Global’s country music playlist Smooth Country is getting upgraded and going on DAB in a number of places across the UK.
In addition, presenter Eamonn Kelly will host a show each weekday, from 9am till 1pm.
Smooth Country launches tomorrow, Tuesday 3rd September, along with Smooth Chill, a replacement of the 15 year old digital service playing chill out music.
Global says Smooth Country celebrates the very best in country music, featuring iconic artists including Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban, Shania Twain and Lady Antebellum.
Sam Jackson, Managing Editor of Smooth said: “To launch two new Smooth branded stations on one day is hugely exciting for us and confirms our vision to grow and develop the brand. Smooth Country will celebrate the best country music hits, while Smooth Chill will play the best music to relax and unwind to, no matter what time of the day.
“Through these new stations, we can’t wait to introduce Smooth to even more people, as well as giving our existing 5.7 million weekly listeners even more opportunities to enjoy the music they love.”
Smooth Country will be available on the following multiplexes:
- Birmingham
- Berkshire & North Hampshire
- Cambridgeshire
- Cornwall
- Essex
- Kent
- London
- Leicestershire
- Manchester
- Nottinghamshire
- Norfolk
- Devon
- Sussex
- Swindon
Why not Glasgow. It should be also available in Glasgow too.
Alan,
You have Chris Country and Country Hits in Glasgow on dab. You will get Smooth Country on Globals app or Audials app or Alexa and Google speaker.
Is there any news as to who hosts Smooth Weekend nightshifts since Dave Brown’a departure, it’s still showing as “non stop Smooth “
Scotland not getting Smooth Country. Is this because we get Country Hits + Chris Country in Glasgow and Country Hits in Edinburgh?
Yes, but there’s also the Central Scotland regional platform which has more than enough capacity for both services.
The stumbling block at the moment is that both the local and regional platforms are currently under the ownership of Bauer (at least until the Monopolies & Mergers decide what has to be sold).
After that, game on!
Seems only 1 presenter from 9 am to 1pm and that’s it. No news on the hour or adverts…
Has Smooth country got a breakfast show or does this technically count as breakfast?
Please put smooth chill on the derby multiplex.
Exactly, why not Derbyshire!?
The Birmingham multiplex already has CountryHits radio and now getting Smooth Country whereas Derbyshire doesn’t have any chill or country music on their multiplex???
There’s no reason why not as most of the Now Digital platforms (which Smooth Country is going on) are just slightly over half full.
More than enough room for both.
London now has three country stations on DAB. The market isn’t there – something will have to give.
Two of those stations are run by companies with big marketing budgets, so I fear for Chris Country.
two more juke boxes from global
This will be the first country station to appear on the Notts DAB multiplex. Thank you, Smooth. We’re still waiting, Baeur.
What about Smooth Country in Inverness, we don’t get Chris Country but do get Country Hits. North of Scotland has a large audience for country music. MFR used to have a good audience for country music before it was swallowed up by Bauer.
Not another Jukebox!!!
Like it
i don’t get it we get country hits in birmingham so why do we need smooth country in birmingham as well what are baur doing there bringing to many stations at once most them will be jukebox on a loop do we really need all these radio stations the only that i listen to in birmingham is greatest hits radio that’s a good station i bet most of these new stations that are coming out wont last
Well My Techics Hi-fi DAB tuner has lost Gold and replaced by Country in Sussex and it cannot be upgraded to DAB +,however I have a receiver connected to internet picking up 320k stations through all the connection cables needed.
While Digital spy forum users get excited about services going DAB + I feel im 10 years further on lol
Fear not Neil McLean it’s in DAB format at 128k stereo no less and boy does it sound great !
Unusually it’s 128k DAB here on the Sussex mux. But wow does it sound good. I wonder about other areas is it DAB+ or even in just DAB mono but I sure hope not…
128k aac blows away 128k mp2 on dab Dave. DAB is old hat
Yes but the UK will never get anywhere near that unfortunately 🙁
smooth country replaced gold on bournemouth mux.Im please to have smooth country unlike birmingham/london we dont have three country stations, if chris country goes thats market forces
Taylor Swift isn’t country she’s pop that’s why radio 1 play her music
It’s sound great but we are so way behind with country stations. We need Chris Country and country hits to go nationwide with a high bit rate. If the BBC and Heart didn’t hog the FM band we could have had country stations in there also
Get rid of this torrid station & bring back The Arrow.
I won’t be tuning in to any of the Global group stations from now on.