GMG RADIO: Smooth 70s debuts with 749,000

Three quarters of a million people are tuning in to Smooth 70s each week, increasing the Smooth brand’s total listening figures to 3.7m.

The national digital station has been on-air for 10 months and has reported almost five million hours along side 749,000 listeners each week in quarter 3, 2012 results.

Smooth Radio, made up of regional FM stations and a national DAB service is down slightly to 3.190 million, but some individual stations are reporting an increase – including Smooth Radio North West which has its best ever result with over 900,000 listeners each week. Smooth Radio London has recovered slightly from a bad Q2, and now has 431,000. Over 43% of Smooth’s audience now tunes in via a digital platform.

The Real Radio Network has had a steady quarter, with a notable increase in listener loyalty. Real Radio Yorkshire has had its best figures since 2006. The station now attracts 396,000 listeners each week – up 25,000 year on year, whilst Real Radio Scotland is down 56,000 listeners to 545,000 and Real Radio North East is down 12,000.

Real Radio XS Manchester has seen another increase in audience both quarter on quarter and year on year to give it a new record total of 168,000 listeners a week. Real Radio XS in Glasgow is down this quarter but up yearly, now with 63,000 listeners.

Real and Smooth Limited Group Programme Director John Simons said: “It’s a real milestone to smash through the 50 million hours barrier. At a time when there are so many calls on people’s time it’s great to see our stations continuing to grow listener loyalty. Now we’ve got our sights firmly set on our next target – to reach 6 million listeners!

“It’s also great to see Smooth 70s performing so well. We launched it quietly last Christmas and it has steadily grown and grown in popularity. It’s proving to be a powerful extension of the Smooth Radio brand.”