Sydney radio ratings: Smoothfm grows but still trails commercial FM pack
Smoothfm: grew to 4.8% share
After its first full ratings survey, dmg’s Smoothfm has seen the biggest jump in the radio ratings from Monday to Sunday.
The new easy listening channel has risen from 4.1% to 4.8% from Monday to Sunday.
The jump puts the network even with Australian Radio Network’s Mix106.5, which dropped to 4.8% from 5.2% to see the two networks share the commercial FM wooden spoon.
Given this is the first survey for smooth, they should be happy with how well the station launch has cut through. They have had really solid audience gains which is a good sign there is interest in the station. Now they just need to convert and they should see some solid numbers in the future
More and more taxi’s I get into have this playing nowadays, which is a welcome change to the crap I usually hear on talk back radio shows while in a cab
I absolutely love Smooth. It’s on in my car all the time.
Our office has a smoothfm karaoke comp running. Almost every song that comes on, someone performs to. We LOVE it. Go smooth!!!!
Ive made the change to smooth FM love it,i tune at 12 Noon till i switch off great music.Mornings i listen to Kyle & Jackie O and to Lawsie and then i ease away to smooth.
I made the switch to smooth as well, happy they are going well. I think the biggest plus (besides the music) is the limited number of ads and announcers talking for no reason. It is a good formula.
I am personally responsible for the smoothfm result. I think I’ve told everyone I know to listen to smooth. The best station in Sydney by a long way
I wonder if 2GB Olympics coverage is in these figures
IP check please Tim?
It must be said Kyle just keeps growing. The power of a powerful and skilled broadcaster. Love or hate him, Sydney listens to him. That’s where the clients need to return too. Its no longer a case of damaging the clients brand because they’re on the show, its a case of damaging their product if they are not.
Do the surveys cover commercial premises or just individual households? A lot of the places I go to are now playing Smooth FM – my doctor and hairdresser have switched to it, so has a local cafe. It’s a pretty ‘safe bet’ for music that most people can listen and not find too loud or offensive, let’s face is, Smooth FM could be the new 2CH!
Wow, Bill has been busy. Looks like he made the exact same comment about Smooth FM on Radio Today’s website only 8 minutes before commenting here.
Things have changed in radioland when a boss is happy with a low (but increasing) rating after the launch of a new format. In 1976 2GB relaunched itself as a rock music station to compete with 2SM and 2JJ (no FM back then). After just two surveys following the relaunch 2GB bosses scrapped the format, sacked over 50 people and went back to its old format.
It is good to see that radio bosses now acknowledge that Rome wasn’t built in a day and are willing to wait for a new format to bed down before taking any further action.