Triple J is losing touch, and the ratings
Triple J is fast spiralling into obscurity as its ratings plummet. Has Triple J lost touch with its audience?
When I was a teenager back in 1990’s Melbourne, Triple J was unquestionably the station to listen to if one didn’t want to listen to teen pop or classic rock.
The nineties was the era of grunge and electronic dance music and Triple J was leading the pack in broadcasting new music from these genres. I recall the delight in finally discovering this amazing station and its unique blend of music. Its announcers were amusing and knowledgeable and the station had a significant cultural and social relevance to me. It rocked!
But something has gone terribly wrong at Triple J since those glory days.
The station seems to be having trouble connecting with its audience. Rather than face up to the challenge, the station has chosen to blame Nova, blame the audience and even blame the former Howard government!
In essence, I believe that:
- Triple J is arrogant and doesn’t understand its audience.
- The music Triple plays is not what the audience wants to hear anymore.
- Triple J’s announcers are mostly dull and boring, or just strange.
- The on-air presentation is mediocre, if not plain bad.
I have always really enjoyed listening to Triple J, but I am fast wearing tired of the ABC’s youth station. So let’s explore these issues in some more detail to see why “the j’s” have ended up like this.
I recently read an interesting article on Crikey by Michael Tunn, an ex-Triple J announcer. Back in July, Tunn noted that in his city of Adelaide, Mix 102.3 (Radio 5ADD) regularly out-performs 5JJJ in what is supposed to be Triple J’s target market – 18 to 24 year olds. This is despite Mix’s target demographic being women aged over 35! Indeed, a scan at the Melbourne radio ratings for December 2007 shows that 3JJJ recorded just 5.3% of the 18-24 market, compared to rival Nova 100 (3MEL) which captured 31.1% of that audience and 3FOX with 26.9%. You may ask what Nova and Fox have that Triple J doesn’t? Relevance is the answer.
If you tune into Nova (Triple J’s major competitor) or other commercial FM music stations, they’re polished. Their announcers are fast-paced and witty, the music is constant and there is a general feel that something interesting is happening or about to happen. The news is local and the personalities (for the most part) are engaging. In contrast, Triple J sounds like crappy community radio a lot of the time.
Long gone are the glory days of Helen Razor and Judith Lucy with The Ladies Lounge or Chris and Craig with Today Today. These days we get the occasionally engaging and rarely amusing Top Shelf with Robbie Buck at drive time. No wonder people prefer to listen to Hamish and Andy on the commercial stations. People like to laugh on the way home from work, not be bored with long interviews.
Back in 2003, when Richard Kingsmill took over at Triple J, he told The Age “I think Triple J has the potential to be the best radio station in Australia, if not one of the best in the world. But we let ourselves down too often. We can be great one moment and pretty average the next. At times we sound like the worst community radio station around. We need to realise that our competition is on the ball, so we need to be on the ball, too.”
A lot of this “community station sound” has to do with dead air because Triple J is full of it. From stuttering young announcers waffling about who-knows-what to fill gaps between songs to “technical problems” with CD players, its so often sounds amateurish. Listen to Nova and the songs seamlessly glide from one to the next. Their announcers sound excited and keen. They use backing tracks behind the announcements for interest and continuity. The broadcast sounds dynamic and people enjoy it.
But lack of polish alone doesn’t account for poor ratings at Triple J. The lack of listeners has as much to do with the music as anything else.
Triple J has always had the challenge of balancing “alternative” and “popular”. In my opinion, the station needs some commercially popular music in order to expose their audience to the alternative songs. That’s what Nova does successfully and what Triple J used to do too, but hardly any more.
As an example, Triple J used to play music by Primary, a Sydney-based electro-rock band that featured the distinct vocals of Connie Mitchell. Mitchell has since moved on to Sneaky Sound System which is musically similar to Primary. And whilst Sneaky has become an ARIA charts success with its unique brand of music and Nova has been playing their songs on high-rotation, Triple J has ignored them completely. Why? I have no doubt that a Triple J audience would enjoy this music. Nova’s ratings would confirm this, since they’re credited with eroding the Triple J audience.
Perhaps the music committee at Triple J really is out of touch with what young people enjoy listening to?
I say this because Triple J announcers seem to be afflicted with a peculiar sort of musical élitism. They deride their commercial counterparts’ musical line-up as if ‘alternative’ is superior to ‘pop’ somehow without recognising that taste is involved. This holier-than-thou approach does nothing to win audience share. Commercial stations see no need to deride Triple J audiences, so why the reverse? Surely a confident station would see no need to engage in this juvenile behaviour.
It is not shameful to like Britney Spears’ music. Sure, I don’t like Briteney Spears and I wouldn’t want her played on Triple J (or my CD player) for a second, but her music’s not inferior, just different and not to my taste.
Yet staff at Triple J can’t understand this. So whilst Triple J pretends to promote variety of music and be open and tolerant, they self-indulgently focus ever more on their favoured hip-hop, reggae and garage sounds at the expense of music that their target audience will actually enjoy. Michael Tunn summed it up nicely when he said Triple J needs to “stop being scared of being mainstream”.
Triple J staff need to understand that people listen to Nova for a reason. Even if Nova plays Shakira or Britney and other sugar-sweet teen-pop artists, they also play music that Triple J would once have considered appropriate for airplay. And whilst Nova isn’t faultless, a 50% slump in Triple J ratings cannot be ignored, even by the ABC.
The problem with the Triple J staff is not just their attitude, but their presentation too. In a way it comes back to the concept of polish.
Is it really too much to expect a prime-time announcer not to “um” or stutter? Listening to Vijay Khurana is just painful, especially when he talks to a caller live-to-air. Dave Callan isn’t much better. The ums and arrs, the delayed waffle whilst changing CD’s and the painful “So, what are you up to this weekend?” talkback is sometimes too much. Okay, if the caller is doing something different or interesting, let us know. If they’re going to get pissed on the front verandah with mates over the weekend and that’s all they’ll tell us, what do I care? Just play some music!
For all the criticisms I’ve made of Triple J, I do acknowledge the good work that they continue to do and have done. Their tireless promotion of emerging Australian music is something for which the nation can be grateful. And Triple J’s preparedness to play new music long before commercial stations is a testament to their brevity. And the station does still have some excellent announcers like Gaby Brown and Mel Bampton. Yet these alone aren’t good enough.
Triple J has major deficiencies. It has no local news call and no local weather. (Scott Dooley even once complained on air “why do people need to know what the weather is anyway?”). Perhaps some regionalised broadcasting would be nice? Simply syndicating everything from 2JJJ in Sydney isn’t good enough. And finally, the employees at the station need to get of their high horse and find out why their audience are listening to the other stations, and what music they enjoy listening-to rather than condemning them for liking it.
For if they don’t do something soon, there won’t be much justification for the ABC (and the Australian taxpayer) to maintain Triple J at all. Triple J is unlikely going to be number 1 any time soon, but it should come close if it is meeting its charter obligations to young Australians.
Comments
64 responses to “Triple J is losing touch, and the ratings”
I’m not from Australia nor an Australian guy but I think I’ve read something about Triple J more than a decade ago. They were the one who gave Silverchair, my favorite band ever, a big break that led them to stardom. Please correct me if I’m wrong about that.
Thanks!
You’re correct, Dino. Triple J did break Silverchair, as well as more recent acts like Killing Heidi (1996) and Missy Higgins (2001).
Adam you put it better than I did, the culture of the ABC right now is not right for a return to the glory day’s for the jays, but I believe under the new government the ABC will be called on Triple J’s performance (The Liberals were happy for it to die), and as the Board turns over so will management and eventually pressure for Triple J to justify it’s budget. There is no one thing that needs changing, a lot of small things, like the re introduction of music meetings, a turn over of staff with new young and connected presenters, a sense of humour would help too, something that is lacking totally from the ABC right now, it will take time, and no doubt pressure from DMG who own Nova will play a part too, at the end everything at the national broadcaster is politics.
Thanks for the great write up.
Michael Tunn
Thanks for your comments, Michael. I sure do hope there is a change at Triple J (and the ABC) so that this once-great radio station can be mighty again.
Your statement about the music meetings surprised me. I wonder why this practice was stopped? Perhaps this explains (in part) the decline in the “musical relevance” of Triple J?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, after living in an area where I could only get 2 community radio stations and Triple J. It was fun to play the game of which-station-sucks-the-least-right-now on my morning commute.
Richard Kingsmill has ridden Triple J into the ground. He thinks he’s John Peel when he’s really Molly Meldrum. Most of the presenters all sound the same, ie, equally as bad as one another.
The really mystifying thing, which you also mentioned, is why they have “talkback”, why they put on air, people who have nothing to say at all. Half the time, it sounds like the listeners who’ve called in don’t even want to be on air but have been coerced by the producer or something.
There is a hopeless overemphasis on new music, irrespective of whether it’s any good or not.
wow guys. thanks for the insight. i have for so long argued with my associates(?) about why triple j is better than commercial cods wallop. It is nice to have a better understanding, and a grasp of jjjs flaws in order to realise im not being biased in my arguments. I also hope triple j returns to what you guys say it used to be (as i was too young at the time), because my dream is to become a presenter on (or have anything to do with) the js. cheers. Greg
The jay’s used to rock. But geez it’s turned to crap over the years. The good years being the mid 90’s thru to 2002 around abouts. Jay and the doctor are like the cheapest morning crew you could ever find and personally cant handle them anymore. never raised a chukle listening to them two. Adam and Will on the other hand were great and whats Shanon from Cockatoo up to these days?
Drive home from work is no better with the dribble in the wrong time spot. Hows about pepping people up after busting ones arse for 8 hours+?
That Dave bloke is like listinin to nails down a blackboard. Fark me dave wake up! Sounds like his pepped on valium and marijuana to me.
I like a lot of 90;s skate punk etc which never was big on the jays but must admit i didnt mind a bit of pearl jam, everclear even no doubt back in the day. These days the more remote/unkown/weird music your band plays you will get on jjj. I’m sick of flicking over only to hear whats sounds like the world music show moved to 24 hour rotation!
It’s funny that while a lot of people an agree there’s a problem, there’s a split on whether the J’s should be more mainstream or more alternative.
Personally I think:
– They are trying too hard to break Aussie acts and the quality is often substandard (eg. Behind Crimson Eyes)
– The announcers are generally terrible. It’s a disgrace that Jay and the Doctor have been in breakfast so long, especially coming after the phenomenal Wil and Adam
– Maybe it’s me moving on, but the playlists simply don’t connect with me anymore. Older bands such as Nine Inch Nails get a token interview, but barely get any rotation.
Strangely enough, the lack of enjoyment from Triple J has pushed me to find new types of music. Now Full Metal Racket is my favorite show!
Can’t say I can see a problem. I’ve been listening to the jays for over 15yrs and still love it. Sure some presenters are better than others but don’t see polished presentation to be very important especially compared to music content. Also I like to listen to a huge variety of music so to have a station playing distinctly different stuff to the others is not only refreshing but stimulating.
The article and a lot of the comments so far have mentioned risk taking by JJJ (or lack of it) and the balance between mainstream and alternative music.
My greatest gripe with the J’s (who i used to stick up for in the schoolyard)is that most of the music is very safe. Nicey nicey, scarf wearing, politically correct BORING INDIE CRAP or Aussie hip hop.
You may say i’m stuck in the 90s, but when the J’s were kicking goals it was beacuse they were representing what was happening in the pubs. Great live bands that could kick out the jams. Now unless you have serious PR $$$ or someone in the loop, its very difficult to get on air – especially when Richard’s the be all and end all.
Anything heavier than the average is snubbed. Heavy rock has no home on JJJ. Granted – metal bands have Full Metal Racket and Punk has Short Fast Loud – but unless you’ve got some pop in that rock you might as well go jump.
I agree JJJ has lost its way – get down to your local sweaty pub i say and represent the bands that you once championed. Otherwise i’ll stay with community radio.
I’ve only just read this blog (May 2008) but I’ve been thinking it for some time. I think one of the problems is the so called target audience – open it up JJJ, who do you think is listening? I don’t know any 18-24 year olds that listen to JJJ – I personally have been listening since about 1994, I’m 33 and most of my friends have been tuning in since the mid 90’s. And what do ya get for your loyalty? These days it’s very easy to find similar music on another channel.
I wonder how many of the presenters and staff fall within this 18-24 range? It’s not Play School guys, beef it up and get excited. How are you going to cater to an audience that doesn’t identify with ‘older, pretending to be younger’ DJ’s. Understand that you have a large demograph of listeners outside your target range that you hooked in your earlier years. Do something for your loyal listeners.
Adam you made some good points, hit the nail on the head as far as I’m concerned. Triple J just doesn’t seem to rock anymore. I like a lot of the music, but the delivery falls short.
Commercial radio is horrible and its listeners are peasants.
Having said that, I have noticed the changes but am confident that Triple J will remain true to its old values.
I am still happy with Triple J.
I am sure that in years to come many new and interesting people will shape Triple J’s sound and many great bands will be unearthed. I just hope that Rosie stays for a long time. I hope to hear more weird sounds on my radio. Its tuner is fused with liquid nails.
I was fortunate enough to be on the air with Michael Tunn & “The slient Presenter” back in 1996 as “Dave the novacastrian psychic”.
Those were the days, Mikey Robins, Helen Razor, Angela Catterns, Sandy & Flacco. Great stuff.
I too, think the J’s have dropped to all new low levels, I try and listen to them when possible, but find me changing stations as it’s dull, boring as bat sh*t announcers have the ability to cure insomnia.
OR,………perhaps Im getting old and cant handle the music they play. Maybe it’s the latter….
I also find myself changing stations or listening to cds when I drive home or to work. I have been an avid fan of triple j and have listened to them since they started broadcasting in Brisbane. The 90s were truly a hey day for the J’s, featuring great music and inspiring presenters. These days it’s so much hip hop and some of the presenters are just annoying wankers. My father was an announcer and station manger, so I grew up playing in radio stations and listening music. I really appreciate community stations and their trying out new bands, I hate to say it “but triple j are have really lost the plot”.
You’re absolutely right – the mid 1990’s JJJ was great with her dance and electronic music then suddenly they sucked. I haven’t listened to them since.
I started to google search ‘Triple J Backlash’ and similar terms because I too have just discovered Santa isn’t real. I loved JJJ when I was in High School, playing in bands I used to hang out for Unearthed. I watched Recovery religiously and actually got to work with Dylan Lewis on a TV pilot. I don’t know why he’s still not on TV regularly. I think he’s a great talent. My band has been number 1 on the unearthed charts twice now and we still don’t get any support from JJJ. I kind of feel like my faith’s been shattered, like I’ve met my idol and they’ve turned out to be a prick. The magic has gone. I play hard rock music not hip hop or indie – so basically I am fucked!
I think some of these posts have hit the nail on the head perfectly, yet others (in my opinion) are a bit wayward. It is pretty obvious to anyone who has listened to jjj for many years like myself that it has lost it’s way. Or maybe even gone to the dogs as some have put it. The playlist is obviously markedly different to what it was in the 90’s, but this is obviously, in part, a reflection of the change in music since that time. I think it is also important to recognise that jjj is a youth station and let’s face it, i’m now in my 30’s and probably don’t consider myself a youth anymore. Therefore i’m not gonna gripe too much if the music isn’t completely inline with my cd collection. But it is important to note that one fundamental change has been made to jjj since it’s former glory days. That is the removal of it’s music meetings. I found this important tid-bit of information in an article in the greed-guide a few months back. Now, is it just me or am i alone in believing that the one process on a radio station (‘that plays music’) that should unquestionably be democratic is the selction of the music that is played??? And worse, through chatting with some friends and aquaintances who have had some inside info on the way jjj is run, i have been made aware that Kingsmill and (to a lesser extent) Buck, pretty much says what is on or what is off the playlist. To put it simply (if this is true), those two guys are dictating the taste of music to thousands of impressionable youth. Now if you’re lucky enough to grow up in one of the capital cities, you would have likely realised what nonsense jjj has become and exercised your ability to turn your dial to a better alternative which is what has happened if jjj ratings in the cities (like melbourne) are anything to go by. BUT if you venture into regional areas where the commercial stations, if they have one, are barely an alternative anyway, you’ll see how much triple j is followed religiously. These are kids that are growing up believing things like Eskimo Joe is ground breaking music or that the hottest 100 is actually the 100 best songs on earth. Or that every street corner in the big city has a aussie hip-hop sypher going on. Or that every person who phoes up rosie for a request thinks she’s ‘awesome’ and that they ‘love her’. (I might be exaggerating a bit here to get my point across.)
Another important note to mention is kingsmills lack of accountability on the issue of declining ratings. In the same aforementioned green-guide article, Kingsmill went on to say that he blames downloads and the intenet in general. Instead of seeing the internet as a negative, it could really be used as a positive in that it is a great tool for discovering music from all over the globe.
It is important not to turn this thread into a kingsmill hate piece or anything, but contructive critisism on an issue close to the hearts of many long-time listeners (or ex-long-time listeners like myself) and taxpayers. I’m sure like most who have a cushy governemnt job, we probably wouldn’t be willing to move on in a hurry either. But honestly Richard, it’s time to move on buddy. Give someone younger and with fresh ideas a go. If not for yourself or for me, for the good of the nation’s youth.
P.s. That thing mentioned about the callers sounding like they’re coersed into talking, i’m totally with you on that.
Our street press (www.tsunamimag.com) recently conducted a face-to-face interview with Richard Kingsmill, grilling him on a variety of topics, stuff like the more controversial points, like the Triple J playlist structure, choice of artists played, etc.
In researching across many, many blogs, forums and threads across the
web for feedback on the station, I found your post on Triple J
especially well considered. We put a few of your points to Richard himself.
Check out the interview http://www.tsunamimag.com/articles/face-to-face-with-richard-kingsmill.html.
Keep up the amazing work mate.
Cheers,
The team at Tsunami Magazine
Bring back Tunny!!!
Close the irrelevant group of tasteless lefties down and stop wasting my tax dollars on them. Incompetent, biased, and unprofessional, the lot of them. They should be announcing specials at supermarkets.
Their main purpose used to be as an anti-Howard cheer squad. Now that ‘the Messiah’ Rudd has come, they suddenly find that they have nothing to say.
Their ‘alternative for the sake of it’ bias was bad enough in the nineties, but they’ve gone way downhill since then.
I can’t believe i’m contributing to this topic again as i’ve really lost the energy to argue a point that will inevitably have very little baring on any future arrangements to triple j’s management or charter. But i really just wanted to respond to that article in the link above in that online mag or whatever it is.
What struck me about this article is how proud he seems of the station at the moment. It obviously shows he has lost touch with reality. I’ll begin with a statement about triple j being ‘consistent’ now. Well it definitely is consistent. But i don’t think i need to say in which way it is consistent. And the part about triple j being ‘an authority’ in music is would be laughable if it wasn’t actually so disturbing. Kingsmill then goes on to say that jjj’s audience is getting bigger. Well as far as i’m aware the ABC is putting up more radio transmitters especially places where there isn’t much, if any at all, competing stations. And i’m pretty certain they’re not removing transmitters anywhere. Places where there is competition, IT IS FALLING. And this continuous spiel about how mp3 players are destroying radio is nonsense!!! I have owned an mp3 player for many years and love listening to the radio. As does all the ppl who tune in to Merrick and Rosso, Hamish and Andy, Kyle and Jackie-o etc., etc.
Kingsmill was also asked about him having the final say on what is on or off the playlist. He claims that ppl who (like me) are complaining about what jjj has become, are from bands who have been rejected by him. Well i will honestly hereby say that i can play a total of three chords on a guitar (and not very well i might add). And therefore have not sent anything into jjj or will unlikely ever in future either for that matter.
And i’m gonna finish this with kingsmill’s final possibly weakest excuse. That is the issue of funding. ‘Why kick us, we’re so poor compared to commercial stations’ he says. JJJ has always had a minuscule budget compared to commercial stations. And why is it Melbourne community radio produce such quality content and have such a strong listenership on a budget i’ve been told is absolutely tiny compared to jjj’s.
If JJJ wants to contribute to a healthy music scene, then play the kind of music that inspires budding musicians. (Note: Kings of leon and Hill top hoods do not fit into the inspiring category).
Now, i can’t even be fcuked reading back over this so sorry if it reads shit.
Peace
*salute* to this thread. Very reassuring to know there are articulate individuals out there noticing one of the awesome beacons for Australian music in the 90’s is turning into a dog turd.
I have been discussing the concept of making a documentary with Melbourne & Sydney bands that I know have large followings but are in the category of Kingsmill’s “disgruntled bands that he the almighty rejected”. He may have rejected them, but yet they still pull more heads than JJJ bands on high rotation?
If JJJ is a democracy and funded by tax payers, I say the tax payers should TAKE THE POWER BACK! Power through popularity or perceived popularity is easily taken away by highlighting the popularity is diminishing rapidly and the reasons why this is happening.
I think it is time to highlight to a wider audience that some at Triple J management have gone mad with power and are trying to control the youth’s musical palette and are failing abysmally to provide a wide selection from our musical landscape.
Anyone who is with me contact me on fujjj@hotmail.com
Stu, I am not sure if you are talking about my blog post or a link from my blog post to the article that interviews Kingsmill.
The substantial point of my blog post (above trackback) with respect to your original post was that Triple J is no longer merely a radio station; it operates across a number of media channels.
I tried to find some numbers for people accessing the website or consuming other cultural products (tv shows, etc), but couldn’t really find anything.
Maybe your just getting too old for the young radio station?
Tune into something like ABC Radio National.
I love Triple J and the work they do with festivals and new musicians!
Sophie – maybe you are just too young to remember (or know) what good radio was like.
I too grew up with Mikey & Helen in the morning, with the much-missed Michael Tunn in the evening. Then on a Sunday night tuning in for “Creatures of the Spotlight” (which sounded far better than …. “Artery” … WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THAT anyway?)
No one is disputing the work Triple J do to promote new artists, or bring live music to unlikely places (the “One night Stands” have been a great idea)
The general problem is with the quality of the presenters. Listening to Scott Dooley is akin to listening to a kid on work-experience.
Even Roy & HG have jumped ship. They were the only reason I used to listen to Triple J. Note the term “used”.
Yes gone is the golden era of Triple J radio, when rock WAS rock, and the presenters were young, professional and humorous.
Now we have irritating pompous prats, who talk to the audience as if they are chatting with one of their mates on the mobile phone. Triple J is a radio for youth, intelligent youth, who actually don;t mind being talked to and treated like adults, not patronised or have try-hard presenters acting as though they are “down” with all the cool phrases.
Stewie S (Perth)
Sophie,
Triple j and radio national the only two stations you know??? Where i am from there are plenty. That’s without including the many that can be accessed online. And as far as listenership goes, the j’s are way down. Nice try with the ‘you’re too old’ comeback. Do you have any idea how old the man dictating triple j’s ‘charter’ is??? A lot older than me anyway.
The main problem i have with Triple J these days is the amount of hip hop they play. Everytime I turn on the radio they are playing another bloody hip hop song and they all sound the same! The other problem is their over promotion of aussie artists. Yes I agree they should promote good Australian music but not mediocre crap Australian music. I’m 20 years old and a musician so I’m not an old fogey and I’m desperate to hear some new exciting music played on the JJJ. Wake up Triple J!
I will SO miss not hearing “Robbie, Marieke & The Doctor at 6am every weekday.You all have such a fine sense of humour, and Marieke you are a genius the way you can get those two blokes to laugh ! To be honest, Tom & Alex will be BORING as they don’t have what it takes to be seriously amusing. Vale to all three.
If your so critical of JJJ. Than why don’t you and Michael Tunn go in and fix it? You seem to have lots of ideas and there is no doubting Tunn was a fantastic presenter. I think sometimes people forget the work JJJ does for Australian grassroots music and international while I think about it. I listen to the J’s because I appreciate the new music they work hard to get on the radio… Granted it’s not all great but the last thing I want is another bubblegum pop, commercial filled radio station like Nova, Triple M or FOX. Triple J offer something different to the population. Lets also not forget that JJJ appear to have given a lot of presenters a start in the industry!
Although Triple J are on a FM radio which has a lot of commercial competion, they still always maintain a constant appeal to what may be considered to commercial radio listeners as a smaller demographic. The truth is that they have always stayed true and loyal to artists whether they are overseas or from australia’s soil. Not everyone get’s the chance to appreciate such versitile playlist’s and musical variety that fits everybodys tastes. They are not a commercial station, they dont thrive on 24 hour constant stimulus to engage their audience, or have loud dance type segways to attempt to keep listeners glued to their station. They are a music station for people who appreciate music in it’s raw form or how the artist intended its audience to hear it, and to me it seems that there are more than enough people in australia who will agree that triple j will be around forever so long as it doesnt succumb to commercial standards which i belive are not negative to alot of radio stations, but negative to “the peoples” radio stations
I am a former JJJ listener, now listen to MMM if I listen to anything. Why? Not 100% sure, but I tend to think that I’ve just become lazy as I get older. I simply can’t be bothered listening to a song 4 or 5 times to allow it to grow on me. ( sort of a shame – it’s that type of persistence that led me to buy Beck’s “Odelay” )
Maybe some of you older bloggers need to ask yourselves the hard question – is the problem more with me?
Personally I feel your getting to old for the station, I throughly enjoy the music and presenters. Let go of ‘the good ol days’, just face it, you’ve out grown the humour, music etc. Triple J has never been about being a commercial station, they provide listening for an alternative audience, and promote new and upcoming artists. Its about the music, and the variety of it, not the constant trashy adds, gossip and celebrity rubbish presented on the commercial radio stations today.
Not half obvious michael tunn has a chip on his shoulder.
Since posting some comments on this page I’ve had a change of heart on using this forum for venting my frustration about the the station. It’s easy for us to sit back and take pot-shots at the powers that be. But I’m now tending to think it’s actually unhelpful for those on either side of the argument. I’m not saying that I’ve now changed my mind about the way the station is at the moment, I kinda just don’t give a **** anymore. So I would kindly ask the moderator of this page if he would please remove all of my previous posts. Thankyou.
I think for the most part, what Triple J does is fantastic and I will continue to listen to and support the station. My main gripe is the extremely mediocre “aussie hip-hop” that they play far too often. Sure there may be an audience that likes it, but it’s far too niche, and it’s played far too much in proportion to all other music. Also, yes, sometimes the presenters are a little boring, and I think “I wish they’d just get on with it and play a song now..”
I haven’t listened to the j’s for about 4 years now. I find all the so-called “comedy” teams completely tedious and boring. I would rather listen to my old tapes of Adam and Wil and Merrick and Rosso (when they were funny) than anything on the station now. It seems Kingsmill is only interested in the 18-24’s, a six year demographic. Well I was about 25 when I stopped listening, so whatever he is doing is working.
P.S. Someone bring back Tony Martin!!!
Triple J is the last station that actually plays music. I’m sitting here streaming Sydney’s Triple M, and I don’t think I’ve heard a song in around 15 minutes. Talk, ad, talk, ad, talk, ad, song, ad, ad, ad, ad, talk, ad, infomercial, ad, song…
And forget Triple M in Brisbane, we no longer have a rock station, they’re just another AuStereo/Nova clone playing Pink, Bieber, and the latest Idol winner.
…At least Triple J still plays music most of the time.
@Mick
I left about 4 years ago as well, hitting around the same age.
The music was starting to get away from me – although the Like a Version of Real Love by Regina Spektor still leaves my spine tingling.
The main reason I left was the ridiculous announcers. I loved Adam & Will, Merrick & Rosso, Myf, Rosie, but after Myf left there wasn’t much left to keep me.
The day I left:
Breakfast show: Robbie Buck interviews a dog pyshic – but isn’t paying her out. Actually taking her for real.
Midday: Dr Karl was replaced by a homeopath. The hour was scheduled for science. I rang to complain – didn’t get on air but the homeopath offered scientific explanation (because apparently a lot of people had rung in to bitch) – would have been laughing except choking on bile at the time.
Switched to Nova that day. The next morning on Nova Merrick & Rosso were taking the piss of some alternative medicine voodoo. Happy again.
I now keep JJJ on the second set of FM slots in the car with the Gosford station. The music is too crap to warrant one of the top six spots – they go to: Vega, Nova, WSFM (Oldies), 2Day, MMM, Mix
My main gripe is the extremely mediocre “aussie hip-hop” that they play far too often. Sure there may be an audience that likes it, but it’s far too niche, and it’s played far too much in proportion to all other music.
Nail on the head.
But it’s not just “aussie hip-hop” there’s a lot of mediocre music out there, teen-pop reminiscent of Saturday morning Video Hits. Which by-the-way is where it all started I believe, back in the day when Rage was playing all the alternative music videos then all of a sudden they switched to Top 50. It’s much like what has happened to the radio.
Thankfully there aren’t any “EXTRA LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS ADS”
Please utilize a little more quality control in music selection, on the most part it is generally pretty good, but every so often the mediocre song makes me switch to another station only to hear even worse. 🙁
All of the great Triple J presenters of the past are now with 702 (ABC Sydney) or have moved to commercial ventures. I listened religiously from 1990 through to 2007 last voting in the Hottest 100 in 2006 from memory (although I did contribute my vote to the greatest songs of all time in 2009 but wouldn’t have considered anything post 2004).
I think the amount of doosh-doosh, dance, RnB and hip hop being played changed it for me. I grew up listening to the Violent Femmes, Radiohead, Nirvana (and all the grunge bands), Pavement, Weezer, Tool, Something For Kate (my ultimate favourite Triple J band), Eskimo Joe, The Super Jesus, the old Powderfinger, Ben Folds Five, The Whitlams, Jebidiah, Custard (how great were they?), You Am I, Shihad and many other great BANDS.
Don’t get me wrong, I also love the Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, Bjork, Fat Boy Slim, Moby, and other electronic artists, but I really love that alternative rock sound, or art rock in many cases.
I’d still love to listen but find that I am often drawn to other stations that are playing many of these artists listed above, but they are now considered classic rock or the like.
I also have followed many of the old presenters over to their talk back stations or just listen to CDs.
Viva la revolution……. not any more.
you should send this article in to them with all these comments, because nothings going to happen if JJJ never hear about it. people have been commenting this thing for three years, that has to say something right ?
Triple j 4 life baby. All u snifflin’ wingers are well old and are 6 pr fiends. You seem unable to grasp the essence of what you once cling to. Triple J is not about playing the music you loved fifteen years ago. It is a wave always moving forward. You my friends paddled in long ago and would make your selfs sick looking forward ten years ago at what you have become hahahaha it is every thing u then hated. rememember !!! . new blood is what it has always been about. new acts, give the brothers and sisters a chance suck your wrinkled thumbs and grasp tight the safety blanket that is the COMMERCIAL radio u so long ago despised. Big up Triple J big up the aussie hip hop. Sit back and open your ears to the truth if u not deaf already. big up the girly bands, big up it all. Best station on earth. The only station resisting our societies zombification. Listening to an alternative frequency triple m hot fm red fm nova makes me violently ill. variety spice of life without destruction there is no creation and to the tip with u i say triple j haters. It is U who has lost touch. Buy your now classic Cds and listen alone in your shed. Music evolves and yet sadly u do not. Much love to the Js and its loyal brethren Most on this thread have lost THEIR WAY
this is the biggest load of shit ive read. Triple j is not about being popular its about giving small independent bands a chance and helping bands grow. its not about ratings buddy. i dont wanna listen to these talentless main stream artists who cant even write or create there own music. theres enough of that shit on the airwaves already. triple j is about being different and “giving the little guy a shot”. your article is a joke haha.
If I wanted mainstream, commercial music, slick presentation, backing tracks to maintain interest and local news and weather, then I’d listen to every other commercial radio station. I don’t though, so I listen to JJJ.
I think JJJ is really over-rated. And I’m not a 30-year-old who grew up on JJJ, I’m 15. I find that they only play the big names in indie-lite-fuzz-pop-rock and Aussie hip-hop without giving anyone else any exposure. JJJ pride themselves on being versatile, but it’s essentially two or three styles of music being promoted, and a whole world of music being forgotten about. Also, indie hip-hop from the US (POS, Dessa, Atmosphere) doesn’t get exposure simply because it’s American. Even on Short Fast Loud, great overseas bands (Balance and Composure, Title Fight, Propagandhi) often get snubbed in favour of disposable Australian autotune-core.
I agree with whoever said the presenters are boring and the talkback is painful. If they want me to listen , they should say things worth listening to.
JJJ is now a weak ass radio station that plays weak ass music. Get rid of that Kingsmill clown. get rid of those morning programming faggots, get rid of ’em all. JJJ used to have balls, now, now they’re just trying to pander to the mainstream to keep they’re jobs. Honestly, Kanye West, Slay Bells??? What crap!!! That shit used to be the domain of Smash hits, etc!!! Embarrassing!!!
I still like JJJ but they need to stop promoting and raving about every music festival under the sun. There are too many black outs where I suspect a DJ or technical person has hit a wrong button. If I hear anything more about Tom’s 21st I will throw the radio out the window! Way too many music interviews with musicians who really don’t have anything ground breaking to say. Go back to simple formula, less DJ self promotion/trying to be witty, play more music..its not that hard 🙂
We are all getting old and we ain’t meant to like it. And Aussie hip hop sucks too.
Well done Adam!
I think Triple J and Kingsmill are very arrogant and are still big noting themselves over nothing in the last 5 years.
My facebook status read: “I hate Triple J” and within an hour I got dozens of like’s.
I think your opinion above is very accurate and things need to change.