Crushing blow for Triple J as its target audience switches to boomer stations

National youth broadcaster Triple J had a impolite awakening this week when the most recent radio rankings confirmed a mass migration of listeners to easy-listening stations like WSFM and Smooth FM that target boomers and Gen-Xers.

The third survey of 2022, carried out by market analysis company GfK and masking the interval of February 27 to April 2 and April 17 to May 21, revealed Triple J had dropped by 7.4 proportion factors in its target demographic of 18 to 24 year olds.

It secured simply eight per cent of the youth market, which was a big decline from its 20 per cent share two surveys in the past when an enormous variety of individuals tuned in for the Hottest 100 countdown.

The newest survey outcomes are stated to be ‘indicative of a broader motion away from the station’, reviews News.com.au, with the largest drops affecting the 9am-12pm morning present (down 1.9 per cent) and 12pm-4pm workdays (down 2.7 per cent).

At first look, the info seems to recommend Triple J is shedding listeners to the likes of WSFM and Smooth FM, which target individuals over the age of 35 and are identified for enjoying top-40 hits from yesteryear with a concentrate on Aussie rock and ’80s music.

This migration might not be unhealthy information for the ABC-owned youth station, nevertheless.

Triple J made it clear throughout its ‘generational shift’ relaunch in 2019 – which noticed a number of common hosts together with Gen Fricker and Tom Tilley changed by younger upstarts – that it was ‘ruthlessly’ concentrating on 18 to 24 year olds solely. 

Jake Challenor, the print editor of Rolling Stone Australia, additionally famous that an underwhelming survey three is unlikely to trigger panic within the hallways of Triple J. 

Mr Challenor defined the outcomes had been a part of a ‘regular’ pattern for the station, which is understood to ‘peak over summer season’ earlier than declining in surveys two and three, then ‘correcting’.

‘It’s not an uncommon pattern; it is very regular. The Hottest 100 drives large [numbers] for them in e-book eight and e-book one,’ he advised Daily Mail Australia.

‘Especially this year, the countdown was Triple J’s greatest in historical past.’

Mr Challenor went on to recommend that one cause for Triple J’s stoop in survey three was the migration of radio listeners to streaming platforms like Spotify. 

Triple J will really feel the affect of this shift earliest due to its youth demographic, however finally different stations will expertise an analogous downward pattern, he argued.

‘The a lot larger downside is that extra youth are abandoning radio for streaming providers,’ Mr Challenor stated.

‘So there may be an industry-wide downside largely felt by Triple J given their bullseye. But it’s going to have an effect on all networks over time.’

Meanwhile, Triple J listeners have shared their ideas on the perceived decline in high quality on the station, taking goal on the presenters and selection of music.

One particular person stated they’d observed ‘the usual for singing’ had ‘gone approach down’, including that feminine singers featured on Triple J ‘all sound nasally’.

Some listeners have famous the prevalence of ‘mumbling’ vocals, which they argue has resulted in lots of artists sounding the identical.

One critic complained in regards to the lack of selection in Triple J’s Hip Hop Show, hosted by Hau Latukefu, saying ’90 per cent’ of the music on it’s ‘grime / British-style rap’.

The hosts of Triple J’s breakfast present, Bryce Mills and Ebony Boadu, have additionally confronted criticism, with some listeners saying they’re ‘unfunny’ and ‘lack focus’.

However, others have argued they’re not less than higher than their predecessors Sally Coleman and Erica Mallet – who solely lasted a year within the job – and Ben Harvey and Liam Stapleton, who hosted breakfast from 2017 to 2019 and now work at Nova.

But it is vital to keep in mind that individuals disliking the brand new hosts may be an indication they’ve grown too previous for Triple J.

In a well-liked Reddit post this week, a 35-year-old longtime Triple J listener stated they’d seen ‘a variety of completely different presenters come and go’ and the one recurring theme is that ‘no person is ever glad’ with them.

They noticed how the entire latest breakfast groups – together with Bryce and Ebony, Sally and Erica, Ben and Liam, as properly as Matt Okine and Alex Dyson earlier than them – have apparently ‘sucked’, if the vocal minority is to be believed.

But they argued that is merely a case of ageing listeners wanting to return to the ‘good previous days’ of presenters like Wil Anderson, Merrick Watts and Helen Razer.

We all take a look at the media we consumed in our youth via rose-tinted sun shades, and this typically leads to us forgetting the godawful stuff, the Reddit consumer argued. 

‘We want to get previous the concept there was a lost golden age of Triple J,’ they stated.

‘In actuality, you’ve got gotten older, s**t has modified, music has modified, media has modified. It stands to cause that the presenters of a youth radio station will not be making an attempt to attraction to you.’