Errr who sells airtime for GMG stations???

Global does, owners of Heart, Capital, Choice, Xfm etc....

I absolutely agree with you.

Global can now can go to national advertisers and say Smooth is on in the nations capital on 102.2 and has 2.8 million listeners according to Rajar! No one in the national advertisers offices will probably listen to Smooth, but the Rajar results will probably be enough to get the ads!!

That may also explain why the Smooth ads are not on in London as GMG no longer sell regional advertising in London.

I don't!

Magic:yawn:
Heart

Dave used to do this feature on 100.4 during the day between 10am and 2pm which was his time-slot and it was the '11 o'clock coffee shop'.

The Rajar's speak for themselves. Remember even little Global station Choice FM has beaten Smooth in London.

How is the 3 o'clock coffee shop an odd feature? surely that's when many workers in the uk sit down for a coffee /tea break and they can have their chance to hear their 3 faviourite songs if they've got smooth on at their work place!?

Whats bizarre about letting a listener text or write in and choose there 3 favourite songs back to back ? ,...it's a radio feature that has had many titles /labels/since radio began , I'm at a loss why you used the term bizarre have you never heard of this feature before ?
Simple yes ...bizarre certainly not .Magic have there request show with Kim Wilde .Steve Wright has the non stop oldies Diddy David had tea at 3.Choose your wording as you can make yourself look an ass .

Gawd, I was havin' a larf.

Bizarre as in "bizarrely named".

No big deal mate.

Blimey

Well Carlos will be taking Paternity Leave come April 2011 as he has just announced via Facebook that he and wife Claire are expecting their first child in April. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/...d=274077299624

Are you a stalker?

Don't think Carlos would refer to me as a "stalker" Bobbins.

I have been very critical of Carlos's appointment to the new national Smooth Radio as I felt Nick Piercey deserved it more and I also feel that ever since Carlos met his wife when she was a Newsreader at Smooth in the West Mids and they got engaged then married and now a baby due in April I've felt that Smooth West Midlands had become "The Carlos & Claire Station" with photos of the engagement , the wedding , their holidays etc etc.

All I'm waiting for is the photos of Claire's pregnancy , The photos of Baby Emms to start. Talk about overkill.

I don't care if Carlos reads this as he has complained on facebook about nasty comments being made on websites about the changes and presenters , I know I speak for many people who've expressed the same things.

Message to Carlos
Congratulations on the pregnancy but Claire isn't the first person to have fallen pregnant so please keep your pregnancy talk to a minimum over the next 6 months in the run-up to the 26th of April due date.

There's a way to avoid all this - tune to something else when Carlos is on Smooth Radio, don't look at the parts of the Smooth site devoted to him, don't look at his Twitter feed or his Facebook page. Why you want to follow someone so avidly who you appear to hate is beyond me.

Fair point. All talk of Carlos on my part is over! Carlos = WHO!

Hopefully Carlos will become even popular with the listeners across the UK like the rest - not just in his area. This is why it's a shame they never hired more well known national broadcaster and Tony is going. Lynn, Mark and Andy are really the only ones which could pick up the UK listeners, as they are experienced in that field, and radio listeners know who they are. I guess Simon will be the same when he starts.

Remember Occy, GMG don't have the Radio 2 budget to compete with them, so you're going to get the former regional presenters on. In any case, well known doesn't necessarily mean good. Tarrant's stint on Smooth was terrible.

I couldn't care less if a well known or a regional presenter is on, as long as they entertain, keep within the format and play the songs!

Chrissy1978uk - the solution to your bitter hatred towards Carlos is simple. Change the station, stop following him on Facebook/Twitter and stop moaning.

He's a lovely bloke who was hired for a very simple reason, he's good at what he does. Talking about his joy of being a dad is something relatable and real - I can't possibly understand why you would think it's a bad thing for him to talk about it?!

People who take the time and effort to follow/like a radio presenter are actively choosing to find out more about them and get to know a bit more about the personality than what you hear on-air. If they don't care, they won't do it. They are the people who will see the pics of Carlos and his wife's pregnancy.

If you don't want to, just unfollow, unlike and change the station when he's on.

As for "Carlos = who". Stop being so daft. There was once a time where everybody went "Chris Moyles = who?" "Steve Wright = who?" as they made a transition to national radio, Carlos is doing the same. My reaction to Nick Peircey was initially "who?". I had to think about it to remember who he was (and my conclusion is that Carlos is the better choice).

I decided to give the national Smooth a listen late this afternoon. As always Carlos sounds the consummate professional that he has always been. He is good at that style, even if it does sound somewhat dated, you can't knock him. Very personable. Sadly the music was the same old thing as always. The presenters must get bored by the banality of it all surely?. But I guess they feel lucky to have a job and it pays I guess. If I was Carlos and I had the chance to potentially widen my audience, I would do the same. And if he gets a better offer at some point from another station I'm sure he would go to that. He's only looking after his own interests, and increasing his profile. But to be so disconnected from your job must be awful, although many people are in other jobs so maybe that's the key. Just turn up, be professional and play the narrowest of music and then go home. Because of the bland playlist I will not bother again, and as I have said before, Radio 2 have nothing to worry about in that respect. Smooth as with Heart will continue doing what it does, but as I have said elsewhere this doesn't mean it is good. But people will listen because it is on in the background, and most people just have it on as background. It is a shame because it could be really good, but they aren't interested in being good are they?. As long as it pulls an audience and makes money and keeps shareholders happy, that is all that matters. There's no point in analysing it forever, if you don't like it do as i do and don't listen. Finally, about a year ago I was contacted by a market research company doing something for Smooth and BT. I said I didn't listen, and that in the end is the key. Market forces will either ensure that Smooth makes a profit, or their overall audience will fall in proportion if people don't like it. But you have to remember that overall people don't care as long as they have something to listen to on the way to and from work, etc. And of course Smooth and the rest of the commercial sector do not have the same remit as the BBC. I am just glad that we have them, as Smooth is really the equivalent of a tabloid newspaper. It has a limited remit, which is to make money from the format it can get away with making money from.

Technically GMG do not have shareholders as it is a trust!
The aim of the Scott trust is to make a profit to help support and train new journalists and promote journalistic freedom.
It's interesting that Smooth comes across as a bit "tabloid" and the aim seems to increase listeners up and beyond the 3 million mark! Hope it does survive and it does help journalists in training!

Whilst I can see GMG's intentions are good in the long term they have not acted too well to contract presenters in making Smooth national or the way "licenced" Jazz FM was taken off some muxes!
At least they have probably handled it a bit better than Global with the Heart/Galaxy changes, and hope Smooth, Real. Rock and Jazz FM now have some long term stability!

Sorry, but can you tell us what your source for this is, as it's utter crap.

I know some of the Smooth sales people at GMG London, GMG Manchester and Global regional sales, and I also know that Smooth London has it's own adverts machine, so they are definitely still selling London advertising as well as for the East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, North East, Scotland and UK versions of Smooth...

Where is the supposed local advertising then? Plenty for national companies sold on GMG's behalf by Global. Even during the local era, London advertising was hardly heard.

Radio Today (yes that place) claimed that 102.2 would take the same feed as Digital 1 and I even heard myself exactly the same national adverts, travel news for the West Midlands and god knows where else outside of the capital by listening to D1 and FM.

Tony did say he was leaving in 6 shows time and the new presenter ( Graham Dene ) will be taking over on 6th November. I personally think it's shame he's leaving. If he wasn't a busy man then weekdays would have been good for him at Smooth. Some do need to lighten up a little or it could end up being an old man stations.

The only ones which I feel are safe : Obviously Simon Bates when he starts, Mark Goodier, Graham Dene ( When he returns ), Andy Peebles and Lynn Parsons if she stays. Funny enough is Lynn going to be offered afternoons again in the new year?

Tony Blackburn has effectively been banned from working on Smooth by the BBC, so even weekdays would be out of the question.

POTP is pre-recorded so there would be no problem with him continuing on Smooth weekend breakfast but for the contractual requirement.