Nova Entertainment’s easy listening radio brand, Smooth FM, will soon have live and local content outside of just Sydney and Melbourne.
From Sept. 5, the station will have local offerings in Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide via digital radio, smart speakers and the Smooth Player app.
The additional capital city markets will also have live breakfast shows – Kate Mac in Perth, Nick Michaels in Brisbane and Kellie Golding in Adelaide.
Nova Entertainment said Smooth was the first Australian radio station to be programmed based on mood, rather than an era or genre, and it continues its aim of making listeners “feel good”.
Peter Charlton, CEO of Nova Entertainment, said he can’t wait to bring the “feel good” proposition to even more audiences.
“The organic discovery of Smooth FM outside of its traditional FM heartlands has shown that the brand transcends geographies, with something for all Australians,” he said.
“With more and more listeners turning to DAB+, coupled with the rapid uptake of smart speakers and mobile devices for consuming audio, we felt the time was right to give Smooth FM a national platform whilst ensuring a level of localness that our audiences expect.”
The launch will be supported by a multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, which Charlton said was on the scale you would expect from a traditional broadcast brand campaign. It will include localised breakfast executions, an experiential campaign and digital assets to educate new listeners on how they can access the station.
Nick Young, chief commercial officer, added: “Whilst Smooth FM has always been available to audiences outside of Sydney and Melbourne, with new breakfast shows and localised advertising output in five capital cities, we now have a truly national proposition to offer advertisers.
“With the addition of the Smooth Relax, Smooth Vintage and Smooth 80s stations, we have a portfolio of ‘feel good’ content in brand-safe environments that we know our clients love.”