The launch last month of Double J Radio, a digital radio station taking Gen X’ers back to their youth, has caused some non-teenage angst for listeners.
“Back in the day, the music sounded better, had more emotion in it. Now it’s like they’re playing a cassette taped off a record,” one listener complained on  sister station Triple J’s Facebook Page.
‘They’ve stripped the vitality from Joy Division’
Cathy Jeffery, former teenager and current Sales Manager, has followed the station’s progress the past month and is far from impressed. “I remember engaging in some serious tongue work with a boy at school, behind the CWA hall. We were meant to be inside at the disco and I remember Whitney Houston’s How Will I Know was playing. It still gives me a thrill when I hear it, but it’s not been played once on Double J that I’m aware of.”
“I’ve found the whole re-launch distressing,” said Mitchell Arcos, a financial planner from Brisbane. “I used to hang out at school in a large overcoat, listening to nothing but The Smiths and Joy Division on my Walkman. Now I listen to those songs on Double J and end up going back to Song Pop on my phone to stay interested. They seem to have stripped the songs of their vitality. I’m pretty sure it’s the digital format.”
The station’s responsiveness to listener feedback is getting mixed reviews as well. James Verginodis, an office supplies strategist, claims he’s sent dozens of emails and a 50-signature petition for Double J to play more Machinations and Lloyd Cole, with not a single response to his campaign. “They seem to be a law unto themselves, determining what music we get to listen to. That’s not how radio should work.”
Other issues noted on social media included pleas for a return of Molly Meldrum to the station, multiple requests for a monthly Double J cassingle and demands for a Double J sponsored Australian tour for ‘Til Tuesday.
The Snark is The Creative Shed’s Satire News Section. 100% of it is satire and in no way resembles reality. Reality is way sillier than this stuff. Follow The Snark on Facebook and Twitter
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