Smooth Radio East Midlands streams adult contemporary and easy listening hits live from Nottinghamshire, England. Press play on Radio Shuffle and it streams instantly, free, with no account or app download required.
Born from a station that once dropped the word "jazz"
The Smooth brand itself grew out of Jazz FM, which launched in London in 1990 with an opening concert by Ella Fitzgerald before a Manchester sister station followed in 1994. Market research commissioned by GMG Radio in 2003 found that the word "jazz" itself was putting off potential listeners in the north-west of England, according to Wikipedia's history of the Smooth network, and the Manchester station rebranded as Smooth FM in 2004, with London following a year later. The East Midlands frequency came to the brand differently. It carried Saga 106.6, an oldies station, from 2003 until GMG Radio bought the Saga Radio Group in December 2006, flipping the East Midlands signal to Smooth at six that same morning on 26 March 2007.
From local shows to a national feed
Smooth's various regional stations merged into a single national Smooth Radio service in October 2010, based in Manchester and carried on both FM and DAB, a move enabled by the Digital Economy Act 2010's rules on co-locating local programming. Ownership shifted again when Global acquired the network and relocated it to Leicester Square in 2013, relaunching the national station in March 2014. Smooth East Midlands kept some of its own local identity longer than most, only losing its separate Drivetime and weekend shows to networked London programming in September 2019, shortly before merging with the overlapping Connect Radio frequencies that October.
Listen free on Radio Shuffle
Smooth Radio East Midlands streams around the clock, and Radio Shuffle carries the feed live with nothing to install and no subscription required. Press play for easy listening and classic hits broadcasting out of Nottinghamshire.