You can do better, Triple J

Triple J is great for music, but its news and current affairs leaves much to be desired.

I have to say something about what I consider to be some of the most ordinary radio to come from the entire ABC, excluding Australia All Over which is broadcast on the local ABC stations. I speak of Hack on Triple J.

Hack is the “current affairs half hour on Triple J” which comes crashing onto our radios at 5.30pm each evening, breaking the music for the ‘hollow air’ that is FM ‘talkback’. It is hosted by Steve Cannane, and supported by a number of journalists. The idea is that the young people of Melbourne are just not going to listen to Radio 3LO to catch the in-depth news coverage on PM, so instead Radio 3JJJ broadcasts a half-hour of what it considers to be current affairs of relevance to young people. Fair enough. Unfortunately the show is syndicated on Triple J nationally, which limits its scope considerably. Unfortunately also, its production is poor and does not flow at all with the music and comedic humour of the preceeding programme, Today Today. The two are an awful clash.

What I don’t especially like about Hack is that it often fails to ask some pretty key questions. And this in itself comes down to what I believe is fundamentally wrong with the programme – it can sometimes be driven more by agendas, not issues. In a subtle manner, it is all about saying to its listeners “Hey, can you believe this is happening?” rather than “This is happening, here are the issues”. I am not for a minute suggesting that the programme (and by implication the ABC) is bias. I know both accusations to be untrue. And the programe does some excellent work too. But often it infuriates me so much, and not because of the issues it presents so much, as for the presentations themselves.

This afternoon, Cannane noted that there has been a flood of listeners writing to the station expressing sympathy for Schapelle Corby, the Australian accused of importing 4 kilograms of marijuana into Indonesia and who is subsequently facing the death penalty. But he also noted that virtually no-one had said much about Peter Qasim, the ‘illegal immigrant’ who sits in an Australian detention centre awaiting deportation, but has been there for 6 years. Both very sad cases.

Cannane invited callers to try to explain his observations, which they attempted with differing degrees of success. But I had to ask, what is the point of this piece of journalism? What does it prove? Is this really the first-rate current affairs we expect from the ABC? Is the number of letters and e-mails to Triple J a real “issue” worthy of so much airtime? And even so, is it surprising that Australian listeners might just be a little better able to empathise with a fellow Australian? It is not to say Australians don’t care about Qasim, but perhaps just have more trouble relating to it. Understandable surely.

As routine, Cannane et al. dedicate a lot of energy towards criticising Alan Jones, talkback host on Sydney’s Radio 2GB. They mock and condemn him for being opinionated and arrogant. True or false, I cannot help but notice the parallel here. Was not Cannane being equally opinionated with the Corby/Qasim comparison, but just more subtle about how he airs his message?

Perhaps there is a deeper underlying problem at the Triple J network which doesn’t just relate to Hack (and seriously, what’s with the name?), but relates more to both the concept of what Triple J is supposed to be, and the quality of its news and current affairs in the context of the greater ABC.

I have a major problem with Triple J. Don’t get me wrong, it is always my radio station of choice (and musically is superior to all others), but the news service is seriously bad. When I wake up in the morning, there is one key piece of information I need – what will the weather be like? And with Melbourne’s ‘four seasons’ weather, this is especially important! And yet Triple J syndicates a national news service from Sydney, which is devoid of weather (but does contain proper news, to its credit). And infuriatingly, they slot ‘national weather’ at some unpredictable time later in the breakfast programme. Well, if I wanted to wait that long, I might just as well look out the window and take a guess. Or tune into another station.

Triple J has taken a hammering in the Melbourne ratings. In the last ratings survey for Melbourne, 3JJJ had 3.3% of the overall audience share, compared to 10.8% for rival 3MMM, with the highest rating stations being 3AW at 15.6% and 3LO (the local ABC station in Melbourne) with 11.2%. And while ratings are not important at the ABC, this still should indicate problems. And I have two guesses why this may be.

The first is Hack which is a ratings killer. People listen to Triple J for music, surely! If they want talk, there is 3LO or 3AW. Secondly, I believe the hourly news is inadequate. It tends to be Sydney-centric, it is too brief and completely non-local.

Triple J has a responsibility to provide news and current affairs that are relevant and interesting to youth. So why can’t they localise the news bulletins? The hourly news could be 5 minutes (not 4) which would include local weather, broadcast from the local Triple J station rather than Sydney. It would also allow the local station to ‘tailor’ the news to the local audience. And they could in turn scrap Hack or re-format it.

As it is, it does not work for what it is supposed to be. And Triple J News lets down the station as a whole. If Triple J wants to be relevant to youth, then it can’t just do it with music. It has to provide information that is local, interesting and relevant as well. I am not suggesting Hack is a waste of time, but it is not serving its audience well either. And likewise, the content of the news is actually quite good (relying on the excellence of the ABC). It is the presentation that is lacking.

Have Your Say

Δ