Tuning out of Triple J: why Australia’s youth station is losing its young listeners
A recent survey showed the station is losing its mandated audience - but the full story is more complicated than it seems
For more than a decade, it's been something of a national pastime to proclaim the irrelevance of Triple J. But while Australia's national youth broadcaster has faced some controversies in that time - over the timing of its annual Hottest 100 countdown, softball interviews of far-right figures and, most recently, a regrettable tweet - it's held on remarkably well to its core demographic of 18-to-24-year-old listeners.
Until now. Last month, the year's fourth radio ratings survey confirmed that Triple J has been shedding those listeners, with its audience share in that demographic dropping by an average of 2.5% across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide between late April and late June. (Audience share is a metric theoretically unaffected by overall upward or downward trends in listenership, making it the most useful measurement here.)
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