I am not alone it seems

Although I swore privately to my self I'd stop publishing any of my three rhetorics (god does not exist, music is shit now, vce is a joke) in pursuit of more thinking, I came across this article today that I guess is a newspaper cutting but also may cause someone to object to my reproducing it if you do I'll gladly remove it.
Anyway here it is:

The trouble with Triple J
Michael Tunn, former Triple J presenter, writes:

Triple J Staff are probably scratching their heads at their worst performance in the ratings since before they went national.

Yesterday's Newcastle result, which saw a near halving of its audience, finally means the argument that Triple J is more relevant for regional audiences than the city is laid to rest. Triple J rated just over 6% in Newcastle, in their last big regional test in Darwin they rated 5%, in Adelaide their Audience has halved, and in most capitals they are drifting down the bottom of the pack.

Does Triple J care about ratings? And should it actually be worried? Well the answer is yes and no. Triple J really shouldn't care about its overall audience, but it should care about its 15 to 24 year old numbers, as that is it brief. And its performance in the demo, well it's been beaten by MIX, which targets 35 plus women. In short, the answer is YES.

Why is a station with Mariah Carey and Madonna in its play list beating a Youth Station in its own territory?

The answer is simple. Triple J doesn't know young people and has made little attempt to get to know them. A bunch of aging hippies are trying to guess what young people want and they are obviously getting it very wrong.

In my home town, Dance Station Fresh, a volunteer-run youth community station has twice the listeners of Triple J, and all they do is play dance music. It's not that hard to play music that appeals to young people. But Triple J, in its ivory tower at 700 Harris Street in Ultimo, sees no reason to respond or adjust to its target.

Triple J believes it sets the agenda on what is cool. Every year it becomes obvious that they don't. That's when the Hottest 100 votes are counted, and a song played on commercial radio rather than Triple J grabs the gong, a pattern that's been repeated every year this century.

Compared to its older sister ABC Local Radio, Triple J has not managed to home in and target the very people who need a radio station for just them.

The Arguments that nova (which isn't on air in Newcastle or Darwin) has taken its audience don't measure up, since Nova is also struggling at the moment. Neither does the argument that the iPod is making Triple J irrelevant; iPod sales are actually up in the 35 plus demographics too, but you don't see ABC Local Radio dropping like a dead duck with bird flu.

What are the answers for Triple J? As an ex-employee, who was there in the days when Triple J was Number One in its target demo, it's really quite simple.

Stop being scared of being mainstream, there is still a gulf of difference between Triple J and everyone else on the Band, narrow it down, play a song because it appeals to your audience, not to the tastes of a desperately aging staff trying the maintain the coolness.

I remember the program director of Triple J three years ago announcing the success they'd had in preceding year: "All the staff are happy". Pity the audience isn't.

anyway add this to a recent article/interview in the Age's green guide about richard kingsmill and it seems momentum may be building around this.
both articles diverge and converge about what exactly the problem is, Tunny says it isn't mainstream enough. The greenguides article talked about the organisational heirarchies, and the penchant for Aussie hip hop in the playlist alienating the over 25s.

I take from both, but I think that Kingsmill ultimately needs to face the fact that the one thing even he can't defy is age. Triple J was all about being raw and as such his experience may be his downfall. At 40 he is definitely the old man of the company, the one that will probably be shown the door before he has wisdom enough to walk through it.
I mean sure he may love the station but three-four years ago he could have successfully left for another station anywhere and not have had a ratings drop on his watch.
As for mainstream vs alternative, I've lost my right to judge that contest. I'm simply out of the music scene, but I agree that there is a huge questionmark hanging over this over 25 group. I mean they are the jjj fans that preferred listening to tunny over watching tv. And tv is worse now big brother is on. It's allright for 'youth' to have a limited scope, sufficiently limited to say 16-25 yo or whatever but after that where do they go?
Where do you go between 25 and 50? where you start listening to talk back.
Like Sasaki Kojiro throwing his scabbard away before having Musashi Miyamoto smash his head in with an oar in Japan's most famous dual - triple j throws away listeners it worked so hard to get.
Man the commercial stations may have something in their '80s, 90s and today' slogans. The drive for new music doesn't mean you have to throw out the old. If it did what the fuck is Kingsmill & Rosie doing there.