Triple j listeners to play music director from next week

Nick Findlay can hit the snooze button next week.

Youth radio network triple j has revealed plans to let listeners take over the station’s music programming through its popular request line.

The initiative, dubbed Requestival, will run for one week from Monday (May 25), starting at 6am through to 9pm each day and there’s plenty of new tunes to choose from.

This week the national broadcaster added new tracks from Alex The Astronaut, Tkay Maidza and Taka Perry, and confirmed Maddy Jane’s Not All Bad Or Good as its featured album.

Next week’s Requestival will also extend to the station’s primetime shows like breakfast and drive, as well as Live at the Wireless, Friday Mix and House Party.

Triple j content director, Ollie Wards, told TMN to expect some Tool songs: “Since the dawn of FM radio, people have been requesting songs – mostly anything by Tool.

“Requests are the most simple and possibly best form of radio; you ask, we play, everyone listens. “So we thought for a week we’d open up triple j for listeners to control all the music.”

However, he did issue a final word of warning: “There’ll probably be some Tool.”

Triple j is asking listeners to share the reasoning behind their requests and confirmed that, yes, even “*that* song” could receive its first spin.

The radio ratings are currently on hiatus during the COVID-19 lockdown, which presents an opportunity for networks to bend the rules and experiment.

Australian labels and artists will be hoping the tactic results in more airplay for local artists who are pushing ahead with new releases, despite the current state of play.

Commercial Radio Australia, the radio industry’s peak body, confirmed today that the radio ratings will resume with Survey 6 results to be publishned on September 29.