Care to read the comments made today on Smooth's Facebook page about this mornings Tina Hobley 'show; and still deny that listeners are deserting the station in droves?

Gary King speaks of their Facebook page ''we like the likers'' he says. Rattled .

If reducing the playlist makes more people listen then how come Radio 2 with a large and varied playlist is the most popular station in the UK?

Let's hope the BBC never employ Mr Parks to run a station!

Also I very much doubt those disgruntled listeners on Facebook are the radio enthusiasts that post on DS. I can't ever recall such an outburst almost everytime a radio station makes a post and its been going on for 2 weeks now.

I think Global need to realise that Smooth had a dedicated adult following and they are not going to take these awful changes without voicing there opinions. OK it wasn't the market leader in London but I believe it had a good following in other parts of the country on FM & DAB. Maybe if they had kept a decent playlist and cut the chat they might have got away with it but chopping the playlist is not going down well.

Tuned to Radio 2 at 3pm today and Johnnie Walker lovely relaxed interesting presentation & tracks I hadn't heard for ages. Now that's good radio Mr Park.

Radio 2 has an annual budget of £47 million with 99% FM coverage - no commercial radio station has that kind of privilege. I would be surprised if it wasn't no 1 with that kind of money being spent every year.

Smooth was failing as a station before Global took over. In London there were serious problems, and audiences in other areas were falling as well. In the North West the total listening hours fell by 25% year-on-year, East Midlands 26% down, North East 13% down.

It happens every time. A good example from earlier in the year was when TFM became a relay of Metro. The Facebook page was full of comments from outraged listeners organising protests and vowing to never listen again. Then the RAJAR went up, which is all that matters.

Global themselves have also had a similar backlash with the various Capital/Heart rebrands over the last few years.

Gary King speaks of their Facebook page ''we like the likers'' he says. Rattled .[/quote]

Why rattled? I'm sure they do like the likers...who wouldn't? And there's plenty of them now by each feature.

Credit where credit's due. Another fantastic selection of music being played by Paul this evening on the Soul Show.

Yes But its the same as last weeks music so quite boring sadly.

But you have not addressed the point I made. If the BBC were to reduce the variety of music, stop the presenters having a meaningful contribution and interaction would it gain listeners?

I'm not an "expert" in these matters as many on here indicate they are; I'm just an ordinary listener who has seen a favorite station demolished, but cannot understand the logic of what is being stated about the methods being used by Global.

You be surprised how many people won't be worried with the changes. A lot of listeners enjoy the music, and not to much speech.As I say " New owners chop things and rebuild again." I could see some extra features added for shows once it's settled in the new environment.

Just like the movie music show then how imaginative. Must have taken hours of preparation.

Same as the repetitive playlist and the restrained presenters real cutting edge radio.

Credit where it's due ? Richard park chose the music, not Paul Hollins !

Exactly Amara not great sadly.

Valerie on AGAIN

Pat Sharp Tweets:

Magic style 10 in a row soon?

Why have a presenter at all then? They must be getting as bored as I am.

This week is Rajar week.....once the figures are in there will be the inevitable daytime changes if the London numbers are still so bad.

Is it not to early to tell yet, as its only a couple of weeks since the changes ?

Next set is the ones to look at , like to see how the North West Rajars are next time.

The cut-off date for the Q3 figures is 15th September, so the figures don't relate to the October schedules:

http://www.rajar.co.uk/content.php?p..._release_dates

It does make you wonder why they are employing such high calibre presenters such as Bates, Sharp & Jensen and just getting them to play 7 songs in a row. They might as well get each presenter to host shows on Smooth and Gold at the same time and just do a link on each station every 10 or 15 minutes.

At least it would given them something to do. On the
other hand just get a robot. How much worse can it get?

You will probably find these names are have contracts, which are unlikely to be renewed when they expire. Global would have to pay them off if they get rid of them, that is not financial sense.

David Jensen playing Dolly and Kenny one more time. God what must he be thinking to himself ??? How about C - - P. !!

I haven't heard this new Smooth sound and by the sounds of it I am not missing anything. In fact I haven't listened to Smooth since it all went national and we lost all the good presenters on the East Midlands station and it sounds like its worse. At least we have the likes of Roger Day on the radio who use to be on Saga and very early on for Smooth. Roger is on Uncool radio in the evenings and he chats between every song. Keep it up Roger.

Odd, just had the 9.00 pm news at 9.03 pm, finished the 2 minute bulletin 9.05, and the news out said it's 2 minutes past nine! The weather on Smooth (North East frequencies) was for the South too!