So, the Hottest 100 OF ALL TIME weekend has come and gone, and what have we learned? That grunge is the greatest music of all time? That women make crap music? That Jeff Buckley was the world's greatest untapped potential? No (although arguably yes to the last point, but that is subjective).
I think what it tells us, is that Triple J has failed to evolve as a brand to attract new, younger users. It positions itself as the ABC 'youth' radio brand, but the results from this survey seem to point to the fact that current listeners of Triple J are the same spotty listeners of 15 years ago. Can you still claim to be a youth brand when your audience are pushing forty (and prams).
It could also be extrapolated (although its a stretch) to mean that 'young folk' are no longer listening to the radio - this would not surprise me. The rise of MySpace and other peer recommendation as the authority on cool music leaves a glaring gap in the utility of alternative radio stations as the gospel on what is or is not 'now'.
Triple J conduct no market research (they are the ABC after all) so what will they use this data for? Will they continue to play music that was cutting edge 15 years ago? Richard Kingsmill and the Triple J cronies should take a leaf out of Ghandi's book - be the change you want to see in the world, and introduce new, diverse music to younger audiences and find new ways of doing it.
Sure, they pay lip service to social media innovations with presenters using twitter extensively, but really, how far evolved is this from the noticeboards they used 15 years ago when Nirvana was relevant?
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