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Podcast: Ben Eltham interviews triple j’s Richard Kingsmill

JA September 10

Radio station triple j occupies a curious space in the Australian music scene. A taxpayer-funded, national youth network with the explicit mandate of ‘unearthing’ undiscovered local talent, it sits uncertainly in the no-mans land between commercial and community radio. The balance is a hard one to maintain and, despite its many fans, triple j has attracted criticism from both ends of the spectrum: either is it ignoring new, obscure artists for the sake of the market-share, or else it is not being corporate enough.

Ben Eltham writes on this peculiar tension in the latest issue of Meanjin. In it, he observes that it is ‘impossible to discuss triple j without debating the influence of music director Richard Kingsmill’, whose decisions have helped make the station what it is today.

As one of the longest-standing radio announcers in the country, Kingsmill has shaped the voice and identity of triple j (and through it, Australian music in general) for more than two decades. In some ways, he can lay significant claim as a fascinating and important cultural figure in his own right.

The full essay is available on our editions page. Meanwhile, you can also listen to an in-depth interview between Eltham and Kingsmill below.


 

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