Double J On FM: Govt Commits $500,000 To Feasibility Study
Double J’s hopeful growth to FM is a person step closer, with the federal govt these days committing sizeable funding to identify regardless of whether or not the DAB+ station need to join the similar band as its youth broadcaster counterpart, triple j.
As section of the federal budget, $500,000 has been allocated for a feasibility research into the expansion of Double J to FM frequencies.
Labor has also produced great on its pre-election promise to restore the $84 million minimize from ABC funding by the Coalition governing administration in 2018, committing $83.7 million about 4 years. The 2018 funding lower resulted in 250 careers misplaced.
Back again in March, a quantity of higher-profile Australian artists started petitioning to have Double J shifted to FM in get to give more mature female musicians a platform to be listened to.
In an open letter, Missy Higgins, Kasey Chambers, Kate Miller-Heidke, Sarah Blasko, Vikki Thorn and Deborah Conway highlighted inequality on the Australian radio landscape.
The collective said that “the enlargement of Double J would be a fairly uncomplicated remedy to this latest inequity for artists and supporters alike”.
“At the instant this wonderful digital-only channel plays a large amount of new audio by feminine (and non female) artists over the age of 30 but its arrive at is severely limited,” they stated.
“Some of us can thankfully even now be heard on triple j and group stations. The rest of us benefitted massively from FM radio publicity in our 20’s and 30’s and the hits we experienced in people many years proceed to receive recurrent airplay for which we are sincerely grateful.
“However, like our male counterparts, we carry on to launch new music of which we are happy and we believe that that our followers are worthy of an equivalent prospect to listen to it on the radio.”
In reaction and forward of the election in Might, Labor promised it would fee the ABC to “undertake a feasibility research into the growth of Double J on radio as the next rational subsequent stage in encouraging terrific Aussie artists reach far more ears”.
At the time, Anthony Albanese explained: “It’s no key I have normally been a massive songs enthusiast. I want much more people today in regional Australia to experience the pleasure I have of listening to DoubleJ, singing alongside to tunes they love or perhaps finding anything new.”
Tony Burke, who was Shadow Minister for the Arts at the time, extra: “Australian musicians were remaining behind by the Morrison Government during the pandemic. Possessing them heard by far more Australians in more cities is only going to be a excellent matter for artists and a superior point for listeners.”
