio ownership

The station 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 Smooth jazz is a genre of commercially-oriented crossover jazz and easy listening music that became dominant in the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. History Smooth jazz is a commercially oriented, crossover jazz which came to prominence in the ...

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 In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest att ...

and softer R&B alongside

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

. 100.4 Jazz FM broadcast its daytime shows from its Manchester station, but specialist shows such as Dinner

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...

and Legends of

with Ramsey Lewis were networked from its London sister station

102.2 Jazz FM 102.2 Jazz FM (also known as London Jazz Radio and JFM) was a local jazz and soul music station for London run by GMG Radio. The station was based in and broadcast from Castlereagh Street in London. The station experimented with its core playli ...

. In 2003, the

Guardian Media Group Guardian Media Group plc (GMG) is a British-based mass media company owning various media operations including ''The Guardian'' and ''The Observer''. The group is wholly owned by the Scott Trust Limited, which exists to secure the financial and e ...

did extensive research into the type of music that listeners in the north-west wanted to hear. They concluded that many people were dissuaded by the name "jazz", and as a result, 100.4 Jazz FM closed on 13 February 2004 and relaunched as Smooth FM on 2 March 2004. The station now began to play more modern music during the day, but continued a mostly

themed output at night. The arrangements for local and networked programming remained for a time, but from March 2005, only Mike Chadwick's ''The Saturday Night Experience'' was networked from

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 ...

. All other programming was produced and aired in the North West. The station was relaunched again as Smooth Radio 100.4 on 26 March 2007. The launch occurred at the same time as London based

, however Smooth Radio 100.4 continued with its own unique soul music based format. On 5 July 2007, GMG Radio announced that it was requesting a change of format from Ofcom, which would bring Smooth Radio 100.4 in line with the rest of the network. It proposed an easy listening music service mixed with speech for the over 50's, coupled with an improved local news service. Ofcom approved the changes on 11 October 2007. In March 2008, GMG requested a format change to remove its jazz commitments it has in place for Smooth Radio 100.4. Part of the plans included a relaunch of Jazz FM from the jazzfm.com service broadcasting on DAB in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

and online on the

MXR North West MXR North West was a regional commercial digital radio multiplex in the United Kingdom, which served the North West of England. The multiplex closed on 24 September 2013 after the shareholders Global Radio & Arqiva Arqiva () is a British te ...

multiplex. In a meeting on 22 April 2008 Ofcom denied GMG's request to drop its jazz commitments. GMG said that it would be relaunching Jazz FM despite the decision. Local and networked programming originated from studios at Laser House in Salford Quays. In 2010, GMG announced that it would be merging its five Smooth stations in England to create a nationwide Smooth Radio service based in Salford. The new station was launched on 4 October 2010 and could be heard both on DAB and on the locally on the FM frequencies.

Global Radio franchisee under Communicorp ownership

Smooth Radio's output was relocated to new owner Global's

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised square in the West End of London, England. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leicester House, itself named after Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicest ...

headquarters from 1 October 2013, a move that coincided with a major overhaul of its schedule, and the closure of Smooth 70s after 21 months on air. Global reached an agreement to sell Smooth North West and seven others to Communicorp, as part of a plan to allay competition fears following Global's purchase of GMG Radio. On 4 February 2014, the ''

Radio Today Radio Today is a 24 hours radio station in Bangladesh that started airing in May 2006. It is currently available in Dhaka, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Khulna, Bogra, Sylhet, Mymensingh, Barishal, Kushtia, Comilla. Information It started as the ...

'' website reported that Ofcom had given Global permission to remove Smooth from the Digital One platform, and to replace it with a service playing music from the 1970s, 80s and 90s. Under this agreement, Smooth would continue to broadcast on its regional frequencies, but would be required to provide seven hours of local output on weekdays (four hours at weekends) and a regional news service. In May 2017, local programming moved from Salford to new studios at the XYZ building in the Spinningfields district of Manchester City Centre. Smooth North West shares facilities with sister station XS Manchester and two Global-owned stations, Heart North West and Capital Manchester and Lancashire. In September 2019, following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Smooth's local Drivetime and weekend shows were replaced by network programming from London. Local news bulletins, traffic updates and advertising were retained, alongside the station's North West breakfast show.

Programming

Local programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Manchester studios from 6-10am on weekdays. All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including ''The Smooth Drive Home'' with

Angie Greaves Angie Greaves (born in London) is a British radio presenter. Radio career Greaves started her media career in 1982 as a BBC Administrator at Television Centre. In 1986 she moved to London's Capital Radio, where she began working on the radio afte ...

.Smooth Radio - North West public file
/ref>

News

Global's Newsroom broadcasts hourly regional news bulletins from 6am-7pm on weekdays and 6am-12pm at weekends. The bulletins are produced for Communicorp by Global's Manchester newsroom. National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times.

Former notable presenters

* Emma B * Simon Bates *

Tony Blackburn Anthony Kenneth Blackburn (born 29 January 1943) is an English disc jockey, singer and TV presenter. He first achieved fame broadcasting on the pirate stations Radio Caroline and Radio London in the 1960s, before joining the BBC, on the BBC ...

Carlos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

* Daryl Denham *

Mark Goodier Mark Goodier (born 9 June 1961) is a British radio disc jockey best known for his time on BBC Radio 1 between 1987 and 2002. He had two spells presenting the station's Top 40 singles chart, from 1990 to 1992 and from 1995 until 2002. He also h ...

* David Jensen *

Lynn Parsons Lynn Margaret Parsons (born 27 June 1961) is a British disc jockey. Career Having graduated from college with an OND in electronic principles, Parsons started her career working in the television industry, where she was a sound engineer and l ...

Andy Peebles Robert Andrew Peebles (born 1948) is a British radio DJ, television presenter, and cricket commentator. Born in London, Peebles attended Bishop's Stortford College. He began as a nightclub DJ in the late 1960s. Peebles was resident DJ at the C ...

David Prever David Prever (born ca. 1967) is a four time Sony Award winning radio presenter, and thriller author. Early life David was born in London and grew up in Chigwell, Essex. He was educated at Bancroft's School in Woodford Green and attended the Sylvia ...

Pat Sharp Patrick Sharpin, known professionally as Pat Sharp (born 25 October 1961), is an English radio presenter, television presenter and DJ. In the UK, he is known mainly for his work on the children's ITV programme '' Fun House'', and his extens ...

* Pete Waterman

References

External links

*
Smooth North West - Public FileSmooth Format Change Consultation, July 2007
OFCOM {{Coord, 53.480543, N, 2.253398, W, region:GB-MAN, display=title Communicorp Global Radio GMG Radio Mass media in Salford Smooth North West Radio stations established in 1994