Triple J
Encyclopedia
triple j is a nationally networked Australia
n radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
. The station places a heavy emphasis on Australian music
and new music, and generally plays more alternative music than commercial stations.
The first incarnation of what became Triple J was established in September 1974 as the AM-band radio station 2JJ or Double Jay.
Double Jay was a product of the progressive media policies of the Gough Whitlam
Labor government
of 1972-75 and was one of a series of innovations that stemmed from the recommendations in the Independent Inquiry into Broadcasting (1974) report. These included the expansion of radio broadcasting onto the FM
band, the issuing of a new class of broadcasting licenses—which finally permitted the establishment of community radio stations, the long-awaited third tier of the Australian radio industry—and the creation of two new stations for the ABC: 2JJ in Sydney and the short lived 3ZZ in Melbourne.
By the time Double Jay went to air the Whitlam government was in its final months in office. On 11 November 1975 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's commission was controversially revoked by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, sparking a double dissolution of parliament. In the subsequent federal election
, Labor was defeated by the Liberal-National Party coalition led by Malcolm Fraser
. In the more conservative media climate that emerged in the Fraser years, Double Jay and some of its presenters and commentators were frequently accused of left-wing bias.
2JJ was initially intended as the first link in a new national "youth network", although this expansion was long delayed by the electoral defeat of the Whitlam government at the end of 1975 and subsequent budget cuts imposed on the ABC by the incoming Fraser government. Its establishment marked an historic change in Australian radio — it was one of the first rock stations in the world to hire female disc jockeys and, excluding the first experimental FM licences, was granted the first new radio licence issued in any Australian capital city
since 1932.
2JJ commenced broadcasting on 19 January 1975, at 1539 kHz
- (call sign 1540kHz
in 1978) on the AM band. The station was largely restricted to the greater Sydney region, and its local reception was hampered by inadequate transmitter facilities. It was later relayed to other stations in the ABC network after midnight, when their regular programming ceased.
In its early years Double Jay's on-air staff were mainly recruited from either commercial radio or other ABC stations but in another first the roster also featured presenters who did not come from a radio industry background, including singer-songwriters Bob Hudson
and John J. Francis and actor Lex Marinos
.
The foundation staff of January 1975 were Marius Webb and Ron Moss (coordinators), Ros Cheney, David Ives, Sam Collins, Holger Brockman (aka Bill Drake), Caroline Pringle, Bob Hudson
, Mike Parker, Iven Walker, Arnold Frolows
, Di Auburn, Margot Edwards, George "Groover" Wayne, Graham Berry, John Arden, Colin Vercoe, Alan McGirvan, Pam Swain, Graham Bartlett, Mark Colvin
, Keith Walker, Michael Byrne and Jim Middleton
. Other popular presenters of the Double Jay period included Russell Guy, Mac Cocker
(father of musician Jarvis Cocker
), Gayle Austin (a former producer for talkback radio king John Laws
and the first female rock DJ in Australia), Tom Zelinka, Lawrie Zion, and Keri Phillips. Several of the original team went on to successful careers in the ABC: Pam Swain is now a producer with ABC TV
; Mark Colvin hosts ABC Radio National's nightly current affairs show PM
; Jim Middleton was for many years the ABC's senior political correspondent in Canberra
; Ros Cheney rose to become Arts Editor of ABC radio until her dismissal in 2001 (during the controversial regime of Jonathon Shier).
Double Jay's programming policies were in many ways a radical departure from the narrow formats and restrictive playlists then in place in commercial rock stations. Its programming style drew on a variety of models, including British pirate radio
rock programs such as John Peel
's The Perfumed Garden, early BBC Radio 1
programming and the American Album Oriented Rock (AOR) format. Although there was a playlist, presenters originally were given a wide latitude in choosing the music they played, and few restrictions were placed on music, lyrics or topics discussed on programs. In the early days of Double Jay, the station was run co-operatively and all staff (including office staff) were given a say in programming decisions.
The station played an unprecedented level of Australian content, favoured long album cuts, played tracks banned by other stations because of drug or sexual references, championed many styles of local and overseas music that were being excluded from commercial pop playlists (including reggae
, punk rock
, electronic and New Wave
) and, following the trend set by the BBC, mixed its recorded music programming with a schedule of regular weekly live-to-air studio concert broadcasts.
Double Jay also broadcast many original comedy sketches and comedy serials, and in the early years of the station it regularly ran "anti-ads" which parodied its commercial competitors. It also featured regular news broadcasts, current affairs programs, political commentary by noted journalist Mungo MacCallum
, and audio documentaries like the controversial "The Ins and Outs of Love" (produced by Carl Tyson Hall) which included frank interviews with young people about their first experiences of sex. Other features included innovative radiophonic works such as 'What's Rangoon To You Is Grafton To Me' and 'Hot Bananas', created by presenter Russell Guy and co-narrated former ABC-TV newsreader James Dibble
, and works by cult writer-musician Pip Proud
. Other innovative features included a regular surf report—a practice soon adopted by many other radio and TV stations—daily community billboard segments, and a daily music "What's On" segment.
The station rapidly gained popularity, especially in its target youth demographic; an (unidentified) press report published ca. March 1975 noted that in its first two months on air, Double Jay had gained a respectable 5.4% share of the total radio audience, and 17% of the 18-24 age group, whilst its rival 2SM
's audience share dropped by 2.3% This was despite the fact that the station was poorly received in many parts of Sydney due to problems with its original transmitter.
2JJ was often embroiled in controversy, which began with the choice of the first song played on air on the first broadcast day — "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good In Bed" by Skyhooks, -- one of six tracks from their ten-track debut LP Living in the Seventies
that had been banned by Australian commercial radio stations for sexual or drug references. There were regular complaints about announcers, guests and talkback callers swearing on air and a number of other widely reported controversies within the first few months of the station's life, including the media frenzy over The Ins and Outs of Love; an open air concert at Liverpool in Sydney's south-west in June 1975 (featuring Skyhooks and Dragon
) prompted a lurid Page 1 headline "Rock Concert Filth Uproar" in the Sydney Sun, which claimed that hundreds were "shocked" by "depictions of sexual depravity and shouted obscenities", which allegedly caused women in the audience to clap their hands over their ears and reportedly prompted Coalition frontbencher Peter Nixon to call for the station to be closed down.
Although the ABC reportedly received few direct complaints about The Ins and Outs of Love (originally broadcast on Sunday 23 February 1975) it sparked a furore in the media and the Broadcasting Control Board reportedly asked for talks with the ABC about the program's sexual content. Two days after the show, the Fairfax
tabloid The Sun published an editorial calling for the station to be closed, and a week later, on 10 March 1975, the influential marketing/advertising industry journal B&T followed suit, variously demanding that the station (A) should be closed down or that (B) it should have its programming completely revamped or that (C) those staff responsible for "the present series of lapses" be removed.
Another infamous event in the late 1970s was an on-air launch party hosted by George Wayne to celebrate the release of the new AC/DC
album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
, which got so out of hand that police were eventually called to the studio.
The station also regularly sponsored live concerts and organised a number of major outdoor concert events in the late 1970s, culminating in a huge outdoor all-day event in Parramatta Park on 18 January 1981, to celebrate the end of Double Jay and the start of Triple J and headlined by Midnight Oil
.
band at a frequency of 105.7 MHz (again restricted within the greater Sydney region) and became 2JJJ (later, Triple J). It had also beaten the commencement of tranmission by the then new, commercial Triple-M FM rock station by ONE DAY, when it began broadcasting on 2 August 1980 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MMM#The_Early_Days). Triple J began broadcasting in Newcastle
at this time. Through the mid-to-late Eighties, Triple J continued to pioneer new music and developed a wide range of special-interest programs including the Japanese pop
show Nippi Rock Shop, Arnold Frolows' weekly late-night ambient music show Ambience, and Jaslyn Hall's world music show, the first of its kind in Australian mainstream radio.
It was not until the late 1980s that the ABC was finally able to begin development of the long-delayed national "youth network" and in 1989 JJJ expanded nationally to Adelaide
, Brisbane
, Canberra
, Darwin
, Hobart
, Melbourne
and Perth
.
In 1983 four Triple Jay presenters—Peter Doyle, Virginia Moncrieff, Tony Barrell and Clive Miller—began producing a fanzine with the inscrutable title of Alan (see: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/30years/stories/alan.htm). Designed in a manic collage style by David Art Wales
, Alan featured programming information, pop trivia and irreverent interviews with recording artists (see: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/30years/stories/interview.htm). Wales also supplied a comic strip featuring a boy sage named Guru Adrian. In a twist that added to the character's appeal, the Guru's face was that of a real child whose identity was never revealed, leading many to believe that he was in fact a real guru. Guru Adrian's philosophy, Adrianetics (see: http://www.guruadrian.com), consisted of quixotic maxims, including "Having fun is half the fun," "Gee, you are you" and "Realise your real eyes," which rapidly gained the character a cult following in Australia, with Wales making many radio and television appearances during the mid-1980s to discuss the Guru Adrian phenomenon.
In 1984, Wales teamed with renowned Australian journalist Bruce Elder on the book "Radio With Pictures: The History of Double Jay and Triple Jay." (Hale & Iremonger, publishers. National Library of Australia card no. ISBN 0 86806 191 3)
Barry Chapman (ex-2SM
Sydney) was appointed as general manager
to oversee Triple J's network expansion. Chapman's tenure and the expansion of the network generated controversy, most notably in 1990, when a large portion of 2JJJ's Sydney-based staff was fired, (the so-called "Night of the long knives") along with many of its on-air staff, including most popular presenters Tony Biggs
and Tim Ritchie, the station's dance-music maven. As details of the changes became known to the public, there were accusations of a "JJJ Bland Out" (analogous to Harry Enfield
's fictional British DJs Smashie and Nicey
) and several protests were held outside its William Street studios, as well as public meeting that packed the Sydney Town Hall with angry listeners spilling out onto the street as the town hall was not big enough to hold everyone who felt that "their" beloved radio station had been hijacked.
Concern was expressed about the introduction of a more highly programmed music format, and the appointment of Chapman was seen as an indication of a more commercial direction. Management responded that to launch a national network meant that the station must broaden its then almost-exclusive focus on the Sydney music scene, requiring the addition of new talent. When the dust had settled on the dispute, the radio programming
was not nearly as free-form as it had been before going national, but neither was it as highly programmed as its critics feared. In the pre-national era, there had been less emphasis on a structured playlist
but the introduction of a tighter playlist allowed (at least initially) a degree of input from individual presenters that exceeded that usually permitted on a commercial station.
The laissez-faire
collective management style of the Double Jay days was gradually replaced by a more business-like top-down management style and after the controversial appointment of Chapman, as described above, many of the 'old guard' were dismissed from the station and replaced by presenters who were more amenable to the increasingly structured format.
Chapman had previously been program director and then manager of Sydney AM pop station 2SM
, which had been Australia's top-rating and most profitable commercial radio station for most of the 1970s. As noted above, Chapman controversially replaced many of the established on-air staff (such as Tim Ritchie) with younger and less experienced presenters such as Michael Tunn
, who at the time of his appointment was the youngest DJ in the history of Australian radio.
Chapman oversaw a radical overhaul of triple j's programming, implementing a version of the music-and-talk format that had been so successful for him at 2SM. This basic format — including an early morning comedy breakfast program with duo presenters; a late morning talk and talkback program and a light talk-and-comedy afternoon drive-time shift — remains substantially in place. Chapman also reduced the amount of comedy, documentaries and news (compared to the late Seventies) although (as he did at 2SM) he maintained and strengthened the station's commitment to live music.
In the late 1980s triple j was accused of ignoring the emerging hip hop
scene and related genres, in favour of the more marketable rock-oriented grunge
style that dominated American music at the same time.
; Albany, Western Australia
; Bathurst, New South Wales
and Mackay, Queensland
It played a record in Tas over and over again until Triple J became online. As of 2006, Triple J's most recent expansion was to Broome, Western Australia
.
.
In 2004, the station began to release podcast
s of some of their talkback shows, including Dr Karl
, This Sporting Life
and Hack.
In 2006, Triple J's coverage expanded when transmission began in Broome, Western Australia
. As Broome was one of the largest towns in Australia to not receive Triple J, the station celebrated with a concert featuring many local bands, also simulcast on the Live at the Wireless
program.
Also in 2006, Triple J launched jtv
, a series of television programs broadcast on ABC
and ABC2
, as well as being made available online. Programming includes music videos, live concerts, documentaries, and comedy, as well as a behind the scenes look at Triple J's studios. In 2008 jtv was rebranded as triple j TV. triple j TV's first 'spin-off' series The Hack Half Hour premiered on 22 September 2008, hosted by Steve Cannane
As of February 2009 triple j TV airs on 9pm Mondays on ABC2, 11pm Fridays on ABC1 and can be downloaded at triplej.net.au. The series is hosted by The Doctor aka Lindsay McDougall
and it features Hack reports from Antoinette Chiha, comedy from Sam Simmons, and the film segment 'Flicked' with Marc Fennell
.
), Triple J has nightly specialist programs in different musical genres (see the programmes section below). It also covers news and current affairs
from a youth-oriented perspective, although this facet of their programming has been considerably reduced since the station's inception.
In common with other Australian radio stations, triple j has also gradually increased the amount of talkback
content in its programming. There are several reasons for this. Most importantly, talkback provides an inexpensive and popular source of program content, and also provides the appearance of listener interactivity and involvement. And, like many other former 'all music' stations, Triple J has had to respond to the advent of music file-sharing, digital music players and other digital music innovations, which have drastically reduced listeners' dependence on radio as a means of accessing music.
Over the years the station gained considerable renown for breaking new local acts—Midnight Oil
are probably the prime example of this, and the group would almost certainly not have had anything like the success they enjoyed without the help of Double Jay/triple j. The station also broke countless overseas acts who were being ignored in their home countries. Double Jay was virtually the only 'pop' station in Australia in the late Seventies to play reggae
, dub
, punk rock
, New Wave
, world music
, electronic music
and ambient music
.
Over the years the station moved away from its early style, which featured a high level of news, features, documentaries, current affairs and comedy, and was gradually steered towards a non-commercial version of the continuous music format that prevailed in commercial radio. Many original Double Jay segments—the nightly "What's On" gig guide, its extensive news and current affairs coverage (which was often criticised for its alleged left-wing bias), and its 'community noticeboard' segment—were gradually eliminated, as were almost all the character comedy spots that had been popular features in previous years.
Most recently the number of songs approved for airplay on Triple J has been decreased dramatically, leading some to believe that an over-emphasis on certain styles of music, particularly electro and dance has had a negative effect on the formerly unbiased genre programming. It is also said that this has affected the cultivation of musical diversity on the Unearthed program.
Live, recorded by a one-off group that included former Roxy Music
members Phil Manzanera
and Brian Eno
. Although the LP was hailed overseas as one of the best live recordings ever made and set new standards of technical excellence, the Australian distributor at first refused to release it locally, in spite of the fact that it was one of the most requested items on the Double Jay playlist at the time. As a result of the import sales that generated through Double Jay airplay — it became the highest selling import album that year — the company decided to release it locally.
Triple J routinely championed many local and overseas acts whose early recordings were ignored by commercial radio—e.g. Midnight Oil, Models
, Paul Kelly
, The Clash
, Sex Pistols
, Public Image Ltd, Nirvana
, Foo Fighters, Pixies
, Ben Folds Five
, and hundreds more. As with the ABC's long-running pop TV show Countdown, the support of triple j in Australia also had a strong effect on the success of emerging overseas acts.
A case in point is American group The B-52's
and it is believed that Double Jay was the first radio station in the world to play their debut single "Rock Lobster". The support of the Jays had a similarly significant effect on the worldwide success of many acts, including Blondie
, Devo
, and more recently Ben Folds Five
, Garbage
, and especially Ben Harper
, whose popularity in Australia—which was almost entirely the result of support from triple j —was instrumental in breaking him back in his home country, the United States
.
It is also notable that Triple J was for many years routinely used as a free market research
facility by commercial stations. As mainstream pop radio struggled to establish itself on the FM band, commercial stations like those owned by Austereo
constantly monitored what songs and acts were doing well on Triple J and would then introduce the most 'saleable' of them into their own playlists. Acts like Talking Heads
, The Police
, and Nirvana
unquestionably owed their commercial success in Australia to the early support of Double Jay/Triple J.
In 1989, Triple J had been playing N.W.A.'s
protest song "Fuck tha Police
" for up to six months, before gaining the attention of ABC management who subsequently banned it. As a reaction the staff went on strike and put the group's song "Express Yourself
" on continuous play for 24 hours, playing it roughly 360 times in a row.
and Alex Dyson
. Both were previous Weekend Breakfast presenters.
Mornings with Zan is the 9am to midday music show, hosted by Zan Rowe
. This timeslot was formerly held by chat and current affairs program The Morning Show until 2003, and Mel in the Morning hosted by Mel Bampton
from 2004 until January 2007.
Lunch with Lewi is Triple J's midday to 3pm show and is hosted by Lewis McKirdy. Each Friday afternoon features a guest DJ set.
The Doctor is the drive program, on air from 3pm to 5.30pm and is presented by Lindsay McDougall
aka 'The Doctor'.
Hack
is a half hour current affairs program on air from 5:30pm and is presented by Tom Tilley.
Super Request
is Triple J's requests show, broadcast weeknights from 6pm until 9pm. It is hosted by Rosie Beaton
.
Midnight to Dawn, also known as Mid-dawn or The Graveyard Shift is the name of the 1am to 6am timeslot. It is often hosted by new or unknown DJs. Previous mid-dawn hosts who then went on to regular shifts include Adam Spencer
, Scott Dooley
, Dave Callan
and Zan Rowe
. Current mid-dawn presenters include, The Cloud Girls
, Brendan Maclean
, Maggie Collins
and Anton De Ionno
.
. Each show would be topical; it may feature an artist, a particular year in the past, or songs with a certain theme. Examples of themed shows include #9 songs (which was the theme of 9 September 1999's show), cat
s & dog
s, New Zealand
bands, and banned
songs.
From 2003 the J-Files was a one hour Saturday afternoon show, hosted by various triple j presenters, specifically focused on one particular artist. The final J-File was aired in November 2007.
. Starting in 2003, the format changed to a two-hour show every weeknight (9pm to 11pm, shortening Super Request and the late night speciality shows by an hour each) and Robbie Buck
became the presenter. It proved to be one of triple j's most popular changes, as the audience (and the station itself) has traditionally been very supportive of local talent and unsigned bands. The show has now been reduced to one hour, is only on Monday to Thursdays, and is hosted by Steph Hughes and Dom Alessio.
In July 2011, while Nina Las Vegas was on vacation, Ballarat mashup duo Yacht Club DJs hosted House Party for the entire month.
Current news staff:
Past news journalists (some of whom are still with Triple J):
from 1998 to 2003, a program where secondary school
students from around Australia interviewing various prominent politicians, business and community leaders on current affairs
issues. The program now airs on ABC
Radio National
.
can air their views through a youth forum. The entrant must be between 16 and 22, write and engaging story relating to the countryside and must work well on radio. There are 41 regions like Unearthed. The winner receives airplay of their story and one winner from each of the 41 regions, wins an all expenses paid trip to Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport
for the youth forum.
The Breakfast Show is one of the station's flagship shows. In the late '80s it was hosted by Rusty Nails, and later by resident "dag", Maynard F# Crabbes (Maynard Crabbes
). In the early 1990s it was co-hosted by Helen Razer
and Mikey Robbins, and later by Mikey Robbins, Paul McDermott
, and The Sandman (Steve Abbott). From 1999 until 2004, it was co-hosted by Adam Spencer
and Wil Anderson
. The pair were known for their unusual sense of humour, highlighted by regular segments including Mary from Junee, Essence of Steve, and Are You Smarter Than Dools?. The Breakfast Show also featured two radio serials presented by The Sandman: "Pleasant Avenue" and "204 Bell St".
Spencer and Anderson broadcast their final program for the station on Friday 26 November 2004 from Sydney University's Manning Bar, a site that held sentimental value to Spencer, as that was where he got his start in stand-up comedy. In 2005, Jay and Lindsay (aka 'The Doctor')
from Frenzal Rhomb
took over as hosts of Triple J's breakfast show. New segments include the radio skits Space Goat and Battalion 666, as well as the Under the Weather Sessions and The Friday Fuckwit. From 8 January 2007, former Lunch presenter Myf Warhurst
joined Jay and Lindsay as a permanent member of the Breakfast Show team.
Following the departure of Jay to go travelling, the 2008-2009 Breakfast Show line up was Robbie Buck
, The Doctor, and Marieke Hardy
. They regularly maintained contact with Jay during his overseas travel, calling him during a segment named Where in the World is Jason "Jay" Whalley", a pun on Where's Wally and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
.
In 2009, Robbie, Marieke, and The Doctor had a serial called "Claytron". Tuesdays offered "Nerds of a Feather" with Paul Francis Verhoeven
, whilst Friday offered "The Friday Fuckwit" as well as "Like a Version", a segment where famous recording artists perform a cover version of a song of their choice.
On 23 November 2009, it was announced that Tom Ballard
and Alex Dyson
(hosts of the 2009 Weekend Breakfast show) would take over as hosts of the 2010 Breakfast show. "Like a Version" has continued with Ballard and Dyson in 2010.
, Gaby Brown
, Scott Dooley
, and Sam Simmons. Caroline Tran
returned in 2010.
and Greig Pickhaver
(under the pseudonyms Roy Slaven & HG Nelson). As well as sport, the duo cast a wide comedic net that encompassed the worlds of entertainment, politics and celebrity. TSL was remarkable as one of the few successful comedy programs that was substantially improvised.
The longest-running show in Triple J's programming history, TSL commanded a large and dedicated nationwide audience. Special editions of TSL were broadcast to coincide with the NRL
and AFL
grand finals (The Festival of the Boot) as well as for all three State of Origin
matches. (see Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary
). In 2009, after 22 years at the ABC, the duo left to work for the commercial rock station Triple M
.
Competition, which is produced by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Podcasts of competition sets are available via the Triple J website.
, and the left-wing
government-funded Triple J radio station. The show suggests that the station was forced to broadcast a segment of right-wing
political views in order to restore the balance.
and Terri Psiakis
. It was initially a filler show, but the popularity of the pair was enough to bring them back in 2006.
members Chris Taylor
and Craig Reucassel
. The show's name was derived from Today Tonight
, a controversial Australian TV current affairs show screened on the Seven Network
. Their humour was in a similar vein to CNNNN and The Chaser
, being more politically driven. One of their more popular skits was "Coma FM", a parody of commercial radio stations.
:
started at Triple J presenting the Saturday night/Sunday early morning program the Graveyard Shift.
In 2006 Dave hosted the Saturday evening timeslot, called Saturday Night. The show followed the pattern of Callan's mid-dawn shifts from previous years. In January 2007 this show was renamed Pirate Radio after one of the personae commonly adopted by callers. Listener interaction plays a significant role in Callan's programs with regular callers such as "Steph from Tamworth", "Snake Charmer Farmer", and "Ukelele Guy", as well as an assortment of "randoms" and "carnies". On 27 January 2008, Dave returned to the Graveyard Shift (1-6am Sunday mornings). From January 2009 the show was shortened, finishing at 4am.
and Father Bob Maguire
have co-hosted a Sunday night talk show interviewing international guests, generally discussing serious topics like religion and politics.
The program derived its name from the fact that Barack Obama
, the first African–American to be nominated by a major American political party for president, was running a formerly exclusively white political race against the white Republican candidate, John McCain
. The program became the number one podcast in Australia, and Triple J released a number of commemorative Race Race T-shirts which featured the show's catchphrase "I Like Pie
".
The Triple J Hottest 100 is an annual poll
of the most popular songs amongst its listeners. It has been conducted for almost two decades in its present form, and in 2005 it attracted 1.26 million votes, from 152 countries - the largest annual music poll in the world. It has also spawned a series of successful compilation
CD
s, and more recently, music DVD
s.
The countdown of the top 100 songs on Australia Day
weekend, usually accompanied by a barbecue
plus obligatory beverage, has become an annual summer ritual for Triple J fans around Australia and around the world.
, Killing Heidi
, and Missy Higgins
.
The Unearthed competition was inspired by the success of a talent search on SBS
program Nomad called "Pick Me". This segment, co-produced by Triple J, discovered a trio from Newcastle
called the "Innocent Criminals", who later gained international fame under the name Silverchair
.
The most recent incarnation of Unearthed is run online, and allows listeners to rate and review songs uploaded by bands and musicians.
Some on-air promotions for the first volume were recorded at the Triple J studios in Ultimo by Darren McErlain in 1996. He was invited to record voice-overs for Triple J, whilst completing an internship at ABC Radio News.
In late 2004, the station's promotion for that year's Beat the Drum contest caused a brief but bitter controversy after it released a series of promotional images featuring the 'Drum' logo. Many were outraged by the inclusion of a mocked-up image of the former World Trade Center
draped with a huge Drum flag.
for best Unearthed artist, the J Award
for Australian Music Video
of the year, and the main J Award for Australian album
of the year, judged by a panel of Triple J presenters. Past winners of the J Award
include; Wolfmother
(2005), Hilltop Hoods
(2006), and The Panics
(2007). In 2008, The Presets
took out the award for Apocalypso
. In 2009 the award was won by Sarah Blasko
. In 2010, Tame Impala
won the coveted J Award.
, who honed his distinctive comedy-based style at the Jays before moving to rival FM rock station 2-MMM (Triple M
) in the 1980s, where he became the most popular breakfast presenter in Sydney (and one of the highest-paid radio personalities in the country). Presenter Annette Shun Wah
went on to host the popular Rock Around the World series on SBS and is now a program executive with SBS TV and producer of The Movie Show
.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
. The station places a heavy emphasis on Australian music
Music of Australia
The music of Australia is the music produced in the area of, on the subject of, or by the people of modern Australia, including its preceding Indigenous and colonial societies. Indigenous Australian music is a part of the unique heritage of a 40–60,000 year history which produced the iconic...
and new music, and generally plays more alternative music than commercial stations.
Foundation and early years: Double Jay
Double Jay was a product of the progressive media policies of the Gough Whitlam
Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam, AC, QC , known as Gough Whitlam , served as the 21st Prime Minister of Australia. Whitlam led the Australian Labor Party to power at the 1972 election and retained government at the 1974 election, before being dismissed by Governor-General Sir John Kerr at the climax of the...
Labor government
Australian Labor Party
The Australian Labor Party is an Australian political party. It has been the governing party of the Commonwealth of Australia since the 2007 federal election. Julia Gillard is the party's federal parliamentary leader and Prime Minister of Australia...
of 1972-75 and was one of a series of innovations that stemmed from the recommendations in the Independent Inquiry into Broadcasting (1974) report. These included the expansion of radio broadcasting onto the FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
band, the issuing of a new class of broadcasting licenses—which finally permitted the establishment of community radio stations, the long-awaited third tier of the Australian radio industry—and the creation of two new stations for the ABC: 2JJ in Sydney and the short lived 3ZZ in Melbourne.
By the time Double Jay went to air the Whitlam government was in its final months in office. On 11 November 1975 Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's commission was controversially revoked by Governor-General Sir John Kerr, sparking a double dissolution of parliament. In the subsequent federal election
Australian federal election, 1975
Federal elections were held in Australia on 13 December 1975. All 127 seats in the House of Representatives, and all 64 seats in the Senate were up for election following a double dissolution of both Houses....
, Labor was defeated by the Liberal-National Party coalition led by Malcolm Fraser
Malcolm Fraser
John Malcolm Fraser AC, CH, GCL, PC is a former Australian Liberal Party politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. He came to power in the 1975 election following the dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government, in which he played a key role...
. In the more conservative media climate that emerged in the Fraser years, Double Jay and some of its presenters and commentators were frequently accused of left-wing bias.
2JJ was initially intended as the first link in a new national "youth network", although this expansion was long delayed by the electoral defeat of the Whitlam government at the end of 1975 and subsequent budget cuts imposed on the ABC by the incoming Fraser government. Its establishment marked an historic change in Australian radio — it was one of the first rock stations in the world to hire female disc jockeys and, excluding the first experimental FM licences, was granted the first new radio licence issued in any Australian capital city
Capital City
Capital City was a television show produced by Euston Films which focused on the lives of investment bankers in London living and working on the corporate trading floor for the fictional international bank Shane-Longman....
since 1932.
2JJ commenced broadcasting on 19 January 1975, at 1539 kHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
- (call sign 1540kHz
Hertz
The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....
in 1978) on the AM band. The station was largely restricted to the greater Sydney region, and its local reception was hampered by inadequate transmitter facilities. It was later relayed to other stations in the ABC network after midnight, when their regular programming ceased.
In its early years Double Jay's on-air staff were mainly recruited from either commercial radio or other ABC stations but in another first the roster also featured presenters who did not come from a radio industry background, including singer-songwriters Bob Hudson
Bob Hudson (Australian singer)
Robert "Bob" Hudson is an Australian singer and radio presenter, his satirical narrative, "The Newcastle Song" topped the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for four weeks in 1975. The single version was an edit of the ten-minute live recording from the related album, Newcastle Song...
and John J. Francis and actor Lex Marinos
Lex Marinos
Lex Marinos OAM is an Australian television actor, director and writer. Notable for his acting role as 'Bruno', the Italian son-in-law of bigot Ted Bullpitt, on the Australian comedy television series Kingswood Country as and host of Late Night Legends on ABC2, he was also a presenter on radio...
.
The foundation staff of January 1975 were Marius Webb and Ron Moss (coordinators), Ros Cheney, David Ives, Sam Collins, Holger Brockman (aka Bill Drake), Caroline Pringle, Bob Hudson
Bob Hudson (Australian singer)
Robert "Bob" Hudson is an Australian singer and radio presenter, his satirical narrative, "The Newcastle Song" topped the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for four weeks in 1975. The single version was an edit of the ten-minute live recording from the related album, Newcastle Song...
, Mike Parker, Iven Walker, Arnold Frolows
Arnold Frolows
Arnold Frolows is an Australian radio personality best known as music director at the Australian radio station Triple J.Frolows started his career in music in 1970, as a manager of Virgin record stores in London. After returning to Australia in late 1974 he was hired as one of the foundation...
, Di Auburn, Margot Edwards, George "Groover" Wayne, Graham Berry, John Arden, Colin Vercoe, Alan McGirvan, Pam Swain, Graham Bartlett, Mark Colvin
Mark Colvin
Mark Colvin is an Australian journalist and broadcaster. Based in Sydney, he is the presenter of PM since 1997. PM is one of the flagship Australian radio current affairs programs on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation network.-Family:...
, Keith Walker, Michael Byrne and Jim Middleton
Jim Middleton
James Blaine "Rifle Jim" Middleton was a professional baseball player. He was a right-handed pitcher over parts of two seasons with the New York Giants and Detroit Tigers...
. Other popular presenters of the Double Jay period included Russell Guy, Mac Cocker
Mac Cocker
Mac Cocker is an English actor and radio broadcaster currently based in Darwin, Australia. He is the estranged father of British musician Jarvis Cocker....
(father of musician Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker is an English musician and frontman for the band Pulp. Through his work with the band, Cocker became a figurehead of the Britpop movement of the mid-1990s. Following Pulp's hiatus Cocker has led a successful solo career...
), Gayle Austin (a former producer for talkback radio king John Laws
John Laws
Richard John Sinclair "John" Laws, CBE , an Australian radio presenter, sometimes known as Lawsie, was from the 1970s until his retirement in 2007, the host of a hugely successful morning radio program, which mixed music with interviews, opinion, live advertising readings and listener talkback...
and the first female rock DJ in Australia), Tom Zelinka, Lawrie Zion, and Keri Phillips. Several of the original team went on to successful careers in the ABC: Pam Swain is now a producer with ABC TV
ABC1
ABC1 was a United Kingdom based television channel from Disney using the branding of the Disney owned American network, ABC.The channel initially launched exclusively on the British digital terrestrial television platform Freeview on 27 September 2004. On 10 December 2004 it was launched on...
; Mark Colvin hosts ABC Radio National's nightly current affairs show PM
PM
PM often means "after noon" in the 12-hour clock .PM or Pm may also refer to:-Sciences:*Particulate matter, particulates — fine dust and soot — suspended in the air...
; Jim Middleton was for many years the ABC's senior political correspondent in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
; Ros Cheney rose to become Arts Editor of ABC radio until her dismissal in 2001 (during the controversial regime of Jonathon Shier).
Double Jay's programming policies were in many ways a radical departure from the narrow formats and restrictive playlists then in place in commercial rock stations. Its programming style drew on a variety of models, including British pirate radio
Pirate radio
Pirate radio is illegal or unregulated radio transmission. The term is most commonly used to describe illegal broadcasting for entertainment or political purposes, but is also sometimes used for illegal two-way radio operation...
rock programs such as John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's The Perfumed Garden, early BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
programming and the American Album Oriented Rock (AOR) format. Although there was a playlist, presenters originally were given a wide latitude in choosing the music they played, and few restrictions were placed on music, lyrics or topics discussed on programs. In the early days of Double Jay, the station was run co-operatively and all staff (including office staff) were given a say in programming decisions.
The station played an unprecedented level of Australian content, favoured long album cuts, played tracks banned by other stations because of drug or sexual references, championed many styles of local and overseas music that were being excluded from commercial pop playlists (including reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, electronic and New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
) and, following the trend set by the BBC, mixed its recorded music programming with a schedule of regular weekly live-to-air studio concert broadcasts.
Double Jay also broadcast many original comedy sketches and comedy serials, and in the early years of the station it regularly ran "anti-ads" which parodied its commercial competitors. It also featured regular news broadcasts, current affairs programs, political commentary by noted journalist Mungo MacCallum
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum
Mungo Wentworth MacCallum is an Australian political journalist and commentator.He is the son of Mungo Ballardie MacCallum , and Diana Wentworth a great granddaughter of the Australian explorer and politician William Charles Wentworth...
, and audio documentaries like the controversial "The Ins and Outs of Love" (produced by Carl Tyson Hall) which included frank interviews with young people about their first experiences of sex. Other features included innovative radiophonic works such as 'What's Rangoon To You Is Grafton To Me' and 'Hot Bananas', created by presenter Russell Guy and co-narrated former ABC-TV newsreader James Dibble
James Dibble
James Edward Dibble AM MBE was an Australian television presenter, best known as the presenter of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Sydney news, reading the first news bulletin in 1956, and remaining with the ABC for 27 years up until his retirement in 1983.-Career:Dibble joined the ABC...
, and works by cult writer-musician Pip Proud
Pip Proud
Pip Proud was an Australian singer-songwriter, poet, novelist and dramatist whose idiosyncratic song-poems gained a cult following in Australia in the 1960s and around the world in the 1990s-2000s...
. Other innovative features included a regular surf report—a practice soon adopted by many other radio and TV stations—daily community billboard segments, and a daily music "What's On" segment.
The station rapidly gained popularity, especially in its target youth demographic; an (unidentified) press report published ca. March 1975 noted that in its first two months on air, Double Jay had gained a respectable 5.4% share of the total radio audience, and 17% of the 18-24 age group, whilst its rival 2SM
2SM
2SM is an Australian radio station, licensed to and serving Sydney, New South Wales, broadcasting on 1269 kilohertz on the AM band. It is owned and operated by Broadcast Operations Group...
's audience share dropped by 2.3% This was despite the fact that the station was poorly received in many parts of Sydney due to problems with its original transmitter.
2JJ was often embroiled in controversy, which began with the choice of the first song played on air on the first broadcast day — "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good In Bed" by Skyhooks, -- one of six tracks from their ten-track debut LP Living in the Seventies
Living in the Seventies
Living in the 70's was the debut album released by Melbourne band Skyhooks in October 1974 on the Mushroom Records label. Initially charting in Melbourne only in 1974, by early 1975 the rest of the nation began to catch on...
that had been banned by Australian commercial radio stations for sexual or drug references. There were regular complaints about announcers, guests and talkback callers swearing on air and a number of other widely reported controversies within the first few months of the station's life, including the media frenzy over The Ins and Outs of Love; an open air concert at Liverpool in Sydney's south-west in June 1975 (featuring Skyhooks and Dragon
Dragon (band)
Dragon is a popular New Zealand rock band, they were formed in Auckland, New Zealand in January 1972 and relocated to Sydney, Australia in May 1975. They were previously led by singer Marc Hunter and are currently led by his brother bass player Todd Hunter...
) prompted a lurid Page 1 headline "Rock Concert Filth Uproar" in the Sydney Sun, which claimed that hundreds were "shocked" by "depictions of sexual depravity and shouted obscenities", which allegedly caused women in the audience to clap their hands over their ears and reportedly prompted Coalition frontbencher Peter Nixon to call for the station to be closed down.
Although the ABC reportedly received few direct complaints about The Ins and Outs of Love (originally broadcast on Sunday 23 February 1975) it sparked a furore in the media and the Broadcasting Control Board reportedly asked for talks with the ABC about the program's sexual content. Two days after the show, the Fairfax
Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The group's operations include newspapers, magazines, radios and digital media operating in Australia and New Zealand. Fairfax Media was founded by the Fairfax family as John Fairfax and Sons, later to become John...
tabloid The Sun published an editorial calling for the station to be closed, and a week later, on 10 March 1975, the influential marketing/advertising industry journal B&T followed suit, variously demanding that the station (A) should be closed down or that (B) it should have its programming completely revamped or that (C) those staff responsible for "the present series of lapses" be removed.
Another infamous event in the late 1970s was an on-air launch party hosted by George Wayne to celebrate the release of the new AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
album Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap is the third studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC, released in 1976. All songs were written by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, and Bon Scott....
, which got so out of hand that police were eventually called to the studio.
The station also regularly sponsored live concerts and organised a number of major outdoor concert events in the late 1970s, culminating in a huge outdoor all-day event in Parramatta Park on 18 January 1981, to celebrate the end of Double Jay and the start of Triple J and headlined by Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
.
1980s: 2JJJ
On 1 August 1980 2JJ began broadcasting on the FMFrequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
band at a frequency of 105.7 MHz (again restricted within the greater Sydney region) and became 2JJJ (later, Triple J). It had also beaten the commencement of tranmission by the then new, commercial Triple-M FM rock station by ONE DAY, when it began broadcasting on 2 August 1980 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2MMM#The_Early_Days). Triple J began broadcasting in Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
at this time. Through the mid-to-late Eighties, Triple J continued to pioneer new music and developed a wide range of special-interest programs including the Japanese pop
J-pop
, an abbreviation for Japanese pop, is a musical genre that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1990s. Modern J-pop has its roots in 1960s music, such as The Beatles, and replaced kayōkyoku in the Japanese music scene...
show Nippi Rock Shop, Arnold Frolows' weekly late-night ambient music show Ambience, and Jaslyn Hall's world music show, the first of its kind in Australian mainstream radio.
It was not until the late 1980s that the ABC was finally able to begin development of the long-delayed national "youth network" and in 1989 JJJ expanded nationally to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
, Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory
Darwin is the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 127,500, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely populated Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities...
, Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
, Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
.
In 1983 four Triple Jay presenters—Peter Doyle, Virginia Moncrieff, Tony Barrell and Clive Miller—began producing a fanzine with the inscrutable title of Alan (see: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/30years/stories/alan.htm). Designed in a manic collage style by David Art Wales
David Art Wales
David Arthur Wales, a.k.a. David Wales or David Art Wales is an Australian entrepreneur and artist best known for creating satirical cult figure Guru Adrian...
, Alan featured programming information, pop trivia and irreverent interviews with recording artists (see: http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/30years/stories/interview.htm). Wales also supplied a comic strip featuring a boy sage named Guru Adrian. In a twist that added to the character's appeal, the Guru's face was that of a real child whose identity was never revealed, leading many to believe that he was in fact a real guru. Guru Adrian's philosophy, Adrianetics (see: http://www.guruadrian.com), consisted of quixotic maxims, including "Having fun is half the fun," "Gee, you are you" and "Realise your real eyes," which rapidly gained the character a cult following in Australia, with Wales making many radio and television appearances during the mid-1980s to discuss the Guru Adrian phenomenon.
In 1984, Wales teamed with renowned Australian journalist Bruce Elder on the book "Radio With Pictures: The History of Double Jay and Triple Jay." (Hale & Iremonger, publishers. National Library of Australia card no. ISBN 0 86806 191 3)
1989-1991: going national
In the late 1980s, commercial radio manager and program directorProgram director
In service industries, such as education, a program director or programme director researches, plans, develops and implements one or more of the firm's professional services...
Barry Chapman (ex-2SM
2SM
2SM is an Australian radio station, licensed to and serving Sydney, New South Wales, broadcasting on 1269 kilohertz on the AM band. It is owned and operated by Broadcast Operations Group...
Sydney) was appointed as general manager
General manager
General manager is a descriptive term for certain executives in a business operation. It is also a formal title held by some business executives, most commonly in the hospitality industry.-Generic usage:...
to oversee Triple J's network expansion. Chapman's tenure and the expansion of the network generated controversy, most notably in 1990, when a large portion of 2JJJ's Sydney-based staff was fired, (the so-called "Night of the long knives") along with many of its on-air staff, including most popular presenters Tony Biggs
Tony Biggs
Tony Biggs began his broadcasting career in the early 1980s in Brisbane on 4ZZZ. He later moved to Sydney where he hosted a show on JJJ, an Australian youth radio station. In the 1990s Tony moved to Melbourne, appearing on radio 3RRR where he presented On The Blower a talk-back discussion show...
and Tim Ritchie, the station's dance-music maven. As details of the changes became known to the public, there were accusations of a "JJJ Bland Out" (analogous to Harry Enfield
Harry Enfield
Henry Richard "Harry" Enfield is a BAFTA-winning English comedian, actor, writer and director.-Early life:...
's fictional British DJs Smashie and Nicey
Smashie and Nicey
Mike Smash and Dave Nice were two fictional television characters who first appeared in the early 1990s TV sketch show Harry Enfield's Television Programme. They were played by comedians Paul Whitehouse and Harry Enfield respectively...
) and several protests were held outside its William Street studios, as well as public meeting that packed the Sydney Town Hall with angry listeners spilling out onto the street as the town hall was not big enough to hold everyone who felt that "their" beloved radio station had been hijacked.
Concern was expressed about the introduction of a more highly programmed music format, and the appointment of Chapman was seen as an indication of a more commercial direction. Management responded that to launch a national network meant that the station must broaden its then almost-exclusive focus on the Sydney music scene, requiring the addition of new talent. When the dust had settled on the dispute, the radio programming
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
was not nearly as free-form as it had been before going national, but neither was it as highly programmed as its critics feared. In the pre-national era, there had been less emphasis on a structured playlist
Playlist
In its most general form, a playlist is simply a list of songs. They can be played in sequential or shuffled order. The term has several specialized meanings in the realms of radio broadcasting and personal computers.-In radio:...
but the introduction of a tighter playlist allowed (at least initially) a degree of input from individual presenters that exceeded that usually permitted on a commercial station.
The laissez-faire
Laissez-faire
In economics, laissez-faire describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies....
collective management style of the Double Jay days was gradually replaced by a more business-like top-down management style and after the controversial appointment of Chapman, as described above, many of the 'old guard' were dismissed from the station and replaced by presenters who were more amenable to the increasingly structured format.
Chapman had previously been program director and then manager of Sydney AM pop station 2SM
2SM
2SM is an Australian radio station, licensed to and serving Sydney, New South Wales, broadcasting on 1269 kilohertz on the AM band. It is owned and operated by Broadcast Operations Group...
, which had been Australia's top-rating and most profitable commercial radio station for most of the 1970s. As noted above, Chapman controversially replaced many of the established on-air staff (such as Tim Ritchie) with younger and less experienced presenters such as Michael Tunn
Michael Tunn
Michael Tunn is an Australian radio announcer and television presenter. He was hired by Australia's national youth station Triple J in 1990 at the age of 17, making him Australia's youngest professional radio presenter at the time....
, who at the time of his appointment was the youngest DJ in the history of Australian radio.
Chapman oversaw a radical overhaul of triple j's programming, implementing a version of the music-and-talk format that had been so successful for him at 2SM. This basic format — including an early morning comedy breakfast program with duo presenters; a late morning talk and talkback program and a light talk-and-comedy afternoon drive-time shift — remains substantially in place. Chapman also reduced the amount of comedy, documentaries and news (compared to the late Seventies) although (as he did at 2SM) he maintained and strengthened the station's commitment to live music.
In the late 1980s triple j was accused of ignoring the emerging hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
scene and related genres, in favour of the more marketable rock-oriented grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
style that dominated American music at the same time.
1990s: regional expansion
Throughout the 1990s, Triple J commenced expansion to more regional areas of Australia. In 1994, it was extended to another 18 regional centres throughout the country. In 1996, the total was brought to 44, with the new additions including Launceston, TasmaniaLaunceston, Tasmania
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...
; Albany, Western Australia
Albany, Western Australia
Albany is a port city in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, some 418 km SE of Perth, the state capital. As of 2009, Albany's population was estimated at 33,600, making it the 6th-largest city in the state....
; Bathurst, New South Wales
Bathurst, New South Wales
-CBD and suburbs:Bathurst's CBD is located on William, George, Howick, Russell, and Durham Streets. The CBD is approximately 25 hectares and surrounds two city blocks. Within this block layout is banking, government services, shopping centres, retail shops, a park* and monuments...
and Mackay, Queensland
Mackay, Queensland
Mackay is a city on the eastern coast of Queensland, Australia, about north of Brisbane, on the Pioneer River. Mackay is nicknamed the sugar capital of Australia because its region produces more than a third of Australia's cane sugar....
It played a record in Tas over and over again until Triple J became online. As of 2006, Triple J's most recent expansion was to Broome, Western Australia
Broome, Western Australia
Broome is a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The year round population is approximately 14,436, growing to more than 45,000 per month during the tourist season...
.
2000s: online and jtv
In May 2003, Arnold Frolows, the only remaining link with the original Double Jay staff of 1975, stepped down after 28 years as Triple J music director. He was replaced by presenter Richard KingsmillRichard Kingsmill
Richard "The King" Kingsmill is an Australian radio announcer and music journalist.He is best known for his work at national youth broadcaster triple j. His career at the station started in 1988 as a producer for station presenters George Wayne, Tracee Hutchison and Tim Ritchie...
.
In 2004, the station began to release podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s of some of their talkback shows, including Dr Karl
Karl Kruszelnicki
Karl Kruszelnicki AM is a scientist, who is best known as an author and science commentator on Australian radio and television. He is often referred to as Dr Karl....
, This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life (radio program)
This Sporting Life was a culturally iconic Triple J radio comedy programme, created by award-winning actor-writer-comedians John Doyle and Greig Pickhaver, who performed as their characters Roy and HG. Broadcast from 1986 to 2008, it was one of the longest-running, most popular and most successful...
and Hack.
In 2006, Triple J's coverage expanded when transmission began in Broome, Western Australia
Broome, Western Australia
Broome is a pearling and tourist town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, north of Perth. The year round population is approximately 14,436, growing to more than 45,000 per month during the tourist season...
. As Broome was one of the largest towns in Australia to not receive Triple J, the station celebrated with a concert featuring many local bands, also simulcast on the Live at the Wireless
Live at the Wireless
Live at the Wireless is a radio show, and now a long standing tradition, of Triple J, an Australian radio station. Live music is one of the central philosophies of the station....
program.
Also in 2006, Triple J launched jtv
Jtv
triple j tv is the name given to a series of Australian television programmes which started broadcast in July 2006 as a television spin-off of national radio broadcaster Triple J. They are broadcast on ABC1 and ABC2 as well as available online...
, a series of television programs broadcast on ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
and ABC2
ABC2
ABC2 is a national public television channel in Australia. Launched on 7 March 2005, it is the responsibility of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television division, and is available nationally to digital television viewers in Australia...
, as well as being made available online. Programming includes music videos, live concerts, documentaries, and comedy, as well as a behind the scenes look at Triple J's studios. In 2008 jtv was rebranded as triple j TV. triple j TV's first 'spin-off' series The Hack Half Hour premiered on 22 September 2008, hosted by Steve Cannane
Steve Cannane
Steve Cannane is a news journalist and current affairs reporter for ABC News. He currently presents The Drum on ABC News 24 and is a reporter on Lateline.Previously, Cannane worked as a reporter, producer and presenter for Triple J...
As of February 2009 triple j TV airs on 9pm Mondays on ABC2, 11pm Fridays on ABC1 and can be downloaded at triplej.net.au. The series is hosted by The Doctor aka Lindsay McDougall
Lindsay McDougall
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall is an Australian radio presenter for national youth network Triple J and guitarist in Australian punk rock band Frenzal Rhomb.- Frenzal Rhomb :...
and it features Hack reports from Antoinette Chiha, comedy from Sam Simmons, and the film segment 'Flicked' with Marc Fennell
Marc Fennell
- Film reviewing :In 2002, Fennell was a winner of the first AFI Young Film Critics Competition. He then became the film critic and reporter for Sydney radio station FBi Radio from 2003-2006....
.
Current programming mix
As well as general pop music broadcasts (with a strong bias towards new music and Australian performers, and against bubblegum popBubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
), Triple J has nightly specialist programs in different musical genres (see the programmes section below). It also covers news and current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
from a youth-oriented perspective, although this facet of their programming has been considerably reduced since the station's inception.
In common with other Australian radio stations, triple j has also gradually increased the amount of talkback
Talk radio
Talk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
content in its programming. There are several reasons for this. Most importantly, talkback provides an inexpensive and popular source of program content, and also provides the appearance of listener interactivity and involvement. And, like many other former 'all music' stations, Triple J has had to respond to the advent of music file-sharing, digital music players and other digital music innovations, which have drastically reduced listeners' dependence on radio as a means of accessing music.
Evolution of programming
The evolution of triple j's programming has always been contentious. In the Double Jay days, commercial stations and conservative types regularly cried foul over the station's free use of expletives on air and its ability to ignore the censorship restrictions that were in force on commercial radio. This situation stemmed from Double Jay's status as a special unit of the ABC, which at that time was only answerable to the ABC Board and the Minister for Communications, unlike the commercial stations, which were subject to regulation by the old Broadcasting Control Board (now the Australian Communications and Media Authority) and by their own peak body, the Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters (FACB), now known as Commercial Radio Australia.Over the years the station gained considerable renown for breaking new local acts—Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
are probably the prime example of this, and the group would almost certainly not have had anything like the success they enjoyed without the help of Double Jay/triple j. The station also broke countless overseas acts who were being ignored in their home countries. Double Jay was virtually the only 'pop' station in Australia in the late Seventies to play reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
, punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, New Wave
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
and ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
.
Over the years the station moved away from its early style, which featured a high level of news, features, documentaries, current affairs and comedy, and was gradually steered towards a non-commercial version of the continuous music format that prevailed in commercial radio. Many original Double Jay segments—the nightly "What's On" gig guide, its extensive news and current affairs coverage (which was often criticised for its alleged left-wing bias), and its 'community noticeboard' segment—were gradually eliminated, as were almost all the character comedy spots that had been popular features in previous years.
Most recently the number of songs approved for airplay on Triple J has been decreased dramatically, leading some to believe that an over-emphasis on certain styles of music, particularly electro and dance has had a negative effect on the formerly unbiased genre programming. It is also said that this has affected the cultivation of musical diversity on the Unearthed program.
Effects on local record companies and radio stations
The station also exerted a noticeable effect on local record companies. For many years, local record labels would only import recordings that they knew would get a good commercial return and they were often unwilling to take risks on local releases of unknown acts. Much new music was routinely only available as expensive imports in specialist shops. This began to change almost as soon as Double Jay came on air. A good example of the station's influence was in 1976 when Double Jay championed a new album, 801801 (band)
801 were an English experimental rock band that were originally formed in 1976 for three live concerts by*Phil Manzanera *Brian Eno...
Live, recorded by a one-off group that included former Roxy Music
Roxy Music
Roxy Music was a British art rock band formed in 1971 by Bryan Ferry, who became the group's lead vocalist and chief songwriter, and bassist Graham Simpson. The other members are Phil Manzanera , Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson . Former members include Brian Eno , and Eddie Jobson...
members Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera
Phil Manzanera is a musician and record producer. He is the lead guitarist with Roxy Music. In 2006 Manzanera co-produced David Gilmour's album On An Island and played in Gilmour's band for tours in Europe and North America...
and Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
. Although the LP was hailed overseas as one of the best live recordings ever made and set new standards of technical excellence, the Australian distributor at first refused to release it locally, in spite of the fact that it was one of the most requested items on the Double Jay playlist at the time. As a result of the import sales that generated through Double Jay airplay — it became the highest selling import album that year — the company decided to release it locally.
Triple J routinely championed many local and overseas acts whose early recordings were ignored by commercial radio—e.g. Midnight Oil, Models
Models (band)
Models were an alternative rock group formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1978 and went into hiatus in 1988. They are often incorrectly referred to as The Models. They re-formed in 2000, 2006 and 2008 to perform reunion concerts. "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", their only No. 1 hit,...
, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly (musician)
Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor...
, The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
, Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
, Public Image Ltd, Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, Foo Fighters, Pixies
Pixies (band)
The Pixies are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1986. The group consists of Black Francis , Joey Santiago , Kim Deal , and David Lovering . While the Pixies found only modest success in their home country, they were significantly more successful in the United...
, Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprises Ben Folds , Robert Sledge , and Darren Jessee . The group achieved mainstream success in the alternative, indie and pop music scenes...
, and hundreds more. As with the ABC's long-running pop TV show Countdown, the support of triple j in Australia also had a strong effect on the success of emerging overseas acts.
A case in point is American group The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
and it is believed that Double Jay was the first radio station in the world to play their debut single "Rock Lobster". The support of the Jays had a similarly significant effect on the worldwide success of many acts, including Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
, Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
, and more recently Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock trio formed in 1993 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group comprises Ben Folds , Robert Sledge , and Darren Jessee . The group achieved mainstream success in the alternative, indie and pop music scenes...
, Garbage
Garbage (band)
Garbage are an alternative rock band formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1994. The group consists of Scottish singer Shirley Manson and American musicians Duke Erikson , Steve Marker and Butch Vig . All four members are involved in songwriting and production...
, and especially Ben Harper
Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
, whose popularity in Australia—which was almost entirely the result of support from triple j —was instrumental in breaking him back in his home country, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
It is also notable that Triple J was for many years routinely used as a free market research
Market research
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy...
facility by commercial stations. As mainstream pop radio struggled to establish itself on the FM band, commercial stations like those owned by Austereo
Austereo Radio Network
Austereo Radio Network formerly operated commercial radio networks in metropolitan and regional areas of Australia. On 6 April 2011, Southern Cross Media purchased a majority of the company and is in the process of unifying the Austereo networks with Southern Cross's regional brands...
constantly monitored what songs and acts were doing well on Triple J and would then introduce the most 'saleable' of them into their own playlists. Acts like Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
, The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
, and Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
unquestionably owed their commercial success in Australia to the early support of Double Jay/Triple J.
In 1989, Triple J had been playing N.W.A.'s
N.W.A.
N.W.A was an American hip hop group from Compton, California, widely considered one of the seminal acts of the gangsta rap sub-genre....
protest song "Fuck tha Police
Fuck tha Police
"Fuck tha Police" is a protest song by the gangsta rap group N.W.A that appears on the album Straight Outta Compton. Despite not being a single, it ranked #425 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time....
" for up to six months, before gaining the attention of ABC management who subsequently banned it. As a reaction the staff went on strike and put the group's song "Express Yourself
Express Yourself (N.W.A song)
"Express Yourself" is a song recorded by American hip hop group N.W.A. The song, off their 1988 album Straight Outta Compton, samples Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band's song of the same name. Unlike most songs on the album and by N.W.A, the song is almost devoid of profanity and...
" on continuous play for 24 hours, playing it roughly 360 times in a row.
General programming
Tom & Alex is the show that features between 6am and 9am weekday mornings. It is presented by Tom BallardTom Ballard
Tom Ballard is a tall, blond, fast-talking, openly gay, Australian radio presenter and comedian.-Early life:Thomas Colin Ballard grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria and attended Brauer College Warrnambool, graduating in 2007 where he was dux with an ENTER of 99.80, and was consequently named as the...
and Alex Dyson
Alex Dyson
Alex Dyson is an Australian radio presenter who, along with co-host Tom Ballard presents the breakfast show on Australian youth radio station Triple J....
. Both were previous Weekend Breakfast presenters.
Mornings with Zan is the 9am to midday music show, hosted by Zan Rowe
Zan Rowe
Susanna "Zan" Rowe is an Australian radio announcer, best known for her work on the nationally broadcast Triple J.-Radio:...
. This timeslot was formerly held by chat and current affairs program The Morning Show until 2003, and Mel in the Morning hosted by Mel Bampton
Mel Bampton
Melissa "Mel" Bampton is an Australian radio announcer, best known for her work on the Triple J network.She began at the station in 2000 as producer of the Drive show - with Costa Zouliou, Myf Warhurst, Nicole Fossati and Charlie Pickering at various times...
from 2004 until January 2007.
Lunch with Lewi is Triple J's midday to 3pm show and is hosted by Lewis McKirdy. Each Friday afternoon features a guest DJ set.
The Doctor is the drive program, on air from 3pm to 5.30pm and is presented by Lindsay McDougall
Lindsay McDougall
Lindsay "The Doctor" McDougall is an Australian radio presenter for national youth network Triple J and guitarist in Australian punk rock band Frenzal Rhomb.- Frenzal Rhomb :...
aka 'The Doctor'.
Hack
Hack (radio program)
Hack is the title of a current affairs radio program on Australian national radio broadcaster Triple J.The show began at the start of 2004 after a shake up of the station's programming. The previous current affairs program, The Morning Show from 9 a.m. to midday, was axed and the half-hour Hack...
is a half hour current affairs program on air from 5:30pm and is presented by Tom Tilley.
Super Request
Super Request
Super Request is a weeknight radio program broadcast by Australian national youth radio broadcaster Triple J hosted by Rosie Beaton. The show airs Monday to Thursday between 6pm and 9pm and Fridays from 6pm to 10pm, due to there being no Home & Hosed on Fridays.Regular fill-ins for Rosie include...
is Triple J's requests show, broadcast weeknights from 6pm until 9pm. It is hosted by Rosie Beaton
Rosie Beaton
Rosie Beaton is an Australian radio announcer, best known for her work at Australian youth radio station Triple J.-Radio career:In 2001, Beaton was appointed host of Triple J's evening music program Super Request which airs weekdays at 6pm...
.
Midnight to Dawn, also known as Mid-dawn or The Graveyard Shift is the name of the 1am to 6am timeslot. It is often hosted by new or unknown DJs. Previous mid-dawn hosts who then went on to regular shifts include Adam Spencer
Adam Spencer
Adam Barrington Spencer is an Australian radio presenter, comedian, and media personality. He first came to fame when he won his round of the comedic talent search Raw Comedy in the mid-1990s...
, Scott Dooley
Scott Dooley
Scott "Dools" Dooley is an Australian comedian and radio announcer best known for his tenure with state-owned national youth network, Triple J...
, Dave Callan
Dave Callan
Dave Callan is a comedian based in Perth, Australia. He currently works as a Triple J disc jockey.- Biography :Callan was born in Dundalk, Ireland, and arrived in Australia in 1990, aged 15...
and Zan Rowe
Zan Rowe
Susanna "Zan" Rowe is an Australian radio announcer, best known for her work on the nationally broadcast Triple J.-Radio:...
. Current mid-dawn presenters include, The Cloud Girls
The Cloud Girls
The Cloud Girls are comedians Jennifer Carnovale and Madeleine Culp also known as carnovale & culp. They regularly perform at comedy festivals such as the Melbourne Fringe Festival and at stand-up rooms in Sydney and Melbourne...
, Brendan Maclean
Brendan Maclean
Brendan Maclean is a Sydney, Australia based national radio announcer, actor and critically awarded songwriter.-Music and Acting Career:In 2007 Maclean won Australia's National Youth Week People's Choice award for his debut record "Airport People"...
, Maggie Collins
Maggie Collins
Maggie Collins is a Brisbane based band manager and national radio announcer. Maggie is manager of Brisbane band John Steel Singers, DZ and Skinny Jean....
and Anton De Ionno
Anton De Ionno
Anton De Ionno is a Melbourne based radio presenter and writer. He presents weekly late-night shows nationally on Triple J as well as filling in for various daytime presenters.He began radio and TV work on SYN FM before moving to Triple J in 2007...
.
Speciality music shows
Triple J programming schedule includes some shows featuring many speciality genres:- 2011 (new music - the show started in 1997 and has changed name each year to match the show)
- Full Metal RacketFull Metal RacketThe Racket is an Australian heavy metal radio show airing on alternative youth broadcaster Triple J. It is hosted by Andrew Haug, who is also the drummer for Melbourne metal band Contrive...
(heavy metalHeavy metal musicHeavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
- formerly 3 Hours of Power) - Hip Hop ShowHip Hop ShowHip Hop Show is Triple J's show dedicated to hip hop.Broadcast Monday nights 10 pm - 1 am it is hosted by Hau Latukefu. Latukefu replaced Maya Jupiter on 14 April 2008....
(hip hopHip hop musicHip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
) - Home & Hosed (Triple J's Australian music show, broadcast Monday – Thursday at 9pm)
- Mix UpMix UpMix-up is Triple J's long-running Saturday night dance music show. The program started out as a 3 hour show, but when it returned in 2007 it expanded into a 4 hour program....
(DJ mixes) - Radio Funktrust (groove and funkFunkFunk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
- formerly The Groove Train) - Roots N AllRoots N AllRoots N All is the blues and roots music program on national Australian youth broadcaster Triple J. It is broadcast on Thursday nights between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. It started out as a 2 hour program starting at 11pm, but since 2006 has been expanded into a 3 hour show starting at 10pm.Roots 'N All...
(rootsRoots reggaeRoots reggae is a subgenre of reggae that deals with the everyday lives and aspirations of the artists concerned, including the spiritual side of Rastafari and with the honoring of God, called Jah by rastafarians. It also is identified with the life of the ghetto sufferer, and the rural poor...
and bluesBluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
) - short.fast.loudShort.fast.loudshort.fast.loud is a radio show on Triple J in Australia. It is hosted by Stu Harvey and features punk, hardcore, emo and similar music. The name for the show was taken from the Kid Dynamite album: Shorter, Faster, Louder...
(punk rockPunk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, hardcore punkHardcore punkHardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
, metalcoreMetalcoreMetalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
, post-hardcorePost-hardcorePost-hardcore is a genre of music that developed from hardcore punk, itself an offshoot of the broader punk rock movement. Like post-punk, post-hardcore is a term for a broad constellation of groups...
) - The ClubThe Club-Music:*The Club , a dance music program that is broadcast on Australian youth radio station Triple J*"The Club ", a song by Korean group The Grace* The Club, a song from the musical In The Heights...
(danceElectronic musicElectronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
) - The Sound Lab (experimentalExperimental musicExperimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
, IDMIntelligent dance musicIntelligent dance music is a term that describes an electronic music genre that emerged in the early 1990s. The genre is influenced by a wide range of musical styles particularly electronic dance music such as Detroit Techno...
, post-rockPost-rockPost-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
, minimal technoMinimal technoMinimal techno is a minimalist sub-genre of techno. It is characterized by a stripped-down aesthetic that exploits the use of repetition, and understated development. This style of dance music production generally adheres to the motto less is more; a principle that has been previously utilized, to...
, dubstepDubstepDubstep is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in south London, England. Its overall sound has been described as "tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals"....
, ambientAmbient musicAmbient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
, glitch)
J-Files
The weekly J-Files show has had two incarnations over the years. From 1996 to 2003, it was a three hour late weeknight show hosted by Richard KingsmillRichard Kingsmill
Richard "The King" Kingsmill is an Australian radio announcer and music journalist.He is best known for his work at national youth broadcaster triple j. His career at the station started in 1988 as a producer for station presenters George Wayne, Tracee Hutchison and Tim Ritchie...
. Each show would be topical; it may feature an artist, a particular year in the past, or songs with a certain theme. Examples of themed shows include #9 songs (which was the theme of 9 September 1999's show), cat
Cat
The cat , also known as the domestic cat or housecat to distinguish it from other felids and felines, is a small, usually furry, domesticated, carnivorous mammal that is valued by humans for its companionship and for its ability to hunt vermin and household pests...
s & dog
Dog
The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
s, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
bands, and banned
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...
songs.
From 2003 the J-Files was a one hour Saturday afternoon show, hosted by various triple j presenters, specifically focused on one particular artist. The final J-File was aired in November 2007.
Live at the Wireless
Live at the Wireless is a long standing tradition of Triple J. It is a weekly broadcast of live music, of a number of forms - open air festivals, smaller concerts, or acoustic performances in the studio. Occasionally, Triple J will host a live performance in a secret location, and give away tickets to a limited number of listeners, to allow them to be a part of the special event.Home & Hosed
Up until 2002, the Australian Music Show was Triple J's all-Australian music segment, broadcast as a three hour late weeknight show (10pm to 1am) and hosted by Richard KingsmillRichard Kingsmill
Richard "The King" Kingsmill is an Australian radio announcer and music journalist.He is best known for his work at national youth broadcaster triple j. His career at the station started in 1988 as a producer for station presenters George Wayne, Tracee Hutchison and Tim Ritchie...
. Starting in 2003, the format changed to a two-hour show every weeknight (9pm to 11pm, shortening Super Request and the late night speciality shows by an hour each) and Robbie Buck
Robbie Buck
Robbie Buck is an Australian radio announcer best known for his work at the national youth broadcaster, Triple J...
became the presenter. It proved to be one of triple j's most popular changes, as the audience (and the station itself) has traditionally been very supportive of local talent and unsigned bands. The show has now been reduced to one hour, is only on Monday to Thursdays, and is hosted by Steph Hughes and Dom Alessio.
House Party
On 2 February 2008, Triple J commenced broadcasting a house-party style programme mixed and presented by Nina Las Vegas.In July 2011, while Nina Las Vegas was on vacation, Ballarat mashup duo Yacht Club DJs hosted House Party for the entire month.
News
Triple J has their own independent news team, specifically covering news and issues that are relevant to the youth of Australia, such as education and the environment, as well as general music news.Current news staff:
- Lucy Carter
- Elize Strydom
- Angela Lavoipierre
- Annette Samojlowicz
Past news journalists (some of whom are still with Triple J):
- Grace Jones
- Simon Lauder (Now works for ABC Current Affairs Radio)
- Rhianna PatrickRhianna PatrickRhianna Patrick is a Torres Strait Islander former member of the Triple J News Team. She was born in Brisbane and grew up in Weipa before moving to Sydney; her family is of the Zagareb tribe on Mer in the eastern islands of the Torres Strait...
(Now presenting Speaking Out on ABC Local RadioABC Local RadioABC Local Radio is a network of publicly owned radio stations in Australia, operated by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.ABC Local Radio stations broadcast across the continent using terrestrial transmitters and satellites...
) - Karen Barlow (Now works for ABC Current Affairs Radio)
- Bernadette Young (Now Drive presenter on ABC Gold Coast)
- Ronan Sharkey
- Nikki Gemmell
- Daniel Browning
- Oscar McLaren
- Michael Turtle
- Sarah Gerathy
- Meredith Griffiths (Now with ABC Current Affairs Radio, AM & PM)
- Emma Swift
- Bill Birtles
- Ashleigh Raper
Hack
Hack is Triple J's half-hour news and current affairs show, broadcast from 5.30pm weeknights. It is hosted by Tom Tilley. The Executive Producer is Kaitlyn Sawrey while Michael Atkin completes the Andrew Olle Scholarship. The current reporting team includes Irene Scott, John Barrington, Patrick Abboud, Alex Mann & Claire Aird.Talkback Classroom
Triple J broadcast Talkback ClassroomTalkback Classroom
Talkback Classroom is best known as a forum for young people to interview politicians and other leading decision makers in forums recorded for broadcast and is also known as a Voice for the Voteless on the basis of its mission to provide an opportunity for young people to take part in civic dialogue...
from 1998 to 2003, a program where secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
students from around Australia interviewing various prominent politicians, business and community leaders on current affairs
Current affairs (news format)
Current Affairs is a genre of broadcast journalism where the emphasis is on detailed analysis and discussion of news stories that have recently occurred or are ongoing at the time of broadcast....
issues. The program now airs on ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
Radio National
Radio National
ABC Radio National is an Australia-wide non-commercial radio network run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.Radio National broadcasts national programming in areas that include news and current affairs, the arts, social issues, science, drama and comedy...
.
Haywire
Where the youth in outback AustraliaOutback
The Outback is the vast, remote, arid area of Australia, term colloquially can refer to any lands outside the main urban areas. The term "the outback" is generally used to refer to locations that are comparatively more remote than those areas named "the bush".-Overview:The outback is home to a...
can air their views through a youth forum. The entrant must be between 16 and 22, write and engaging story relating to the countryside and must work well on radio. There are 41 regions like Unearthed. The winner receives airplay of their story and one winner from each of the 41 regions, wins an all expenses paid trip to Canberra at the Australian Institute of Sport
Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport is a sports training institution in Australia with world class facilities and support services. The Institute's headquarters is situated in Canberra, the capital city of Australia. The 66.0 hectare site campus is in the northern suburb of Bruce, but some of the...
for the youth forum.
The Breakfast Show
Maynard Crabbes
-Radio:Maynard F# Crabbes started his radio career as a volunteer at community radio station 2NUR-FM at Newcastle University. In December 1985, he had his own program Radio Stupid, on Saturday nights from 11:00pm to station close at about 1:00am. The format was partly based on The Castanet Club...
). In the early 1990s it was co-hosted by Helen Razer
Helen Razer
Helen Razer is a Melbourne-born and Canberra-raised radio presenter and writer. She is the author of four non-fiction books and a columnist with the Australian version of The Big Issue, Melbourne newspaper The Age, and contributor to monthly magazine, Cherrie .-Media work:Razer was a prominent...
and Mikey Robbins, and later by Mikey Robbins, Paul McDermott
Paul McDermott (comedian)
Paul McDermott is an Australian comedian, actor, writer, director, singer, artist and television host. He currently hosts the satirical news-based 'Good News World' a follow up to quiz show Good News Week which airs in Australia on Network Ten...
, and The Sandman (Steve Abbott). From 1999 until 2004, it was co-hosted by Adam Spencer
Adam Spencer
Adam Barrington Spencer is an Australian radio presenter, comedian, and media personality. He first came to fame when he won his round of the comedic talent search Raw Comedy in the mid-1990s...
and Wil Anderson
Wil Anderson
William James "Wil" Anderson is an Australian comedian, writer, performing stand-up, and television and radio presenter and personality.- Early life :...
. The pair were known for their unusual sense of humour, highlighted by regular segments including Mary from Junee, Essence of Steve, and Are You Smarter Than Dools?. The Breakfast Show also featured two radio serials presented by The Sandman: "Pleasant Avenue" and "204 Bell St".
Spencer and Anderson broadcast their final program for the station on Friday 26 November 2004 from Sydney University's Manning Bar, a site that held sentimental value to Spencer, as that was where he got his start in stand-up comedy. In 2005, Jay and Lindsay (aka 'The Doctor')
Jay and the Doctor
Jay and the Doctor are the on-air names of Australian radio duo Jason Whalley and Lindsay McDougall, on radio station Triple J.Best known as members of punk band Frenzal Rhomb, they performed occasional late-night shifts on Triple J until 2004...
from Frenzal Rhomb
Frenzal Rhomb
Frenzal Rhomb are an Australian punk rock band which formed in 1992 with mainstay Jason Whalley on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. In 1996, Lindsay McDougall joined the line-up on lead guitar and backing vocals. Two of the group's albums have peaked into the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart, A...
took over as hosts of Triple J's breakfast show. New segments include the radio skits Space Goat and Battalion 666, as well as the Under the Weather Sessions and The Friday Fuckwit. From 8 January 2007, former Lunch presenter Myf Warhurst
Myf Warhurst
Myfanwy "Myf" Warhurst is an Australian radio announcer and television personality, best known for her work at Triple J and on ABC Television's music-themed quiz show Spicks and Specks. Before her career as a radio announcer and TV personality, she was editor-in-chief of Melbourne street press...
joined Jay and Lindsay as a permanent member of the Breakfast Show team.
Following the departure of Jay to go travelling, the 2008-2009 Breakfast Show line up was Robbie Buck
Robbie Buck
Robbie Buck is an Australian radio announcer best known for his work at the national youth broadcaster, Triple J...
, The Doctor, and Marieke Hardy
Marieke Hardy
Marieke Josephine Hardy is an Australian writer, broadcaster, television producer and former television actress.-Early life and family:...
. They regularly maintained contact with Jay during his overseas travel, calling him during a segment named Where in the World is Jason "Jay" Whalley", a pun on Where's Wally and Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? is the title of several edutainment computer games in the Carmen Sandiego series that teach geography. The World games, often marketed as the flagship products of the Carmen series, were created by Brøderbund Software from 1985 to 1996 with another version...
.
In 2009, Robbie, Marieke, and The Doctor had a serial called "Claytron". Tuesdays offered "Nerds of a Feather" with Paul Francis Verhoeven
Paul Francis Verhoeven
Paul Verhoeven is a Melbourne-based national radio announcer, writer and blogger.He broadcasts weekly for youth station Triple J, as the host of the segment on The Breakfast Show with Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson...
, whilst Friday offered "The Friday Fuckwit" as well as "Like a Version", a segment where famous recording artists perform a cover version of a song of their choice.
On 23 November 2009, it was announced that Tom Ballard
Tom Ballard
Tom Ballard is a tall, blond, fast-talking, openly gay, Australian radio presenter and comedian.-Early life:Thomas Colin Ballard grew up in Warrnambool, Victoria and attended Brauer College Warrnambool, graduating in 2007 where he was dux with an ENTER of 99.80, and was consequently named as the...
and Alex Dyson
Alex Dyson
Alex Dyson is an Australian radio presenter who, along with co-host Tom Ballard presents the breakfast show on Australian youth radio station Triple J....
(hosts of the 2009 Weekend Breakfast show) would take over as hosts of the 2010 Breakfast show. "Like a Version" has continued with Ballard and Dyson in 2010.
Weekend Breakfast
Past presenters have included Jim Trail, Paul Francis Verhoeven, Costa ZouliouCosta Zouliou
Costa Zouliou is an Australian radio announcer best known for his work at Triple J. Although born in Melbourne, he was raised, and now lives in Brisbane. He is currently working behind-the-scenes and presenting fill-in shifts at radio station ABC Classic FM...
, Gaby Brown
Gaby Brown
Gaby Brown is an Australian radio presenter,born in Sydney in February 1976, best known for her work on the national youth broadcaster triple j....
, Scott Dooley
Scott Dooley
Scott "Dools" Dooley is an Australian comedian and radio announcer best known for his tenure with state-owned national youth network, Triple J...
, and Sam Simmons. Caroline Tran
Caroline Tran
Caroline Tran is an Australian radio announcer on the national youth broadcaster Triple J.She moved to Melbourne, Australia, from Vietnam with her family when she was three. As an adult, she worked several other jobs before getting involved with radio broadcasting at the Australian Film...
returned in 2010.
This Sporting Life
This Sporting Life (TSL), which ran from 1986 to 2008, was a parody of sporting panel programs, created and hosted by actor-writer-comedians John DoyleJohn Doyle (comedian)
John Partick Doyle AM is an award-winning Australian actor, writer, radio presenter and comedian.-Early life:Doyle was born in Lithgow, New South Wales in 1953 into a music-loving, Catholic household with three sisters and a brother. His mother was a business woman and father a railway fettler...
and Greig Pickhaver
Greig Pickhaver
alt=Greig Pickhaver|thumb|In May 2010Greig Pickhaver AM is an actor, comedian and writer, who forms one half of the Australian sports comedy duo Roy and HG...
(under the pseudonyms Roy Slaven & HG Nelson). As well as sport, the duo cast a wide comedic net that encompassed the worlds of entertainment, politics and celebrity. TSL was remarkable as one of the few successful comedy programs that was substantially improvised.
The longest-running show in Triple J's programming history, TSL commanded a large and dedicated nationwide audience. Special editions of TSL were broadcast to coincide with the NRL
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
and AFL
Australian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
grand finals (The Festival of the Boot) as well as for all three State of Origin
Rugby League State of Origin
State of Origin is an annual best of three series of rugby league football matches contested by the Maroons and the Blues, who represent the Australian states of Queensland and New South Wales respectively...
matches. (see Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary
Roy and HG's State of Origin commentary
Broadcast on the Triple J radio station to simulcast with the annual three-game rugby league State of Origin series, Australian comedians Roy and HG provide a commentary of the match at hand...
). In 2009, after 22 years at the ABC, the duo left to work for the commercial rock station Triple M
Triple M
The Triple M Network is an active rock radio network in Australia owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :...
.
Raw Comedy Competition
Triple J supports, promotes and broadcasts clips from the Raw ComedyRaw Comedy
Raw Comedy is an Australian competition for emerging stand-up comedians, established in 1996 and held annually since.Heats take place in major Australian cities through January, February and March. State semi-finals and finals are held in the state capitals in March...
Competition, which is produced by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Podcasts of competition sets are available via the Triple J website.
Restoring the Balance
Restoring the Balance was broadcast sporadically on Sunday afternoons during 2004. The primary concept behind the show is a satire of the contrasting political views between the conservative Australian Howard governmentJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
, and the left-wing
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
government-funded Triple J radio station. The show suggests that the station was forced to broadcast a segment of right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
political views in order to restore the balance.
Ross and Terri
Ross and Terri broadcast weekdays at lunch times, for two 2-week periods, over summer 2005 and 2006. It was hosted by Ross NobleRoss Noble
Ross Markham Noble is an English stand-up comedian, brought up in Cramlington, Northumberland, England.Noble rose to mainstream popularity through making appearances on British television, particularly interviews and on celebrity quiz shows such as Have I Got News for You...
and Terri Psiakis
Terri Psiakis
Terri Psiakis is an Australian comedienne and a presenter on radio and television.-Radio:Psiakis is a Saturday morning presenter on Melbourne radio station Triple M. Previously she was a casual presenter on Triple J, and her appearances most notably included co-presenting the Ross and Terri show...
. It was initially a filler show, but the popularity of the pair was enough to bring them back in 2006.
Today Today
Today Today was the name given to the drive show in 2004 and 2005, hosted by ChaserThe Chaser
The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedian group, known for their television programmes on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation channel. The group take their name from their production of satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste...
members Chris Taylor
Chris Taylor (comedian)
Christopher Thornton "Chris" Taylor is an Australian comedian, writer and former radio host from Sydney. As a member of The Chaser, he is best known for co-writing and appearing on satirical ABC Television shows CNNNN and The Chaser's War on Everything...
and Craig Reucassel
Craig Reucassel
Craig Bruce Reucassel is a television and radio comedian from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is best known for being a member of satirical team The Chaser...
. The show's name was derived from Today Tonight
Today Tonight
Today Tonight is a controversial Australian News and Current Affairs program, produced by the Seven Network and shown weeknightly at in direct competition with rival Nine Network program A Current Affair....
, a controversial Australian TV current affairs show screened on the Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
. Their humour was in a similar vein to CNNNN and The Chaser
The Chaser (newspaper)
The Chaser was a newspaper, published in Australia by political satire group The Chaser from 1999 to 2005.The newspaper, first published on 9 May 1999, was The Chaser team's most famous enterprise. Among other things, they have published Australian Prime Minister John Howard's private, unlisted...
, being more politically driven. One of their more popular skits was "Coma FM", a parody of commercial radio stations.
Radio plays
Triple J currently has had several comedic radio playsRadio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
:
- Coma FM - satirical radio station performed by Today Today hosts Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel.
- Space Goat - a parody radio sci fiScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
performed by the breakfast show's Jay and the DoctorJay and the DoctorJay and the Doctor are the on-air names of Australian radio duo Jason Whalley and Lindsay McDougall, on radio station Triple J.Best known as members of punk band Frenzal Rhomb, they performed occasional late-night shifts on Triple J until 2004...
which borrowed many features of early radio science fictions such as a long intro for very little story which leaves many questions open, which the narrator spends some time pointing out at the end. - Battalion 666 - a comedic radio drama which takes place on a fictional Royal NavyRoyal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
ship, the HMS Beezlebub. It came about when, in 2004, the Royal Navy officially recognised SatanismSatanismSatanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...
as an official religion in which its personnel can partake. The show features Jay and the DoctorJay and the DoctorJay and the Doctor are the on-air names of Australian radio duo Jason Whalley and Lindsay McDougall, on radio station Triple J.Best known as members of punk band Frenzal Rhomb, they performed occasional late-night shifts on Triple J until 2004...
, John SafranJohn SafranJohn Safran is an Australian documentary maker and radio broadcaster, known for combining humour with explorations into religion and other issues...
, and various sound clips of famous people taken from recorded interviews such as Tom CruiseTom CruiseThomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Russell CroweRussell CroweRussell Ira Crowe is a New Zealander Australian actor , film producer and musician. He came to international attention for his role as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 historical epic film Gladiator, directed by Ridley Scott, for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor, a...
.
Saturday Night / Graveyard Shift
In 2005 Dave CallanDave Callan
Dave Callan is a comedian based in Perth, Australia. He currently works as a Triple J disc jockey.- Biography :Callan was born in Dundalk, Ireland, and arrived in Australia in 1990, aged 15...
started at Triple J presenting the Saturday night/Sunday early morning program the Graveyard Shift.
In 2006 Dave hosted the Saturday evening timeslot, called Saturday Night. The show followed the pattern of Callan's mid-dawn shifts from previous years. In January 2007 this show was renamed Pirate Radio after one of the personae commonly adopted by callers. Listener interaction plays a significant role in Callan's programs with regular callers such as "Steph from Tamworth", "Snake Charmer Farmer", and "Ukelele Guy", as well as an assortment of "randoms" and "carnies". On 27 January 2008, Dave returned to the Graveyard Shift (1-6am Sunday mornings). From January 2009 the show was shortened, finishing at 4am.
Sunday Night Safran
Since 2005, John SafranJohn Safran
John Safran is an Australian documentary maker and radio broadcaster, known for combining humour with explorations into religion and other issues...
and Father Bob Maguire
Bob Maguire
Robert John Thomas "Bob" Maguire AM, RFD is an Australian Catholic priest, community worker and media personality from South Melbourne. Commonly known as "Father Bob", Maguire was awarded the Order of Australia in 1989...
have co-hosted a Sunday night talk show interviewing international guests, generally discussing serious topics like religion and politics.
The Race Race
Beginning on 27 October 2008, Chris Taylor and Craig Reucassel co-hosted a comedy program centred on the 2008 US Presidential Election entitled The Race Race. The program aired at 5pm weekdays until the wrap-up episode, which aired on 5 November 2008, after the elections had concluded.The program derived its name from the fact that Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, the first African–American to be nominated by a major American political party for president, was running a formerly exclusively white political race against the white Republican candidate, John McCain
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
. The program became the number one podcast in Australia, and Triple J released a number of commemorative Race Race T-shirts which featured the show's catchphrase "I Like Pie
I like pie
"I like pie" is a statement indicating stupidity, often in the form of an ironic reply on Internet forums and newsgroups to indicate one's opinion of the comment to which one is responding. It might also be used as self-deprecating humor....
".
Hottest 100
Opinion poll
An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...
of the most popular songs amongst its listeners. It has been conducted for almost two decades in its present form, and in 2005 it attracted 1.26 million votes, from 152 countries - the largest annual music poll in the world. It has also spawned a series of successful compilation
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s, and more recently, music DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s.
The countdown of the top 100 songs on Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
weekend, usually accompanied by a barbecue
Barbecue
Barbecue or barbeque , used chiefly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia is a method and apparatus for cooking meat, poultry and occasionally fish with the heat and hot smoke of a fire, smoking wood, or hot coals of...
plus obligatory beverage, has become an annual summer ritual for Triple J fans around Australia and around the world.
Unearthed
Unearthed, an ongoing project to find hidden talent, began in 1995. It originally focused on regional areas but now covers all areas of Australia. Many of these discoveries have been very successful—some have even been successful enough to receive commercial radio airplay, such as GrinspoonGrinspoon
Grinspoon are an Australian rock band from Lismore, New South Wales formed in 1995 and fronted by Phil Jamieson on vocals and guitar with Pat Davern on guitar, Joe Hansen on bass guitar and Kristian Hopes on drums. Also in 1995, they won the Triple J-sponsored Unearthed competition for Lismore,...
, Killing Heidi
Killing Heidi
Killing Heidi were an Australian rock band from Violet Town, Victoria. The band, which has been on hiatus since 2006, are best known for their multi-platinum album Reflector, released in 2000.-Early years :...
, and Missy Higgins
Missy Higgins
Melissa "Missy" Morrison Higgins is an Australian pop singer-songwriter, musician and actor. Her No. 1 albums in Australia are The Sound of White and On a Clear Night , and her Top Ten singles are "Scar", "The Special Two", "Steer" and "Where I Stood". From a musical family in...
.
The Unearthed competition was inspired by the success of a talent search on SBS
Special Broadcasting Service
The Special Broadcasting Service is a hybrid-funded Australian public broadcasting radio and television network. The stated purpose of SBS is "to provide multilingual and multicultural radio and television services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians and, in doing so, reflect...
program Nomad called "Pick Me". This segment, co-produced by Triple J, discovered a trio from Newcastle
Newcastle, New South Wales
The Newcastle metropolitan area is the second most populated area in the Australian state of New South Wales and includes most of the Newcastle and Lake Macquarie Local Government Areas...
called the "Innocent Criminals", who later gained international fame under the name Silverchair
Silverchair
Silverchair were an Australian rock band, which formed in 1992 as Innocent Criminals in Merewether, Newcastle with the line-up of Ben Gillies on drums, Chris Joannou on bass guitar and Daniel Johns on vocals and guitars. The group got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo...
.
The most recent incarnation of Unearthed is run online, and allows listeners to rate and review songs uploaded by bands and musicians.
Some on-air promotions for the first volume were recorded at the Triple J studios in Ultimo by Darren McErlain in 1996. He was invited to record voice-overs for Triple J, whilst completing an internship at ABC Radio News.
Beat the Drum
Triple J occasionally runs a competition known as 'Beat the Drum' - named for their logo of three drumsticks hitting a drum. It is a competition designed to promote the logo, whereby, whoever displayed it in the most prominent place would win a prize. Notable entries include:- A girl who distributed postcards of herself with the Triple J logo painted on her naked buttocks
- A Triple J t-shirt being waved behind the final lap of, and the presentation of a gold medalGold medalA gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
for Kieren PerkinsKieren PerkinsKieren John Perkins OAM , is a former Australian professional swimmer. One of the world's best-ever long-distance swimmers, he won two Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 1996 in the 1500-metre freestyle, and a silver medal in 2000....
' victorious 1500 m swim at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics1996 Summer OlympicsThe 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.... - One of the 2000 Sydney Olympics2000 Summer OlympicsThe Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
opening ceremony participants wearing a Triple J T-shirt bearing the logo - The placement of a large Triple J logo on the musicians platform at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympics2000 Summer OlympicsThe Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
. - The winner in 2000 who drove his car, converted into a large 3D drum logo, across Australia.
- A group of people erecting road signs with the Triple J frequency all the way up the east coast of Australia
- A farmer in Queensland who formed a drum logo shaped crop circleCrop circleA crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented...
measuring 1 by 1.5 km in his wheat-fields. This entry won in the individual/small group category in 2004. - Students from the University of TasmaniaUniversity of TasmaniaThe University of Tasmania is a medium-sized public Australian university based in Tasmania, Australia. Officially founded on 1 January 1890, it was the fourth university to be established in nineteenth-century Australia...
's HobartHobartHobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
Campus stripping down to their underwear and painting themselves red to form the logo on the university's football oval which was then aerially photographed.
In late 2004, the station's promotion for that year's Beat the Drum contest caused a brief but bitter controversy after it released a series of promotional images featuring the 'Drum' logo. Many were outraged by the inclusion of a mocked-up image of the former World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
draped with a huge Drum flag.
Impossible Music Festival
The Impossible Music Festival, broadcast in August 2005 was a celebration of 30 years of live music recordings made by JJ and Triple J. Voted for by listeners from over 1000 recorded gigs/concerts, the broadcast went from 6pm Friday the 26th to 1am Monday the 29th. The 2006 Impossible Music Festival was aired on the weekend of 7–8 October. The 2007 Impossible Music Festival broadcast from Friday 25 May to Sunday 27 May. The 2008 Impossible Music Festival was broadcast from Friday 19 September until Sunday 21 September.Triple J's One Night Stand
The One Night Stand, held annually since 2004, offers a small town the opportunity to host a free, all ages concert, sponsored by Triple J, featuring three or four Australian musical acts. Entries must include examples of local support, including community (signatures), local government (council approval), and a venue for the concert.Ausmusic Month
Each November on triple j is Ausmusic month, where Australian artists are heavily promoted. This includes a solid weekend of Australian music; some free, limited-entry concerts around the country; All-Australian feature albums; Live at the Wireless; and each day, a new "unknown" Australian band is featured and played several times during the day.J Awards
The J Awards are an annual awards ceremony held at the start of December each year to celebrate Australian music. Awards include; the Unearthed J AwardJ Award
The J Award is an award given by influential Australian youth radio station Triple J to Australian Album of the Year. It is judged by a panel of members of the music industry, led by Richard Kingsmill...
for best Unearthed artist, the J Award
J Award
The J Award is an award given by influential Australian youth radio station Triple J to Australian Album of the Year. It is judged by a panel of members of the music industry, led by Richard Kingsmill...
for Australian Music Video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
of the year, and the main J Award for Australian album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
of the year, judged by a panel of Triple J presenters. Past winners of the J Award
J Award
The J Award is an award given by influential Australian youth radio station Triple J to Australian Album of the Year. It is judged by a panel of members of the music industry, led by Richard Kingsmill...
include; Wolfmother
Wolfmother
Wolfmother is an Australian rock band from Erskineville, Sydney. Formed in 2000, the group was originally a trio composed of vocalist and guitarist Andrew Stockdale, bassist and keyboardist Chris Ross and drummer Myles Heskett. Wolfmother released their self-titled debut album in October 2005,...
(2005), Hilltop Hoods
Hilltop Hoods
The Hilltop Hoods are an ARIA Award winning Australian hip hop group, from Adelaide, South Australia. Their members are MCs Suffa , MC Pressure , DJ Debris and formerly DJ Next. They have been at the centre of the Australian hip hop scene for the better part of two decades, originally forming back...
(2006), and The Panics
The Panics
The Panics are an ARIA Award–winning indie rock band originally from Perth, Western Australia, and currently based in Melbourne, Victoria.-History:...
(2007). In 2008, The Presets
The Presets
The Presets are an Australian electronic duo formed in 2003, consisting of Julian Hamilton on vocals and keyboards, and Kim Moyes on drums and keyboards. They released their debut album Beams in 2005 to positive critical response. Their 2008 release Apocalypso debuted at number-one on the ARIA...
took out the award for Apocalypso
Apocalypso (album)
Apocalypso is the second full-length album by Australian electronic duo The Presets. The album was released by Modular Recordings on the 12 April 2008 in Australia, on 13 May in the United States, and 2 June in the United Kingdom...
. In 2009 the award was won by Sarah Blasko
Sarah Blasko
Sarah Elizabeth Blaskow , is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. After fronting Sydney-based band Acquiesce from the mid-1990s, Blasko developed her solo career from 2002. In 2007, she won the 'Best Pop Release' for What the Sea Wants, the Sea Will Have at the ARIA Music Awards, which...
. In 2010, Tame Impala
Tame Impala
Tame Impala are a psychedelic rock band from Perth, Australia. They are signed to Modular Records. The band came to prominence in 2010 with the release of their first debut album, Innerspeaker. Their name refers to the impala, a medium sized antelope...
won the coveted J Award.
Will Styles Awards
The Will Styles award is a weekly award for the person making the biggest on air gaffe. It is also known as the humpty dumpty award.Presenters
Many Double Jay and early triple j presenters went on to successful careers with commercial stations, the most notable being Doug MulrayDoug Mulray
Douglas John Mulray is an Australian comedian, radio and television presenter.-Radio career:...
, who honed his distinctive comedy-based style at the Jays before moving to rival FM rock station 2-MMM (Triple M
Triple M
The Triple M Network is an active rock radio network in Australia owned by media company Austereo, who also own the Today Network.- History :...
) in the 1980s, where he became the most popular breakfast presenter in Sydney (and one of the highest-paid radio personalities in the country). Presenter Annette Shun Wah
Annette Shun Wah
Annette Shun Wah is a prominent figure in the Australian media, but particularly in television, film and radio. Shun Wah was born in Cairns, Queensland of Chinese ancestry.-Radio and television:...
went on to host the popular Rock Around the World series on SBS and is now a program executive with SBS TV and producer of The Movie Show
The Movie Show
The Movie Show is an Australian film review program that airs on SBS TV. Its history falls into three parts.-Original format:The original format, which ran from 30 October 1986 to 12 May 2004, had two presenters, David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz. Stratton and Pomeranz left for the ABC in early...
.
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See also
- List of Australian radio stations
- Triple J announcers (Category)
- BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
- CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3CBC Radio 3 is a radio station that consists of two parts devoted to Canadian arts and music: a radio service which is available on Sirius Satellite Radio and streaming audio, and several daily and weekly podcasts from the CBC Radio 3 website...
- BBC 6 MusicBBC 6 MusicBBC 6 Music is one of the BBC's digital radio stations, was launched on 11 March 2002 and originally codenamed Network Y. It was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years....
- Le Mouv'Le Mouv'Le Mouv' is a French youth-oriented radio station which began broadcasting on 17 June 1997. As part of Radio France, it is a public radio station. The station primarily plays alternative rock. Initially based in Toulouse, it moved to Paris in December 2001. The radio station does not claim to be a...
- FM4FM4FM4 is an Austrian national radio station, operated by the ORF. Its main target is the youth audience, and much of the music output is characterised by an alternative rock and electronic music slant....
- MDR Sputnik
External links
- Triple J - includes live audio streaming of the station's broadcast, as well as archives of recent editions of shows.
- Conference paper: Fandom, Triple J and the Unearthed competition: a regional perspective by Kate Ames, Central Queensland UniversityCentral Queensland UniversityCQUniversity is an Australian public university based in Queensland. Its main campus is in North Rockhampton Queensland. However, it also has campuses in Bundaberg, Emerald, Gladstone and Mackay, as well as operations throughout Asia-Pacific. For instance, Melior Business School is one of its...
- Triple J's 30th Anniversary webpage featuring historical information about key events in the station's history as well as vintage audio and video
- Jplay JJJ Playlists
- Link to Triple J frequency finder