A new insight into youth radio network Triple J

Sixteen years working with youth radio network Triple J has led Gayle Austin to study the station in more depth in her Masters thesis.

Music has fascinated Austin since her early days. Following a career in radio as a music programmer, talkback call coordinator, producer and radio announcer, she commenced university study as a mature aged student. After completing an honours degree in Media, Communications and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University in the late 1990s, she returned in 2001 to undertake her Masters degree.

It is not surprising that after spending so long at Triple J (originally Double J), Austin chose to analyse the radio station for her thesis. She was employed by Double J as the first female announcer and during her time at the station, worked on every shift at some time.

“I was the first woman in the country to do the breakfast shift and arguably the first woman in the country to do drive,” she says. “I was a founding member of Double J, Triple J and the Triple J national youth network before the purge of 1990 when all announcers were made redundant.”

While studying cultural theory as part of her undergraduate degree, Austin recognised a great deal of the work that she and her fellow colleagues did at the Js during the 1970s. “When we were stumbling through the work, the cultural theory hadn’t been written,” she explains. “At university the theory helped me understand what happened.”

As very little has been written about Australian radio to date, Austin’s supervisors were very supportive of her choice of topic. “Triple J has been my major work,” she says. “Sixteen years was spent at the station and then 15 years trying to understand and document what happened in those 16 years.”

A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald on her first year at Double J 30 years ago and her thesis research has led to an overwhelming reaction from the public.

“I have received 75 unsolicited e-mails from listeners, all positive, and all telling me that the work we did at the Js impacted on their lives in a very positive way,” says Austin. “Emails came from all over the world and were from a very broad range of people.”

These people included a neurosurgeon, university lecturer and a government geologist.

Austin hopes to complete her thesis by the beginning of March. She believes that she has a greater understanding of the Australian media thanks to both her undergraduate and postgraduate study. “It has made me a more thoughtful and rigorous media person,” she says. “It has broadened my analytical skills and made me appreciate the responsibilities of people working in the media.”

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