Has JJJ made itself irrelevant?
So my question posted above, has the mighty JJJ made itself irrelevant is one worthy of at least some of my time today.
A couple of pieces of background info here before we lead into the main game that will help provide some context on this piece.
First and foremost, JJJ was a radio station that came into it’s own about 10-12 years ago. I was a teenager and the Big Day Out festivals started to come onto the scene. And the radio world was somewhat different…. Back then you had two options of radio stations, you had the 2DayFM’s, the B105′s, the pop-rock stations of the world.
And then you had JJJ.
Aimed squarely at the late-gen-x’ers, introducing music that appealed the alternative side of the psyche, JJJ became a rousing, and well-known success on the Australian landscape. To be entirely fair, JJJ did what no other major radio provider in the country did, it supported new/up-and-coming/talented artists that otherwise would not have made it on the Australian radio.
And without going into detail here, there are many exceptional artists in this country who can directly point their initial successes the the dedication and support of the JJJ network. And for that i’m (honestly) entirely grateful.
With that in mind, for many years you could only be in one camp. You were either an alternative-against-the-world-hippy or you were a middle-of-the-road-wannabe-pop-listener. And never the two shall cross.
So for someone like me (definitely in the second camp I might add), the sly ridicule of not being within the educated or ‘cooler’ psyche was the standard fare. Listening to Pop and Rock was the equivalent of a ticket that said ‘Please deride me’.
Alternatively, for the most part us middle-of-the-roads saw those alternative-types as not much more than wankers caught up in their own navel gazing.
And so the world continued relatively peacefully.
And then a few things happened pretty much in succession:
Firstly, us late gen-x’ers got older. We got older and we weren’t replaced by more Gen-X’ers, no no folks, we were replaced by Gen-Y’s. And the Gen-Y’s, they …. how shall we say this …. they think Gen-X’ers are a waste of space and don’t know our musical taste from our behind……
… and in a slow-moving instant, one which most of us completely missed …. the Gen-X’ers became seriously uncool …. (ed: I’ll note that Gen-X’ers believe they are still cool, get over it people, you’re way past your due date …)
Secondly, a itty-bitty radio conglomorate came along … thy name was BMG….. (*sigh* for those who don’t know who BMG is, they run Nova around the country … and they’re one of the largest radio networks on the planet). And Nova decided that a new era in radio was on the cards. They realised that Gen-X’ers are cashed up, discerning, and above all else, cooler (in their view) than the rest of the world.
And Gen-X’ers didn’t want to listen to endless pop music 24/7. They wanted edge, they wanted class and they wanted style….
They also realised that Gen-Y’s are flighty, unpredictable, unreliable, uncommitted, selfish and generally self-focused. So trying to cater to them with one stream of radio, one style or one theme, just wasn’t going to work. So it’s all about short-attention-span time capture.
And a new era of radio was born. That of the ‘we play everything’ radio.
And in an instant, listening to radio became an entirely different ball game. Suddenly Nova, 2DayFM, JJJ and everything other radio stations were playing alternative, new, up-and-coming artists…. but on top of that, they started playing music from everywhere back as far as the 60′s and 70′s and in a heartbeat caught the attention of the Australian music public. Now you could switch on and hear Merrick and Rosso (from JJJ), some Kings of Leon (they’re CD is on now so they’re on my mind.. *and* they had the number #1 song on hottest 100 this year!) and some 70′s rock all without flicking the station.
Suddenly Australia didn’t need JJJ to listen to something that wasn’t middle-of-the-road-pop.
Thirdly (and possibly finally), those same radio conglomorates realised that promoting new talent was the great untapped niche. For the Gen-Y’s, the new, just-released, pre-released and almost-famous is the thing to be listening to. To be cool to a Gen-Y you need to have an edge, be unique in a world filled with senseless repetition (their view not mine). And to get that edge, to be cool, to be up and coming you needed to new and interesting artists into the country and on stage, you need to get them to festivals and at events or every type. You need to start promoting the types of bands that JJJ has been promoting for years, for that is the great untapped niche. And that type of promotion takes money.
And the big stations have what JJJ doesn’t, cash…. lots of it.
So today, switch on Nova or 2DayFM or any other number of the big stations and I guarantee you that the artists you will hear in any 60 minute period are likely to have as many ‘almost there’ artists as JJJ turns out. For the big stations it’s an easy win. Festivals are now not aimed at those who scour together $60 for a ticket, now you’re upwards of the hundreds of dollars per ticket for a major mult-day. And let me assure you, the Gen-X’ers, they’ve got that type of cash going on. For those with less cash, the smaller festivals out there still top the $100 mark but make it in at a point that a Gen-Y can still attend, still be seen as cool and meanwhile make those massive radio stations an absolute bucketload of cash.
Just look at the V Festival…..
So where does JJJ go from here? The angles of new, alternative, up-and-coming, foreign is no longer their primary domain. Their listener base got more cashed up and realised that they didn’t need to move stations and the Gen-Y’s (hard to hold onto) are accepted in the fact that they have no loyalty, will move, quickly, dependent on who’s bringing them ‘the next big thing’.
And JJJ just simply doesn’t have the cash to fight the big groups on their own terms.
Or let’s look at this from another angle ….. for those that will (inevitably) start ranting about how JJJ is still at the core supporting the little guy, roll right on over to the JJJ Hottest 100 page.
I own 18 of the top 20 tracks in my music collection……
And if i’m listening to everything that’s big on JJJ, then they really have lost their edge…
Adam
p.s – If you think i’m missing the mark, check out the demographics for listeners and numbers for radio stations in Australia. 8 years ago JJJ owned (easily) the 24-32 age group, now they’re just a blip on the radar…..