Attention Australians: Has JJJ changed?

they stick this next to that. they talk.

australian radio...the most unexciting in the world?

I think it has changed for the better. That is, since I last stopped listening to it (when the last Limp Bizkit album was getting a workout). In the last month I've heard stuff by My Morning Jacket, Cat Power, Radiohead, Grandaddy, Yo La Tengo, M. Ward, Postal Service (ick), Yeah Yeah Yeahs (beh), Blur. Scoff if you must, but it's a significant step up from Blink 182. I'm confident that there's no way Blink 182, Sum 41, Limp Bizkit (or much Nu-Metal for that matter) etc will get played now.

Another big difference is that the guy who was doing the playlisting for the station (ie picking what gets significant airtime) has been replaced by one RICHARD KINGSMILL. The other guy wasn't youthful enough I assume. Dunno if this will mean anything, but Richard isn't an idiot by any stretch of the imagination.

its the difference between eating shit and drinking piss

it has actually improved in the last couple of years.

i'd rather the pissed on than shat on btw

The King's To Do List

fire Mel, Charlie, Adam, Will, Miff
promote phoooaaarrrnela
less meat and potatoes rock - grinspoo(n), powderfinger
more YOU AM I

other improvements folks?

*washes in golden shower*

way to go guys

Adam and Will can be amusing. Miff needs to go though - how on Earth can someone with a voice like that work on radio? I dun get it.

Also: what's up with all the Ben Harper love. It must stop. I swear I hear a Ben Harper track EVERY FUCKING DAY. I thought he was Australian or something for years.

ben harper and his john butler shaped ilk can die in a fucking hole. evil, evil music.

more You Am I?

no thankyou. I've seen them twice and both times the were humbled by the openers (Shihad & Strokes)

it's Miff's laugh that really gives me the shits. seriously it's "yuckyuckyuckyuckyuckyuck.............."

I'll tell you the only JJJ presenter I've really liked: the Super Request chick before Tran (maybe 2 before her actually - before it was Super Request even). She was on Recovery too. She had crazy hair.

*takes himself out*

well i've seen 'em at least twenty times! few bands can match 'em. though i grant you shihad are an amazing live band. as for the strokes, i saw them twice when they came out in 2001 - not much of a performance. casablancas had zero stage presence.

*zips up*

bring back fiona macdonald, francis, merrick and rosso. and jane gazzo.

bring back jen oldershaw and angela catterns. and tony biggs

bring back laurie zion and creatures.

Jane Gazzo. That's who I was thinking of - thanks Chris.

Merrick and Rosso were awful, but Mel and Charlie are worse. You can trace all these acts back to Roy & HG, who are far, far superior.

Jane Gazzo, is in London, has done some late night shows on Xfm, and does a fairly tame NME approved "new rock revolution" type [as in the bands NME support these days] weekly show for the mainstream pop station Capital radio station, and also does a few news reports on BBC's 6 Music digital radio station.

So it sounds like nothing much has changed except maybe a greater range of indie and rock? Not too much rap and electronic then? I was hoping for a great loosening of genre restrictions.

About Ben Harper - it sounds like they're still playlisting tracks for high rotation then. That's why you hear the one thing several times a day. This, more than anything, I would like to see changed. Of course, it's not realistic that it will be changed, or even, from the artist's point of view, that it should be changed.

ben harper gets so much play cause, for some reason, australians are lapping up his and jack johnson's insipid surf-soul pap like nothing else at the moment, and it really irks me. how they can sell out four sydney shows and beck not even one astounds me.

one of the worst things about triple j is how they hire comedians as announcers, who have no real interest in or knowledge of music, so are just happy to toe the party line and play the junk. i dont know anyone who actually likes mel and charlie, i change station every sunday from 2 when roy & hg come on (must be a double j old folk thing), and i don't think robbie buck should have as much clout as he does.

scott "dooly" dools, on the other hand, rools. as does the king. i'm expecting it to get better. and fbi's on the way (for sydneysiders), and that'll kick it.

Having read about the difference between pre- and post- national JJJ in Blunt's book about 80's underground music in Aust, from the point of view of some Sydney artists, the prevailing view seems to be that JJJ's going national robbed Sydney of the kind of 24 hr independent station that other states still have. Since then, I've been told by many a musician, Sydney acts have had a real problem getting any airplay unless they are commercial enough for JJJ and have major label backing and sufficient plugging cache with JJJ management (incredible that it's come to that, when JJJ is a taxpayer funded proposition).

Do you think that replacing the pre-national era JJJ is going to be the role of FBI, and is it up to the challenge? Just curious to know what you think.

yes and yes. 2SER has done a good-ish job too.

fbi's test runs have been quite encouraging. there seems to be a good range of stuff in their schedule and there's some good people involved. the key will be whether it's a viable proposition over time. i think jjj will probably improve under richard kingsmill too but it depends on how much latitude he gets from abc management to do what he needs to. nothing will change if they just retain the same stodgy playlist formula and the same dimwitted presenters. i loved jjj when people like mark dodshon, karen gough, tony biggs, tim ritchie etc etc were broadcasting because they actually knew about music and what they played reflected that knowledge. incidentally, abc management has just pulled the plug on their fly tv digital project - essentially jjj for television. and if anybody's been game enough to sit through the two hours of free-to-air time they've been getting on abc proper each saturday morning ('saturday morning fly'), i bet they won't be too disappointed.

Yeah I think JJJ's always had a problem of trying to hang on to their better presenters (or them getting too old and moving on...)

The guy doing the Morning Show now isn't half bad (although no Francis Leach), Kingsmill and Buck are always pretty good, and the rest are mediocre to plain awful (Adam & Will and Mel & Charlie are easily the two unfunniest pairings they've ever had)

There's definitely more electronic and hip hop music being played - probably is, it doesn't seem like those in charge really know much about electronic or hip hop music at all (most are either rock-orientated people or complete musical buffoons), so it's all the wrong acts that are getting airplay.

There's still an intense phobia of any non-backpacker type hip hop at JJJ - so your De La Soul's, Ugly Duckling's, Jurassic 5's etc are pretty much the only ones that get any play. Pretty lame.

Oh my god the Hottest 100 was terrible! It was rock rock rock rock rock rock rock Jurasic 5 rock rock rock rock rock rock Eminem rock rock rock rock, then they got to number one and played 'Hot in Herre', and I went 'WOOHOOOO!' but it was only a joke, they took the CD out and broke it in half or something, made crypto-racist comments (OK maybe not really), and then played Queens of the Stone Age.

I used to listen to JJJ when I was 14 in 1997 and I really enjoyed it. At least there were 'alternative' pop-mosh bands experimenting with beats and stuff back then. (but then the Whitlams won the 100. nooooo!) At least there was big beat. Or is it just me who has changed and not the station?

I think it's us, Keith. JJJ is arse these days. I'm actually getting quite sick of the radio in general in Australia, as there's probably about 10 hours of programming each week that actually appeals to me. (and I would usually only get to listen to a fifth of that) Any kind Londoners want to send Keith and I some pirate radio tapes?

HELEN AND MIKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. old skool, but that doesn't stopping me from missing them. Helen Razor is now a 'cultural commentator' but in every article she writes she 'swallowed a dictionary'. If you're in Melbourne the best radio is Syn brekky on tuesdays and wednesdays cause it has Andy Mclelland who is a funny/entertaining/endearing little man. I also love RRR brekky cause it has Tony Wilson yay! but I am rarely up early enough to catch it.
Melbourne actually has quite good radio, we're really lucky to have so many independent stations, when I was in Dublin there was like 4 radio stations and all they played was Mambo number five and said 'craic' a lot. There was also an election on the time with a pollie's slogan being 'Rooted in Reality' I bet she was. And Our public transport is better.

Now if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to by my hero's new book. That hero being John Birmingham and the book being 'dopeland' I'm also considering Eric Schlosser's new book, but I may just borrow it from the library or a chummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...p. /friend

tony wilson? surely not mr factory himself?

I don't know.. he's Tony Wilson from Race Around the World and he sometimes writes articles for the age.

tony biggs! yesssss! (ps i am old...)

get rid of playlists.

Hear hear.

It has changed, hasn't it? I base my assessment only on a 30 minute run in a friend's car on the way to the beach. They played The Ravonettes and a few other songs that basically said to me, 'less college rock, more twisted types with drum machines and lo-fi guitars and synths'. But this may just have been a lucky stretch? I hope not.

sounds like a lucky stretch. they have been playing more aussie stuff though.

I can imagine Factory's Tony Wilson doing Race Around The World. LOL