Last week, Crikey had a look at Screen Australia’s data on declining levels of Australian content in the new digital television environment. With new multichannels to introduce, and no content restrictions to hold them back, Australia’s television network shave made hay with cheap foreign content, diluting the proportion of home-grown content on our screens.
This week we look at one practical response to that problem, from ABC’s youth radio network Triple J. A high-profile and well-funded part of the ABC’s radio empire, Triple J often cops criticisms that stem from perceptions about the commercial focus of its playlists and the general “FM radio” sheen of much of its presentation (the sweepers, the compression, and, yes, the advertisements).
But when it comes to the Australian music industry, Triple J matters. Its ability to break new artists and to build audiences for established ones makes it a key player in the local music scene, influential far beyond what its audience figures would suggest.
Now Triple J is launching a new digital multichannel — Triple J Unearthed — specifically devoted to new and emerging Australian contemporary music. The new channel will fish from the deep content pool the station has acquired over recent years via its emerging musicians portal, triplejunearthed.com, which the station says has over 30,000 artists and 250,000 users.
Crikey spoke to Triple J’s manager Chris Scaddan before the launch of the new channel last week. “It’s 100% Australian music, all unsigned and independent,” he said. “It’s got to a point that there’s over 31,000 artists on there, so there’s so much goddamn music that, you know, we’ve seen the need to create a full-time station on the radio.”
The station will roll out initially in the five big capital cities on the mainland, with plans to extend to other centres as digital radio slowly expands across more of Australia. But, importantly, the service will also stream live from the Triple J Unearthed website.
For Scaddan: “Australian content has always been important to Triple J, since it began. We’re up to the point on Triple J itself where every month we play between 40% and 50% Australian music across our general playlist and programs.” The new channel will build on this.
The format of Unearthed will be akin to ABC’s digital radio channels (Dig, Dig Jazz) but with higher production levels. There won’t be genre-based shows but rather a continuous stream with limited announcements.
“There won’t be presenters in the sense that you’d expect traditionally on Triple J or other radio stations,” Scaddan said, “so there won’t be a breakfast show or a drive show or that sort of thing. But it’s going to be a little bit beyond what the other ABC digital channels sound like as well, so it will be a constant stream of music, it’s very much going to be driven by the music. Digital radio allows text information to go out as well, so people can read track information, artist information as songs are being played.
“A couple of times across each hour you might hear an artist actually introduce their own tracks.”
This is not just a new channel on the cheap. The ABC’s radio division is investing modest funds from its own budget to staff and produce the channel. Unearthed will get its own music director, though who will fill the position has yet to be announced. “That said, Mark Scott and the broader ABC management have always been strong supporters of Unearthed,” Scaddan contends.
An important aspect of the new station for emerging artists will be the potential to garner new revenue streams through APRA payments for Triple J air time. While most artists receiving airplay won’t get more than a few dollars, the struggles of emerging artists are such that even a few dollars here and there can make all the difference when it comes to hiring that studio or buying that new set of strings.
It is easy to criticise Triple J but the new Unearthed channel shows the ABC and (indeed public sphere broadcasting in general) at its best: leveraging its existing infrastructure, technical expertise and deep content pools to present and expose Australian content.
I’m not sure that the threat of an endless stream of presenterless amateur recordings strikes me as radio gold. Particularly when I have to buy a new radio to get it.
It’s definitely a clever use of resources, but I’m already afraid that Unearthed is where innovative new music goes to die as a carousel of ‘in’ bands get churned onto rotation for a period and then left to rot.
I’d much rather see a national station that caters to the bulk of music-lovers. Currently there’s at one end the patronising extreme of ‘youth’ music where words such as ‘heaps’ and ‘reckons’ grate my spine in newscasting; and the members of the nation’s symphony orchestras and croquet clubs enjoying ClassicalFM at the other end. I’d happily pay a licence fee for that.
I am in regional Australia, with a limited internet structure, so I am a long way from being able to enjoy the diversity of digital radio. I am older than the target audience but do take an interest in “new Australian music” on Triple J.
While I do not at this stage have a digital car radio, the main time I listen to the radio is when driving. My first thought about the Triple J Unearthed structure, is that without any back announcement of artists, those who are not online to see the feed, will not be able to connect music that they do enjoy or appreciate to an actual band. In at least one aspect this may defeat part of the purpose of the station. That all said, JJJ has undoubtedly done a lot of good for the Australian contemporary music industry and helped a lot of young bands to get established.
As long as the Australian music and unearthed content on their primary band isn’t reduced then it’s a great move.
Can’t you get the digital stations through your TV? We’ve been enjoying dig radio ever since we got a set top box, which was not very expensive. It’s far and away my favourite radio station for the sheer amount of pure music. As you can listen online as well, I don’t see the ABC digital radio channels as expensive music options.