Triple J

This interview with Scott Goodings was recorded for the website From Wireless to Web, produced in 2005.

Scott Goodings is a self-proclaimed 'TV freak’ and walking archive. You can view his full biography at From Wireless to Web

The website is a selective history of broadcast media in Australia. Decade by decade, from radio and newsreels to TV and the internet, this history shows how the Australian broadcast media developed and shaped the way Australians see themselves.

From Wireless to Web is a Film Australia production in association with Roar Film.

Area of study 3. Australian media organisations

This area of study focuses on an analysis of Australian media organisations and the social and industrial framework within which they operate.

Media products are produced within a cultural, aesthetic, legal, political, economic, institutional and historical framework. Their production, distribution and circulation is affected by law, self-regulatory codes of conduct, industry pressures and the practices of particular media organisations. Other factors (for example, sources of revenue, ratings, circulation, ownership and control) influence the nature and range of media texts produced by individual organisations. Consideration of the impact of these factors on media organisations and their products is important in developing an understanding of the production role of different Australian media organisations.

According to their website, it was a hot summer’s day when radio station 2JJ first broadcast in Sydney on 19 January 1975. The heat continued when they launched onto the airwaves by playing their first track: the Skyhooks song You Just Like Me 'Cause I’m Good in Bed, which commercial radio stations refused to play.

In the beginning the station was called 2JJ, and it broadcast on the 'fossil yard’ AM band. The station moved across to the FM band on 1 August 1980, and renamed itself 2JJJ, better known as Triple J.

By 1989, Triple J had a plan to became Australia’s national youth broadcaster, and since the end of 1996 Triple J has broadcast to all capital cities as well as places like Broken Hill, Dubbo, Grafton, Taree, Wollongong, Cairns, Rockhampton, Ballarat, Bendigo, Alice Springs, Kalgoorlie, Wagga Wagga, Mildura, Warrnambool and dozens of smaller communities, some of whom have funded their own Triple J transmitter.

Triple J is part of the ABC’s national radio network. It is non-commercial and has a focus on new music from Australia and around the world. According to its website, they 'love music, and with about 80 transmitters scattered across Australia, Triple J can share the love better than anyone else. Triple J is available to 95 per cent of the Australian population (the other 5 per cent don’t have ears, go figure), loud and proud in beautiful FM stereo. Triple J is also streamed online, so if you’re on the web, you can listen to us from wherever you are in the world … Triple J is here to represent young people’s musical and cultural requirements, and no one else’s.’ (Triple J)

In 1987, ABC Television launched Rage, 'an all-night music show which screens nationally’. Rage plays new releases on Friday nights followed by the national Top 50, which play through to Saturday morning. On Saturday nights Rage features specials and guest programmers. (Rage)

Answer the following questions from the Video Clip Context and the video clip itself:

1. What impact do you think JJJ would have had on young people outside the capital cities when it was first broadcast across the nation?
2. What sort of alternative to the mainstream media do you think JJJ provides? Do you think there is a viable market for JJJ television?
3. Write out an imaginary program guide for a day of JJJ radio. Make it your perfect day’s radio listening.

Go to From Wireless to Web for more about the history of broadcast media in Australia.