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The Saga (radio) Ends...

 
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Ian Robinson
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Joined: 11 Dec 2006
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Location: Chorley, Lancashire

PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:07 pm    Post subject: The Saga (radio) Ends... Reply with quote

SAGA Radio is no more. It is to be rebranded as Smooth, and presumably sound like the other Smooth stations. Once again, the big company has taken over the small one and just made everything more generic and bland. Marvelous.

Quote:
John Plunkett
Tuesday January 30, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

GMG Radio is to rebrand its newly-acquired Saga stations as "Smooth Radio", expanding its stable of Smooth stations to six.

The three Saga stations in Scotland and the east and west Midlands join GMG Radio's existing Smooth stations in London and the north-west. Another new Smooth station will launch in the north-east in the autumn.

GMG, which owns MediaGuardian.co.uk, bought the three Saga stations in December last year, but the acquisition was only formally completed this week.

The existing Smooth stations will drop the "fm" from their name as part of the rebrand in March, which will be accompanied by a "significant" marketing push.

"The Smooth name has worked well for us, especially in the north-west where it has gone from worst to first in two years," said John Myers, chief executive of GMG Radio.

"We are therefore rolling this out across the UK into the Saga stations while dropping the 'fm' part of the name, as it is clear that more listeners are tuning in across a number of platforms and not just on FM."

GMG Radio, which also bought the two Century stations from GCap Media last October, will now operate four brands in its stable: Real Radio, Century FM, Smooth Radio and the recently launched 96.3 Rock Radio in Scotland.
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mark occomore



Joined: 07 Dec 2006
Posts: 9955
Location: UK

PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:21 pm    Post subject: Charles Nove Reply with quote

https://www.saga.co.uk/secure/1052fm/presenter_charlesnove.asp
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gfloyd



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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 7:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

SAGA was a fairly offputting brand name. Too many connotations with 70 year old ladies on coach trips to National Trust properties.
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Natasha
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Joined: 09 Dec 2006
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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The hosts are worried that 'new' people maybe brought in - not a thought for their regular listeners, who may have to be hospitalised after they've played Eminem.
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childprufe



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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I listen to SAGA most weekday afternoons (for whatever reason you may guess..). The only trouble is I forget the wavelength and I never could handle the technology involved in storing stations on the car wireless.
Please don't submit me to new music types. Very Happy
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RockitRon



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PostPosted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Am I not right in thinking that smoothfm is what the original JazzFM station morphed into, now playing soul and modern r&b? In which case 99.9% of Saga's existing listenership will be instantly turned off; although I don't listen myself my parents do, liking the mix of general pop from 50s to date, and the specialist nostalgia show at the weekend, having switched across from Radio 2, which is too "brash" for them (they prefer the annoying commercials to the annoying SW and CE).
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