At 8am on Tuesday 2nd March soul diva Jocelyn Brown launched Smooth FM onto the airwaves, marking the arrival of a new radio station for the North West of England.
More than 200 local business people gathered at the station’s studios in Salford Quays to toast the launch of 100.4 Smooth FM.
As the guests counted down the final seconds to 8am, the legendary singer hit the ‘on air’ button and her velvety tones welcomed listeners to the new station before the first song ‘A Star Is Born’ was played.
Music darling Will Young recorded a special launch message for the station, which was also broadcast to new listeners.
Breakfast presenter Chris Best then took over the mic while other staff and presenters, including Andy Peebles and Dave Lincoln, were entertained by Jocelyn Brown with a live performance of her classic hit, Somebody Else’s Guy.
Smooth FM will appeal to the 25+ audience interested in a broad mix of relaxing music from artists such as Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Jamie Cullum, Norah Jones and Barry White. As well as this broad mix of music during the week, listeners will find it interspersed with more specialist soul, jazz and blues programmes at the weekends.
GMG Radio Chief Executive John Myers said: “I’m delighted that so many people joined us to mark the launch of the station. We’re now determined to attract as many people as possible to try Smooth FM, because we are confident that when they discover it they will love it.”
Smooth FM has the largest transmission area of any regional station outside London, broadcasting to 5.3 million people across the Lancashire, Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire regions.
Posted on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2004 at 4:28 pm by RadioToday UK