One of the big success stories of GfK radio ratings Survey 6, 2024 has to be Nova Entertainment’s Smooth FM. In a strange universe that surrounds “old media” broadcast ratings, TV and radio. The worse you perform the more you get written about.
That means many of the success stories tend to get overlooked. Not here. Not this week.
It’s now just over 12 years since Nova Entertainment’s programmer Paul Jackson and former marketing guru Tony Thomas launched the Smooth brand. At the time Thomas was considered ambitious for sharing with Mediaweek what it turns out were pretty conservative ratings goals. This week Smooth FM continued its strong ratings run.
Along the journey the brand has often been a market leader in Sydney and Melbourne. It’s done a pretty good job on a national rollout too via DAB+. Smooth FM 91.
5 is the #1 FM station in Melbourne with an 11.0% share Smooth FM 95.3 is Sydney’s most popular station with 1,288,000 (cume) and the most listened to station in Australia Smooth FM Adelaide is the most popular DAB+ radio station with 44,000 listeners (cume), an increase of 8,000 listeners Smooth FM Perth is the most popular DAB+ station in Perth with 81,000 listeners (cume) Smooth FM Brisbane is second the most popular DAB+ station in Brisbane with 65,000 listeners Smooth FM’s Peter Clay Head of Smooth FM network programming Peter Clay told Mediaweek they are all about consistency.
This week’s success continues their long run. “We’ve been here befo.