Guardian Media Group plans to rename its recently acquired Saga stations to Smooth Radio, it was confirmed this morning.

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

In total three Saga stations in Scotland and the Midlands will be rebranded.