Smooth East Midlands is an Independent Regional Radio station for the

East Midlands The East Midlands is one of nine official regions of England. It comprises the eastern half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It consists of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire (except for North Lincolnshire and North East ...

, 107.4 MHz, 97.2 MHz, 106.8 MHz 106.0 MHz which replaced Saga 106.6 FM at 6 am on Monday 26 March 2007. It is owned by Communicorp UK and operated by

Global Global may refer to: General *Globe, a spherical model of celestial bodies *Earth, the third planet from the Sun Entertainment * ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * ''Global'' (Humanoid album), 198 ...

as part of the Smooth network of stations. Connect FM closed and merged with Smooth East Midlands on 1 October 2019 in

Kettering Kettering is a market town, market and industrial town, industrial town in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, west of Cambridge, England, Cambridge, southwest of Peterborough, southeast of Leicester and north- ...

Corby Corby is a town and civil parish in the North Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England, northeast of Northampton. In 2021 it had a population of 68,164. From 1974 to 2021, it was the administrative headquarters of the Borough of ...

Wellingborough Wellingborough ( ) is a market town in the North Northamptonshire, Unitary Authority area, England, from London and from Northampton, north of the River Nene. Originally named "Wendelingburgh" (the stronghold of Wændel's people), the Anglo ...

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

Peterborough Peterborough ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in the City of Peterborough district in the Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire, England. The city is north of London, on the River Nene. A ...

and Rushden. As well as being carried on FM in the East Midlands, the station could also be found on DAB digital radio and online. It was also broadcast on the NOW Derbyshire -

, and Rushden DAB Multiplex.

History

The station came into existence following GMG Radio's purchase of the

Saga Radio Group The Saga Radio Group was a British radio network owned and operated by Saga Group, Saga Services Ltd, and aimed at an audience aged 50 and over. The first Saga station was launched in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands on 16 October 2001 and ...

in December 2006, and the granting of permission from the regulator

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

to change the format of its Smooth FM stations. The decision was made to change both the Smooth FM and Saga stations to Smooth Radio. Saga 106.6 FM closed at 6 pm on Friday 23 March 2007, and was followed by a preview weekend for the new Smooth Radio. Smooth network of stations. Connect FM closed and merged with Smooth East Midlands on 1 October 2019. in

, and Rushden Smooth East Midlands played middle-of-the-road,

adult contemporary music Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, sou ...

, aimed at listeners aged 45 and over. It had very few similarities to its predecessor. Though many of the presenters who worked on Saga 106.6 FM initially hosted shows on 106.6 Smooth Radio, many later departed and by the time of its closure none of the specialist shows from the Saga days had survived. Moreover, Smooth's initial slogan ''Your Life, Your Music'', which was used on Saga stations, was modified to ''Love Life, Love Music'', which continues to be used by the station's successor. The station gradually networked many of its programmes since 2007, and from 28 June 2010 Tony Lyman was the only remaining original presenter from the Saga line up. Local programming originated from studios in

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated ''Notts.'') is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. The county is bordered by South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. Th ...

. Networked programming was syndicated from Smooth North West studios at Salford Quays,

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

. In 2010 GMG announced that it would be merging its five Smooth stations in England to create a nationwide Smooth Radio service based in Manchester. The new station was launched on 4 October 2010 and could be heard both on DAB and locally on the FM frequencies.

Global Radio franchisee under Communicorp ownership

Smooth Radio's output was relocated to new owner

Leicester Square Leicester Square ( ) is a pedestrianised town square, square in the West End of London, England, and is the centre of London's entertainment district. It was laid out in 1670 as Leicester Fields, which was named after the recently built Leice ...

headquarters on 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 East Midlands 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'' 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 per day. On 2 March 2014 a new slogan ''Your Relaxing Music Mix'' was introduced. 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 East Midlands breakfast show. On 1 October 2019, Connect Radio 97.2, 106.8 & 107.4 closed and merged with Smooth East Midlands.

Programming

As of 22 February 2025, programming is broadcast and produced from Global's London headquarters, or studios in Birmingham and Manchester.

News

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smooth Communicorp GMG Radio Mass media in Nottingham Radio stations in Nottinghamshire Radio stations in Derbyshire Radio stations in Leicestershire Radio stations established in 2007

2007 establishments in England Adult contemporary radio stations in the United Kingdom