The bumpers are all 5-10 years old, the audio beds almost all 10 years, if not 15-20 years old.
Presenters over-rely on prompts / call-in questions. Weekend mornings / afternoons presenters are very deer in the headlights at the best of times and are at the skill level you only used to see on mid-dawn weekdays, often so bad that you almost have to wonder if it’s pre-recorded.
Noticeable cut backs in sponsored events, replaced with constantly talking about social media, predominantly TikTok. They never shut up about TikTok!
Like A Version is stale even after it’s COVID break, and despite clear attempts from within to jump-start it (e.g. The Wiggles). Needs a longer hiatus / replacement with something else.
The amount of time Good Nights is talk is crazy considering they wiped 1-2 hours and a day off the show this year and it’s now only running 2hrs, 4 days a week! I’m convinced that there wouldn’t be such intense hatred for the current breakfast hosts if they were given less time to talk, and as for drive you have the issue of their weekly topics / formats becoming stale and repetitive in part because of how long they dedicate to talking.
Yet bizarrely they play stuff that once upon a time would have only appeared on CHR playlists in this country e.g. Jack Harlow, Olivia Rodrigo and they will play former Unearthed Alumni that have gone full mainstream and would otherwise never be appearing on the playlist anymore if they weren’t from Unearthed - e.g. Tones and I, G-Flip, Kid LAROI, etc - there’s not enough consistency as to what mainstream stuff is allowed vs not allowed on the playlist and this comes across as messy.
As someone who generally only listens to radio in the car it’s still the only radio I listen to but the alarm bells are really starting to ring this year, and if ratings performance continues on its current trajectory than surely an overhaul is necessary.
Yep, last year they were doing ‘ok’ but the wheels seem to have fallen off Triple J in 2022.
I take your point about the mainstream stuff. The advantage Radio 1 has is that it can play a lot of niche stuff that might turn some listeners away, but it will mix in a lot of ultra mainstream hits - Gaga, Harry Styles etc - to tide people across and keep them invested.
Triple J needs to emulate this, and I can see theyre trying during Breakfast and Drive (a lot of top songs from the Hottest 100s of the last decade being played). But then the presenters then talk for so long between songs that it doesn’t make it worthwhile sticking around. It feels like the motions of Breakfast/Drive are: I listen to 3 minutes of talking, then a 4 minute song I hate, just to get to a song I moderately tolerate, before another 3 minutes of talking.
Yeah, hearing too many Tones and I & Kid LAROI tracks was what caused me to tune out
No disrespect to these acts, but if you’re going to be heard billions of times a week on Nova and KIIS, perhaps you don’t need to be played endlessly on Triple J as well…
To do that, you gotta find some spectrum on the FM Band in order to put Double J on the FM Band in Country areas which is a bit difficult at this time (unless you want to kick one of the other ABC services off their Frequency or put stations within 400khZ of nearby stations.)
For example, 101.7 is currently unused in the Bega/Cooma area so Double J would be assigned to that Frequency in which it is the easiest option of a Frequency I can think of.
88.5 for Launceston is another good option. Maybe 91.9 Latrobe Valley.
I reckon most likely Classic FM will go, but agree finding additional frequencies that provide the same coverage as current ABC FM services will be problematic in most locations.
101.7 may interfere with 3MGB Mallacoota and 91.9 is used by SEN at Warragul.
They might need to go with lower power town based services that run at only 1,000 to 2,000 watts to avoid those issues.
It’s only because they both came from unearthed - once upon a time if an unearthed artist moved into mainstream pop they’d phase them out, but since Tones and I the J’s seem extremely resistant to doing this even if the music clashes with the rest of the triple j playlist.
I am a massive fan of BBC Radio 1, and have converted my kids from Nova too. The music is spot on. They mix the mainstream pop very well with the more alternative indie pop, Hip Hop and dance music.
Exclusive alternative music shows air between 11pm and 5am.
If Triple j copied the BBC Radio 1 format yes they would loose the more alternative listeners to the likes of FBI, Triple R, etc, but would pickup listeners from KIIS, Nova and Hit.
If you look at the UK RAJARS BBC R1 has more listeners and share then Capital fm, Kiss, Heart.
I also agree the announcers on Triple J sound unpolished, and at times almost community radio.
Triple J going mainstream would piss off CRA who are happy to maintain the status quo, and not have their members facing new competition.
Metro markets are Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth, all other markets are regional.
For a national rollout of Double J to occur, you would have to sacrifice community radio, or Classic fm by moving it exclusively to dab+ / digital Tv, or streaming. There is just not enough available fm frequencies to go around.
The markets you mentioned Gold Coast, and Canberra both have no additional fm frequencies available, so no chance of Double J going to fm there.
