Rebellious, risk-taking radio: Double Jay prepares to celebrate the big 5-0

It’s quite ironic when you think about it. The national youth broadcaster has hit middle age, and it’s letting it all hang out.

This Sunday marks exactly fifty years since the birth of triple j – or Double Jay, as it was then known (yes, there’s an extra ‘j’ now, but hey – we all put on a bit as we age).

Holger Brockmann was the first announcer on air when the ABC’s flagship youth station launched back on January 19, 1975, from the Sydney studios of the national broadcaster.

You Just Like Me ‘Cos I’m Good in Bed by Skyhooks was the first song he played, a track already banned by the commercial networks for its explicit sex and drug themes.

It was edgy, rebellious stuff for its time, but as Double Jay’s founding coordinator Marius Webb told triple j back in 2015:

“Young people of that time had learnt that you don’t have to bow down to the ideas of people from a generation before. We gave that feeling a voice.”

In 1981, the station shifted to the FM band and became known as triple j, where the careers of Wil Anderson, Myf Warhurst, Zan Rowe, Roy and HG, Sarah Macdonald and Dr Karl Kruszelnicki were forged.

There’s been a deep dive into the ABC archives to celebrate the milestone this weekend, with a 12-hour rebroadcast of the station’s first day on air.

We’re told it will be just like listening to a rebellious and risk-taking station all over again, in real time.

The difference now is that today’s listening public have warnings to alert them to the content they are about to hear, so here goes:

This special event may contain clever humour, tongue in cheek satire, zero nudity (?) and – shock, horror, gasp – some really, really great music.

No middle-aged spread to see here. You’ve been warned!

Happy birthday, triple j.

Listen to Double J this Sunday January 19 from 11am to 11pm, plus there’ll be a special 2-hour simulcast on triple j for from 11am.