The ABC's plan to recapture Triple J fans who flee the station as they outgrow its youth-focused playlist will be completed on April 30 when its digital sister station Dig Music is relaunched as Double J.
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The new name will be more than familiar to many, especially the over 40s who may remember 2JJ (aka Double J) was the forerunner to Triple J.
Double J was a Sydney AM radio station created by an act of Parliament and lasted just six years from 1975 to 1980, but in that time became a byword for experimental, even radical left-wing radio.
When 2JJ first went went to air, on January 19 1975, it famously played a song banned by commercial radio networks, You Just Like Me 'Cos I'm Good In Bed by Skyhooks. It set the scene for risque and provocative antics by programmers and, to a lesser extent, in its music playlist that shook up the staid world of radio at the time. As well as playing a lot more Australian music than other stations, its programming included comedy, a surf report, a regular spot where listeners described losing their virginity, live music and the occasional wild on-air celebration.
The on-air launch party for AC/DC's Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap reputedly got so out of hand that police were called to the 2JJ studio.
The station's presenters included several names still well-known today including present PM current affairs host Mark Colvin, film critic Lawrie Zion, political journalist Mungo MacCallum, and comedian Lex Marinos. Jim Middleton went on to become a senior political corespondent and Ros Cheney was the the ABC's arts editor. The station switched to the FM band in 1980 and was renamed 2JJJ, or Triple J.
The finer programming details of Double J version 2.0 are still being worked out, but it will be very much part of the Triple J family, being managed by that station's current boss, Chris Scaddan. The new Double J's content will be determined by Triple J's Meagan Loader, who confirmed the station will target over-30s listeners and play 70 per cent new music.
The target listener will be "people who may have grown out of listening to Triple J but are still passionate about Australian music and still connected to going out and seeing music."
While Loader says the spirit of the original Double J will be alive and well in the new incarnation, it may not appear as shocking or revolutionary.
"The times are really different to the 1970s," she says. "The kinds of songs that were banned then and the political statements [in music] that were made back then don't really exist any more. It's harder to shock people. It's a very different cultural and media environment."
While controversial political statements of a broader nature can still be made, doing so would prove far more problematic for the new Double J than the original, given the hyper-sensitivity that exists around perceived ABC bias today. Plus, Triple J hasn't been in the business of shocking listeners for a long time, although it does play an important (if sometimes controversial) role as a breeding ground for new Australian music.
Finding music to shock listeners is going to be much more difficult and Loader says that all-important first song - which will be played by new presenter (and ex-Triple Jer) Myf Warhurst at midday on April 30 - is being hotly debated at Triple J as you read this. She says all suggestions are welcomed.
"We are not resurrecting [the old] Double J on air we are re-appropriating the name and that spirit... we think it will still be surprising for listeners."
One way the new Double J will be at least progressive is that, as Loader says, it will have a strong female influence - handy timing after Triple J was attacked for perceptions of male bias in its playlist when only nine female artists made the station's top 100 of the past 20 years last July.
The new Double J's music director will be Dorothy Markek, Warhurst is the weekday day-time presenter, Dan Buhagiar is a senior music producer, Loader is the content director and "over half of the presenters will be women".
"It hasn't been a deliberate strategy but it's really exciting that predominantly women are putting together this new music station in that spirit of the original Double J," Loader says.
