It's time to put Triple J out of its misery, say critics

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• By Avi Yemini

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Failing government-funded FM youth station Triple J should be shut down, according to critics who point to its dismally row ratings. 

Sydney journalist Annette Sharp said the government could net up to $500m by selling the station’s licence, and hardly anyone would notice its departure from the airwaves. 

“It would also save the government a small fortune each year in staff salaries, infrastructure, music rights, maintenance and marketing,” she said. 

The latest radio survey, released last week, found that Triple J’s targeted 18 to 24-years market was collapsing. It had shed audience in every time slot and its cumulative audience was also down. 

“Its audience has been in decline for years,” Sharp pointed out.  

“The station now has a 4 per cent share of the market. It’s hard to see any fiscal logic in continuing to broadcast on the FM band.” 

 Sharp argued the money spent on a dwindling Triple J audience would better serve young people by being spent on education or even on green energy about which young people are so passionate. 

 “The reality is, as the radio ratings confirm, Triple J’s targeted 18 to 24-years market is deteriorating faster than the cobalt-iron compound in an ageing cassette tape collection,” she said.