City Sydney & Melbourne Frequency Variable | Broadcast area Australia | |
Slogan Your easy place to relax First air date Sydney:
August 1, 2005 (2005-08-01) (Vega)
May 21, 2012 (2012-05-21) (smoothfm)
Melbourne: September 5, 2005 (2005-09-05) (as Vega)
May 21, 2012 (2012-05-21) (smoothfm) Format Easy Listening, adult contemporary | ||
smoothfm is a network of two Australian commercial radio stations operated by NOVA Entertainment in Sydney and Melbourne. The format is focused on providing 'more music and less talk' along with an eclectic easy-listening playlist, usually featuring ballads.
Contents
Vega
Vega launched in 2005 to target the baby boomer market of listeners in the 40 to 60 age bracket, with a mix of talk and music from the 1960s to the 2000s. The positioning statement for the network was "On your wavelength" with a blue squiggle and sign wave as the logo.
The network first launched in August 2005 in Sydney and September 2005 in Melbourne along with announcers Angela Catterns, Denise Scott, Shaun Micallef, Beverley O'Connor, Wendy Harmer, Francis Leach, Wilbur Wilde, Tony Squires, Rebecca Wilson and Mike Perso.
To coincide with the station's positioning statement the first song played at the launch was Van Morrison's Wavelength.
Vega's stations had failed to attract a significant audience with the Sydney station reaching a 1.8 percent audience share, and the Melbourne station gained a 1.2 percent share, placing it second last (ahead only of ABC NewsRadio) and last out of surveyed stations in each market, respectively. However, station management state that the slow take-up was to be expected, claiming the target audience will be slower than some audience groups to try a new station.
In June 2006 [1] the Sydney and Melbourne stations stopped sharing programmes. Both stations dropped their "40 years of music" slogan and moved drive-time hosts Rebecca Wilson and Tony Squires to share the Sydney breakfast slot with former host Angela Catterns. The changes have been slow to grow market share, with the Sydney audience falling to 1.7% in Sydney (No. 6, 2006, but climbing slowly to 1.8% in Melbourne, which, at the time, was their highest audience share to date in Melbourne.
By the end of 2006, Vega had increased their ratings share in both cities and the Sydney station reached 2.8%, while the Melbourne station reached 3%.
In January 2007, Vega expanded its "Vega Variety" positioner to include "the '70s, and '80s and the best new songs", and also put out advertisements in the form of billboards and on the side of buses, based around that expanded positioner. It was hoped that this would encourage more listeners to sample the station.
In the first radio survey of 2007, Vega in Sydney and Melbourne again both had small increases, with the Sydney station reaching 3% and the Melbourne station reaching 3.3%. The station's best demographic performer on both stations in that survey, is the 25–39 age group.
By the 4th radio survey of 2007, Vega in Sydney and Melbourne had gone over the 4% mark, with the Sydney station rating 4.6% and the Melbourne station rating 4.4%. In the 40–54 age group, Vega in Sydney was the second highest rating FM station in that age group after classic hits station WS-FM, who, traditionally, have been the highest rating FM station in that age group.
In the 5th radio survey of 2008, Vega in Sydney had surpassed the 5% mark for the first time, rating very closely behind main rival FM stations Triple M & WS-FM. The station also became the highest rating FM station in the 40–54 age group, knocking WS-FM off that position.
Classic Rock
In March 2010, Vega was rebranded under the name Classic Rock after failing to gain a significant audience low ratings. The rebrand occurred on Friday 12 March 2010 with the station competing against rivals Gold 104.3/101.7 WSFM and Triple M.
Classic Rock was a minimalist announcer station which featured local Breakfast programs with Maroon in Sydney and Ian "Dicko" Dickson and Dave O'Neil in Melbourne and music orientated programs Cover to Cover with Barry Bissell and the American Nights with Alice Cooper.
In July 2010, Dickson and O'Neil were fired from the ailing station due to cost-cutting measures and Classic Rock just played continuous classic rock music with regular news, weather and sport updates.
smoothfm
In May 2013, smoothfm launched in Sydney and Melbourne with Michael Buble as the face of the network.
In February 2013, smoothfm extended broadcasting nationally on DAB+ to Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Announcers
Weekdays
Weekends
TV Channel
Smooth is a 24-hour Australian pay television music channel available via Foxtel satellite and cable services. It launched on 3 December 2013, dedicated to easy listening adult contemporary music.