The fact is Smooth is a huge sucess with huge numbers in the north west and a 9 year high in London.

Global have turned it round in 3 books and that I'm sure is mainly down to Richard Park. The main aim was to turn it round in London and so far it looks good for them.

In terms of good radio to me Smooth doesn't score very well :-

a) Its not entertaining
b) presenters sound bored
c) musically its too dreary
d) too many tracks are played in a row
e) too many advert breaks
f) TV presenters do not make good radio presenters

Having said that I think London is very different from the rest of the UK. Whenever I visit its a vastly different lifestyle from what I am used to. I have come to the conclusion that Londoners do not actually listen to what is being said its just background noise that they require to fit in with the hectic and stressful lifestyle that they seem to lead.

I believe Gold's figures are holding up in London even though its only presenter led at breakfast. Basically again proves that Londoners only listen to the music.

The downside of course is that the rest of the UK has to suffer just to suit what Londoners like. Away from London we still want entertaining radio something new Smooth is unable to provide whilst it remains aimed at satisfying the London audience.

Of course I will now be shot down by Smart Programmer and the rest of the pro-Global fraternity.

Then why is it doing so well in the North West? With over a million listeners Smooth NW is the biggest commercial station outside London. People used to say personality radio is still popular in the North but it seems they like the new Smooth format even more.

It was doing well in the North under GMG time will tell as to whether they remain tuned in over a longer period.

Its actually done better in the NW under Global... Just saying those are the facts.

I agree with everything you say Amara and as I keep on reiterating to the pro Global fraternity they like it
I don't
That's their right
I've noticed magic again being mentioned by many who live in the London area as being against Smooth nationally on other threads
The LONDON magic station is a totally different animal to the Magic am Northern network and cannot be considered like for like
It would be like saying that BBC Radio three is playing the same stuff and would appeal to Kiss listeners !!
Like you I can only assume London listeners needs are different to mine
And like you I'd be interested to revisit the RAJAR's this time next year as I firmly believe when the dust settles the figures will begin to slip

Magic North is a really great listen. If only Bauer cared more about this brand

Indeed it is I would love to have Magic AM on national DAB.

I'm surprised that they've not done this and gone after the Gold audience.

Quite a few sweeping generalisations in this post. If Londoners only listen to music, why is it the only market in the UK that is able to make an all talk format sustainable? Also, isn't Radio 4 the most listened to station in London?

With regards to the comments directed at Smooth, I find that there seem to be less ad breaks now than there was with GMG. It felt like the breaks were every 10 minutes at times in the past.

I'm currently listening to Charlie Jordan on Smooth WM, and she sounds anything but bored. Her style suits the station perfectly. If you want an example of a presenter sounding bored on air, just think back to how drive time sounded this time last year when David Jensen was the presenter! It was so bad, many people on here thought the show was actually voice tracked.

It is. As well as that Radio 2 beats the commercial stations as well. Radio 1 is beaten by Capital (and Magic):

http://www.rajar.co.uk/docs/2014_06/...0-%20Clean.pdf

We agree on something finally 😄

Seriously I'm hoping they will be putting it on the next batch of D2 stations
It deserves a national audience

It would be good to see Bauer do something with the Magic North format - maybe some sort of merger with the Absolute 60s and 70s services under a new name allowing them to expand the Magic London format as well on D2.

Magic north I think works very well as it is ...hence the number of people including me praising it
As a fan of 60's music and having an internet radio I think Abs 60's would do good numbers nationally
I also think there's an audience for a station covering music from even further back
Solid gold gem as the best of the original gold ILR am stations did that very well and are doing the same now with their internet version with many original staff presenting and a huge and varied playlist
Going back to magic north network I have to say that part of their success is their presenters interaction with listeners proving there is room for both styles

I agree too, Magic North is fantastic, they play plenty music and it's not repetitive, some slow and some upbeat- a nice mixture. I've listened to Magic for years though, when each station was local to it's own area, and had different playlists to each other.

I do like Smooth though, and was listening to David Andrews who I said was the only one who I didn't really like too much, but I heard him reading mentions and a little bit of personality. I suppose he's just very economical with words, if he is told to be! Sometimes when Dave Brown and Nigel are on their links are about a minute long or more!!

Thats not always true, Iain Lee was a TV presenter and has arguably created some of the most entertaining radio in the last few years. Yes he did a bit of radio work before TV but this was mostly promotional work.

I wonder why it's never really happened for Iain despite some fairly high profile chances...

If I was simply sitting in front of a computer watching a playout system and waffling between songs, I'd be bored too.

I really enjoyed Magic London when it was on the local mux here in Northern Ireland a few years back.

Shame they took it off

Can someone sack that Garraway woman

she is the dullest woman on radio, sounds totally devoid of personality and seems to be reading the words with nothing connected behind the eyes..

Really spolis the station..

Hertz, its nothing like sitting infront of a machine watching it play out.

Don't stop there sack Hobley and Klass as well.

...and yet the numbers jump like a hyperactive Mexican bean. Don't sack anyone!

numbers can be deceiving..

I listen because I love the choice of music..A side effect of that is I am counted as a listener even though I hate Garraway and many of the other so called presenters..

Wouldn't it be lovely if we could have a system which actually differentiated between listeners who only like the music and those who like the music and the presenter, because at the moment there is no way of knowing.

Yes you could re tune, but if you like the music that defeats the object.

Post of the day.