Global to launch Smooth Extra on national DAB

UK.Global Radio will launch a second Smooth branded station in the new year to complement Smooth Radio.

The new sister station will play “Your Refreshing Music Mix” from December 27th, on the slot currently used by Smooth Radio on Digital One, at 80kbps in mono. Smooth Radio will continue to be broadcast on 38 local multiplexes, plus AM & FM, following its removal from Digital One.

Between November 15th and December 27th however, Global will bring back Smooth Xmas, “A short term station featuring music with Christmas connections”. Smooth Xmas was previously broadcast in 2011 and 2012 by previous owner GMG Radio but disappeared in 2013. The station will play “Your Christmas Music Mix”.

Richard Park, group executive director & director of broadcasting at Global, said: “Since its re-launch in March, the Smooth brand has consistently added more listeners, reaching an all time high last month with more than 4.7m people tuning in every week. Given its winning formula, we are introducing a new sister station, Smooth Extra, which will play refreshing music from the Smooth decades and bring Smooth to even more listeners across the country.”

The format for music from the 70s, 80s and early 90s was added to Digital One’s licence in 2013. Global Radio has not yet launched this service and Digital One has continued to broadcast Smooth Radio on Digital One.

Smooth Radio has been added to the Leicester and Derbyshire local multiplexes today, and changed from stereo 128 kbits/sec to mono 80 kbits/sec in Nottingham.