Smoothfm (radio network)
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| City | Sydney & Melbourne |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Australia |
| Branding | Smooth 95.3 & Smooth 91.5 |
| Slogan | Your easy place to relax |
| Frequency | 95.3 MHz in Sydney & 91.5 MHz in Melbourne (Full List) |
| First air date |
Sydney: August 1, 2005 (Vega) May 21, 2012 (smoothfm) Melbourne: September 5, 2005 (as Vega) May 21, 2012 (smoothfm) |
| Format | Easy Listening, adult contemporary |
| Language(s) | English |
| ERP |
Sydney: 150 kW Melbourne: 56 kW |
| Affiliations | Nova FM |
| Owner | NOVA Entertainment |
| Website |
Network: smoothfm Sydney: smoothfm 95.3 Melbourne: smoothfm 91.5 |
smoothfm is a network of two Australian commercial radio stations operated by NOVA Entertainment in Sydney and Melbourne. The format is focused on providing 'more music and less talk' along with an eclectic easy-listening playlist, usually featuring ballads.
Vega launched in 2005 to target the baby boomer market of listeners in the 40 to 60 age bracket, with a mix of talk and music from the 1960s to the 2000s. The positioning statement for the network was "On your wavelength" with a blue squiggle and sign wave as the logo.
The network first launched in August 2005 in Sydney and September 2005 in Melbourne along with announcers Angela Catterns, Denise Scott, Shaun Micallef, Beverley O'Connor, Wendy Harmer, Francis Leach, Wilbur Wilde, Tony Squires, Rebecca Wilson and Mike Perso.
To coincide with the station's positioning statement the first song played at the launch was Van Morrison's Wavelength.
Vega's stations had failed to attract a significant audience with the Sydney station reaching a 1.8 percent audience share, and the Melbourne station gained a 1.2 percent share, placing it second last (ahead only of ABC NewsRadio) and last out of surveyed stations in each market, respectively. However, station management state that the slow take-up was to be expected, claiming the target audience will be slower than some audience groups to try a new station.
In June 2006 [1] the Sydney and Melbourne stations stopped sharing programmes. Both stations dropped their "40 years of music" slogan and moved drive-time hosts Rebecca Wilson and Tony Squires to share the Sydney breakfast slot with former host Angela Catterns. The changes have been slow to grow market share, with the Sydney audience falling to 1.7% in Sydney (No. 6, 2006, but climbing slowly to 1.8% in Melbourne, which, at the time, was their highest audience share to date in Melbourne.
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