Originally known as Lakeland Radio, the station broadcasts from transmitters at Kendal on 100.1 MHz,[1] the western side of Lake Windermere on 100.8 MHz[2] and Keswick Forest on 101.4 MHz.[3][4]
Originally licensed to serve the South Lakes, the station's coverage area extended northwards on 23 April 2013 when it began broadcasting to Keswick and surrounding villages.[5] Part of the service area overlaps with that of its Lancaster-based sister station The Bay (now Heart North Lancashire & Cumbria).
On 20 November 2017, CN Group announced Lakeland Radio would be sold to Global along with sister station The Bay - the sale was finalised by 1 December 2017.[6] Global later announced Lakeland Radio would become part of the Smooth network.
The Lakeland Radio brand and programming were phased out in February 2018 and following a transition period, the station was relaunched as Smooth Lake District at 6 am on Monday 5 March 2018.[7]
In September 2019, the station closed its Kendal studios and co-located with sister station Smooth North West in Manchester.[8]
Following OFCOM's decision to relax local content obligations from commercial radio, Smooth's local Drivetime and weekend shows were replaced by network programming from London.[9] Local news bulletins, traffic updates, and advertising were retained, alongside the station's Lake District breakfast show.
Programming
Local programming is produced and broadcast from Global's Manchester studios from 6-10 am on weekdays. All networked programming originates from Global's London headquarters, including The Smooth Drive Home with Angie Greaves.[10]
News
Global's Newsroom broadcasts hourly local news bulletins from 6 am to 7 pm on weekdays and from 6 am to 12 pm on weekends.[11]
National news updates air hourly from Global's London headquarters at all other times.