Weekday programming featured an 'all-request' feature entitled 'Smooth on Demand' at 2 pm and 7 pm, Monday to Friday, where listeners were invited to 'demand' their favourite song by calling a local-rate phone number. The 'Smooth 40' later became the '9-5 Smooth 40', with off-peak shows introducing more commercial breaks into their output, before the concept was dropped altogether in mid-2006. The station was launched on the premise of a 'clutter-free' listen, offering 40 minutes of non-stop music every hour without commercial interruptions, deliberately posed as a direct challenge to the 'might' of the BBC and a tactic aimed at increasing the total number of hours listeners stayed with the station. Smooth FM also played specialist jazz and soul shows at weekends, details of which are listed below. The London version of Jazz FM closed on to prepare for the launch of Smooth FM on 7 June.ġ02.2 Smooth FM played middle of the road music, soul and R&B during the day and, as part of its licence requirements, focused on jazz music at night.
In 2005, the Guardian Media Group made the decision to drop the jazz name from the Jazz FM brand and relaunch the station as Smooth FM.
