result, 100.4 Jazz FM closed on 13 February 2004 and relaunched as Smooth FM on 1 March. In 2005, GMG rebranded the London station 102.2 Smooth FM. The two renamed stations played middle of the road music, soul and R&B during the day and as part of their licence requirements, jazz music at night. On 20 October 2006, GMG Radio announced that it was requesting a change of format for 102.2 and 100.4 Smooth FM from Ofcom, to remove the stations' daytime soul and R&B licence commitments. GMG Radio proposed an easy listening music service mixed with speech for the over 50s, and an improved local news service. Ofcom approved the changes on 8 December 2006, with the condition that GMG retained the 45 hours of jazz per week that constituted part of the former licence requirement. As a result of the format change and to distance the station from its London rivals Magic and Heart 106.2, GMG Radio agreed that a minimum of 20% of its daytime music output would be over 40 years old. Change of identity and expansion In December 2006, GMG Radio acquired the Saga Radio Group, which owned stations in the West Midlands, East Midlands and Scotland, and a licence to begin broadcasting to the North East, and expanded the Smooth Network. Along with the Smooth FM stations in London and Manchester, all Saga stations were relaunched under the Smooth Radio brand on 26 March 2007. Saga 105.7 FM in the West Midlands became 105.7 Smooth Radio, Saga 106.6 FM in the East Midlands became 106.6 Smooth Radio and Glasgow based Saga 105.2 FM became 105.2 Smooth Radio. A service for the north-east of England, 97.5 Smooth Radio, was launched in January 2008. To begin with, most programming for these stations was produced locally and some shows were networked from London. However, Smooth gradually increased its networked programming until most content was originated in London or Manchester. In March 2008, GMG Radio requested that Ofcom remove the 45-hour jazz commitment for its London and Manchester stations. The company planned to relaunch Jazz FM from the jazzfm.com service which broadcast on DAB in Glasgow, online and on a DAB multiplex in London. In a meeting on 22 April 2008, Ofcom declined the request. GMG relaunched Jazz FM despite having to retain the jazz commitment. The decrease of local output lead to criticism from Norman Quirk, the