Audience and Ratings
Smooth Radio caters mainly for listeners over the age of 40, a similar audience to that of BBC Radio 2. Official quarterly audience figures collated by Radio Joint Authority Research Limited (RAJAR) show that the station has an average weekly audience of just over 3 million listeners. Figures for the third quarter of 2010, released in October 2010 showed that collectively, the six regional Smooth stations had a weekly audience of 3 million at the time Smooth became a national broadcaster. John Simons, Group Programme Director for GMG Radio said, “The scope for Smooth Radio is huge and we’re looking forward to seeing this growth continue as more and more people discover the station across the UK. We firmly believe Smooth has the potential to become the UK’s biggest national commercial station and these figures show it’s heading in the right direction!.”
During the final quarter of 2010 – the station's first as a national broadcaster – listening figures rose to 3.08 million, which remained unchanged in the first quarter of 2011, although listenership in London increased by 29%, largely because of the arrival of Simon Bates on the breakfast show in January 2011. Smooth continued to increase its audience share in the second quarter of 2011, with an average weekly total of 3.2 million, which rose once again in the third quarter to 3.328 million, meaning that for the first time Smooth's figures overtook those of one of its national rivals, talkSPORT. The station had an audience of 3.3 million in the final quarter of 2011, making it the second most listened to national commercial radio station in the UK. 3,317,000 listeners were tuning in during the first quarter of 2012, which dropped slightly in the second quarter to 3.2 million. The third quarter of 2012 saw another small drop to 3.19 million, but in the same period Smooth 70s recorded its first audience figures of 749,000. Collectively 3.7 million listeners were tuning into Smooth-branded stations.
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